Here is some stuff I did in September 2021…

A:E Day incoming

This weekend is the first Artist:Entrepreneur Day of the year from FAC and CMU – with three brilliant artist entrepreneurs opening up their artist businesses, plus some great music industry experts on hand with lots of tips and advice. There is more detail about the day here.

Ohhhhh, I see!

My thought process when seeing this poster from across the street… One – “I didn’t know Adele had announced a tour”. Two – “I’m surprised she’s playing Ostend”. Three – “Ohhhhh, I see”. Is there an official tribute act manual somewhere which tells you how much bigger the point size needs to be for the name of the artist whose songs you’re singing?

More seaside

Second time at the sea-side in four days. Same sea. Different side. And – for those keeping count – I know have a Belgian stamp in my passport. To think, all it took was for there to be no petrol left in Britain!

There is no T1

Should someone not tell TFL that there hasn’t been a Heathrow T1 since 2015? Anyway, after a brilliant weekend talking music rights and fanbase building with the wonderful NEKO18 team, I am now en route to Belgium to talk digital dollars. My 6.45am flight goes from T2, which is mainly notable for it actually existing.

Hello Brighton!

So this week’s trip was Brighton. And I’m pretty sure that’s my first Brighton trip since Great Escape 2019. Can that be right? Maybe I had a meetings day here in autumn 2019? Anyway, thanks to Brighton Music Conference for letting me talk digital dollars and for arranging lots of lovely seaside sunshine.

Setlist at Spot+

Setlist returns from its summer break with a special edition this week, recorded at the Spot+ conference in Aarhus on Friday. I talk through five recent music business news stories with five brilliant guests: Maria Borg, Helienne Lindvall, Daniel Nordgård, Josh Greenberg and Stein Bjelland. Tune in here.

Back from Aarhus

Back from Aarhus after a brief stop off for lunch in Copenhagen, home of – well – this statute for starters. No passport queue at all at Heathrow this week. Just an in-depth conversation with the border guard about the future of NFTs as a viable revenue stream for musicians. “It’s about selling bragging rights to super-fans”, said I.

Takedowns

So, I’ve written about the copyright safe harbour a lot over the years. Like, a lot. But still not sure on what grounds The Video Industry Association Of America, The American Society Of Composers and the US Copyright Office all issued DMCA takedown notices ordering Google to remove this CMU news story from its search engine database. Maybe one for the “shoddy approach to takedowns” file.

Passport stamps

I found it! The one benefit of Brexit. We now get our passports stamped when going into EU countries. And who doesn’t love getting their passports stamped? I mean, you have to stand in a longer queue at the border, but still, we get our passports stamped!

Spot this week

This week Denmark! One of my last trips pre-COVID was lovely Aarhus, so excited to be back there for Spot. On Friday I’ll be leading a discussion on all the latest music business stories in a Setlist style – check out some info here.

Queue times

Brilliant two days in Norway – and, on my return to Heathrow, I got to take part in what I can only assume was an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest queue in human history. THRILLED to take part. Bit disappointed Cheryl Baker wasn’t on hand to give us all certificates.

I’m in Bergen!

Great time at Vill Vill Vest in Bergen today, including hosting two CMU sessions, one on the sync market and the other on all things direct-to-fan. Still enjoying the novelty of being back on stage for these conversations. And thanks to all my brilliant panelists for bringing so many tips, ideas and insights to the proceedings!

FAC/MMF white paper

If you missed last week’s webinar where we did a ‘Dissecting The Digital Dollar’ style review of the big old parliamentary streaming inquiry – and the FAC and MMF set out their priorities as the government gets ready to respond to said inquiry – well, now there’s a white paper that goes through it all in some trusty written words. You can download the white paper from the FAC website here.

A bit of normality

Just the other day I was musing that – so excited am I to be finally doing some travelling again – I didn’t even mind about all the tedious bits of air travel. Then I tried to check-in via the airline’s app. And I’m already annoyed! And to think, this isn’t even the BA flight I’m booked on this month. Still, air travel gripes, a bit of normality I guess.

Vill Vill Vest

Panel discussions? On a stage? In Norway? Who’d have ever thought it possible? Not me two months ago. Can’t wait to join my brilliant panelists on stage in Bergen later this week to discuss direct-to-fan opportunities and all things sync. If you are attending Vill Vill Vest, see you there! More info about the CMU presented sessions here.

Get Paid!

Thanks to Team UD for inviting me to the Industry Takeover All Dayer – and to my brilliant panel for a great conversation about how music-makers can make sure they get paid whenever they get played. For more tips on all that, you might want to check out musiccopyrightexplained.com

Performer Payments

Things are getting busy busy again. For starters, earlier this week we published a new guide called ‘Performer Payments From Streaming’ which explains if, when and how performers get paid when Spotify, Netflix et al stream recordings and programmes on which they perform. Needless to say, it’s complicated. But we talk you through it all step by step. You can download a free copy here.



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