I’m a bit of a purist me. I don’t like adverts on the radio. Not mad keen on the TV either but at least it’s a good time to pop to the loo or make a brew. But when I’m listening to an album, I don’t want to have the album I’m listening to interrupted but over excitable pseudo funny people telling me how I can’t live without their car/bank/snack. Which mostly I can.

It’s why I’m a big fan of BBC radio. I know I’m only going to get one song at a time. And there will be talking in between. But I know when it’s coming and mostly the DJ’s banter fits in with the time of day and style of music. Radio 6 being my station of choice for daytime and hallelujah for the arrival of Lauren Laverne who was on top form in today’s show (her arrival made all the better by bumping off George “Stratospheric Ego” Lamb). And Radio 3 or Radio 4 to kick the day off or bring it to a close. Anyway, advert free stations with ego-less DJ’s – that’s what makes BBC Radio so good.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

January saw a “highly productive and optimistic” MIDEM 2010 conference take place in Cannes. The event had kicked off with the “New Models At Work” panel session, with Amanda Palmer speaking about her 2009 self-funded solo album, and her online community of fans. Hal Ritson from The Young Punx added that artists need to “get some emotional contact with [the people listening to their music]” and that music bloggers giving away free downloads should be viewed as the modern equivalent of radio promo. Starting with an inspirational DIY discussion is great, but I’m sure people were looking for other ways to get involved, as each artist’s strategy will be completely different.

Luckily, there was a diverse set of panelists and topics; with video games and mobile device apps being two major industries in the future of music, as well as possible revenue streams for artists, I am glad to see that those topics were of great importance, and even had specific discussion panels (see below). One of the quotes from the ‘Apps’ panel became the most retweeted live posts of the conference… the news that “Shazam #App is selling 300,000 songs a DAY via iTunes”.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

UK Music Jobs office radio regulars, We Have Band, have announced the release of their debut album ‘WHB’ on April 5th 2010 through Naive. Before the album they’ll be releasing a new single ‘Divisive’ on March 22nd, which just got its first exclusive play on BBC Radio 1 last week.

Check out the video of their recent single ‘HoneyTrap’ after the jump…

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The 2010 BRIT Awards are just around the corner (16th February), and we thought we would hold a little poll to see who our Music Jobs members and blog readers deem worthy of titles in some of the main categories.

Nominees

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!