I booked a couple of bands over the weekend for this Saturday's End Of Camden new music showcase. One being Molloy and the other being The Electric City. I would like to get a couple more bookings, I've sent out a few emails but yet to get confirmations so please feel free to throw your hat in via a message.

Looks like Sony BMG is moving away from DRM. Got sent this article today regarding the whole thing. Check it out, means the whole way digital music is distributed is now changing accross the board. As a consumer, this means great freedom of choice as to how you consume and where your music comes from and as an artist this provides greater freedom of distrubution. Tha's my personal opinion anyhoo.

How was your weekend? Apart from listening to some demos and sorting out a couple of bands for Saturday I did gym stuff mostly. All very healthy, ooh, except I got hammered on Saturday. Made up for it on Sunday though. :-)

Right, I need to prepare for my meeting. I'm in with Columbia today to show my wares.

Hope all is well with you.

IB

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Jujitsu was excellent last night. Did more excapes from garotting, though now I have rope burns on my wrist and a couple of scratches on my back. Hmmm. Sounds dodgy but was all in the name of getting my blue belt. Bit battered and stiff today though. Decided to join a gym as I'm eating too many pies.

Although we have sent the message out that we don't accept physical submissions, they keep coming in. I asked the postroom to forward them onto me so I can send them a message getting them on here. However, I've not had time for a couple of weeks and now they've mounted up. I've got loads to get through. It's going to take me ages. I'm going to have to do a pile a day or something as there's too much to sort out.

Ok. The media player, the first and easiest idea to start on. The spec I'm working to so far is:

1. Sidebar embeddable
2. 30 Track Playlist (20 Playlisted 10 Wildcards - changed weekly - best of get added to playlist)
3. Can Be embedded on other sites
4. Each track has link to artist's Vox homepage
5. Artwork window at top
6. Play/Pause/Skip/Random Play Buttons

That's the spec. I'm going to approach our digital creative dept to start work on it unless there's anything screaming out at you that needs adding?

Artist services - Well the gigs thing could work. After all I've already started working on my own thing. So if that works out maybe it could be taken larger scale? We'll have to see how that works. The distribution thing is a whole other matter which will need a lot of talking about.

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Gigs 31/10/2007

Busy one tonight for Hallowe'en, you doing it in fancy dress?

Worldview is doing an acoustic set @ The Purple Turtle (Oxford) from 6pm

Our friend Susie Wilkins is returning to the Troubadour tonight, though the actual stage time has been sketchy. I'd say get there for 7 and you'll be fine.

Angular Electro Pop outfit Molloy are celebrating Hallowe'en at 93 Feet East which should be a good laugh. 8pm.  Be sure stop by Beyond Retro. It's one of my favourite bits of London around there.

Right, I'm going for a quick sit in the carpark whilst it's sunny then onto the mountain of demos, emails, letters etc.

Hope all is well with you.

IB

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I may loose all credibility in admitting this but I was at a Backstreet Boys event last night.

16102007097.jpeg

It was held in the canteen downstairs and it was a fan event though there was a some room made for staff who were interested. I have a friend who's a huge fan so it made her night in attending. I was nearby when they arrived and they seem a jolly nice bunch.

Unfortunately for me there was a free bar. I recently have developed a real weakness for white wine. So by the end of the event I was swanning around with a glass in my hand, spilling it on my geography-teacher-esque, brown cordroy jacket generally talking too loud and making a nuisance of myself.

Had I left it there things would have been fine. However, ended up in Soho continuing the evening's theme until the wee hours. Well, it wasn't that late as I made the last tube from Picadilly.

Thankyou very much for your comments so far on my rather long post 'Death Throws or Renaissance'. This sort of thing really gives me, and in turn the rest of the company real insight into what artists think about the industry and what they want. I think this should be an ongoing theme. I will try and write more posts like that. In the meantime have a look at the post and more importantly, the comments. It's interesting to see two quite different camps already developing.

Calendar

The Calendar is officially a success as I hear that other A&R chaps have already attended gigs listed on there. So be sure to keep updating it. This week has been crammed for me but luckily long commutes and plenty of waiting around has allowed me to listen to LOADS of new music. You will see the "Your submission was listened to be indieboy..." all over the A&R group's tracks like a rash. I do try to add my own input as often as I can but it's difficult as I usually find myself pondering for about ten mins to write a one line comment. Not very productive when going through lots of tracks at once.

DingDongDelly very kindly invited me to an RCA thing in which they'll be a juke box playing tracks selected by those attending. I was asked to select my three favourite 'party tracks'. I was stumped. I got the list down to about 15 and then couldn't make my mind up but I think I'm going with 'Sweet Child o Mine', 'Oh You Pretty Things' and 'No One Knows'. Any more suggestions?

Hope all is well with you.

IB

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Hello,

The Calendar has worked really well so far with several artists already contributing their gig details. I will be pushing this later today on the label blogs too. So fill in your details on the Calendar, this could prove useful for people who are wanting a night out too. Put up your night, and a link to your vox/myspace/etc so people can have a listen, and you may get yourself some passing trade. HAVE A LOOK

Ok, it may seem that things may have been a little quiet recently. That's because lots is being planned discussed behind the scenes. I'm still thinking of ways to expand and develop our digital online function. One thing I'm examining is different methods of expanding into the likes of myspace and facebook.

Currently people link to or from other platforms but I'm looking at ways to knit the different pages together using vox and build an artists digital identity. Rather than a bunch of different sites. This will probably be through various methods of linking/cross posting but I will keep you informed.

Also, I've been thinking a lot about the direction this should be taking. Currently, this platform has successfully replaced the method of demo submission. We're getting a steady stream of online submissions which are being listened to. The best of which are presented to the label A&R teams. However, I think there is possibly potential for greater interaction/functionalilty. What form this takes is pretty much up to the people who use it and what they want to see. So I thought about putting up some kind of poll like the below. Like everything else I do, these ideas are off the top of my head but doing something like this I hope will open up some discussion as to what artists may want from a platform such as this. Plus not all of the options may be totally feasable, but they're only worth investigation if people are interested. So what do you think?

1. Artist Service Model

This would be based around providing you with a series of tools and services to aid you in establishing/developing yourself as an artist. As a major label we have access to a number of cost effective resources including methods of distribution, manufacture, software/online development etc. These could be opened up further for the acts within the community and enable to you distribute and earn from your own blogs.

2. Independent Label Model

Essentially a seperate new label, working with Sony BMG and specialising in smaller deals/singles with the aim of distributing and developing the best of the new talent within the community. Potentially these would be short-term, simple '360' deals, working closely with the artist on both physical and digital products. These artist could either grow within the label, or 'upstream' to a major.

3. Digital Only Distributor

A more simplified version of model 1 for those not who simply want a quick, easy and inexpensive way of digitally distributing via online retailers. Connecting directly to their blog.

4. Maintain Current Focus

Keep this completely A&R-centric with no emphasis on artist development. Instead focusing on the development of A&R tools for artists/staff to effectively spot the new talent within the communty and communicate with them better.

5. Promotion Platform Model

Developing this to make it more effective as a promotional tool for your music in a similar method to myspace. This would include tools developed to cross link from other social platforms including myspace, Facebook etc. Develop viral media players which are easily syndicatable through other formats.

6. Artist Development Focus

To work in conjunction with a 3rd party company who specialises in the development of grass-roots talent with the aim of helping them become a more desirable investment for major labels. This would include distribution and advice.

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Slightly hungover today. Ugh. :-/

I spent yesterday at an out of office session with my dept in a workshop. Got to get to know a couple more people which is always nice. Doing this job I spend most of my time with headphones on in my corner, or heading out to gigs so I don't really speak to my colleagues that much. I must make more of an effort to wander around and say hi. Went to Jujitsu after and had a really good session, went through some bag work with some new starters.

The bits arrived for the DV cam I'm going to start using for bigger gigs. So I can properly have a play with it today.

Just read a comment on a post suggesting that as I look only about 23 and how could I possibly know anything about finding good music. I don't know if that's the case, but apparently I look 23! Get in! That made my morning (I'm 27). :-)

It did make me wonder if anyone really knew that much about me or why I do this job. I have written something in 'About Me' but I haven't updated that in ages. Perhaps I should do that now.

Potted histrory - I started by studying Music Industry Management at uni. Whilst there I joined a band (The Approach). On leaving we toured for a couple of years, couple of singles a video but nothing big happened. I spent a brief stint as a plugger (getting new music on the radio). I also worked for little while booking bands at The Water rats, The Pheonix, The Marquee before I went indipendent. So got to hear a whole load of new music, find the better stuff and get them gigging. Plus got to know a lot of the bands on the circuit at the time. It was around the time The Rakes, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, The Libertines etc were kicking off.

On the band folding up, did a few sessions here and there on piano/hammond and then got into royalties. Which is basically working out an artists wages. Calculating how much they've made from sales, the costs, their advance etc. Really excellent experience as you couldn't have a better guide to what happens in the industry, how money is made, understanding record contracts etc. I worked for the PPL, Trojan (Sanctuary), Warner Music, then here at Sony BMG. After a while I started getting involved in other areas of the company and had discussions with the management about my ideas/views on the industry. Usually after a couple of glasses of wine.

Ged suggested that I get involved in this. I jumped at the chance but didn't realise what would be involved. I knew I would be going to gigs, listening to new stuff, and spending time online. But didn't realise how involving this community would be and the dramatically contrasting views that I read. A couple of months back I read a post specifically about me! I thought that was insane, why would they write about me? As it turns out it was quite damning of what I was doing, or not doing in that case. I've read quite a few since good and bad. The bad tend to be around "Why didn't he comment on my track" or "It's obvious that I should have a record deal, he must be an idiot". Everyone's entitled to their view, I guess some people need a pat on the back from time to time to get on with it.

If you're interested, an average day starts with me trying to clear all the blog messages. I usually start at the oldest and work forwards although I do keep my eye open for replies from certain people I've contacted previously. I listen to their tracks aswell as I get many "Check this out" emails. Then I start listening to the new submissions. This can take any time between an hour or several depending on the activity from all you creative types. I comment sporadically as I really want to get through as many as I can and put the better ones to one side. Though I've been commenting more as recently loads of good stuff has come in.

There's also a couple of people in Vox who forward on the better stuff that they find too, I guess they've become scouts really. Often they'll send me stuff I've already put to one side so it's nice to see that other people think those tracks are good. I'm going to start asking them to come to gigs with me if they're local. Infact, if you're interested in doing that kind of thing let me know.

Once I have my pile of Vox demos that I want to present, I start to whittle them down to the very best ones and have an A&R meeting with the heads of Columbia and RCA once a week. We listen to the stuff, discuss the artist, look at their blog and info and decide which gigs need checking out. There is so much on outside Vox aswell, it's difficult to judge who to see when. I was speaking to one of the chaps the other day and he had been to Northern Ireland, Wales and then Newcastle over a period of 3 days. Crazy. I'm more restricted to London and head North from time to time. But there are other scouts who cover the various areas of the country.

Anyway, I hope that gives you a better idea of what I do. There'a a bunch of other areas I get involved in but it's not the more interesting

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Chalky took me to the launch of Tricky's new label Brownpunk where I saw the band 'The Dirty'. Quite Iggy and the

Tricky

Stooges.

All in all was a good do, completely rammed when we arrived. Was in the basement of an indipendant cinema in the west end. Band was good and the DJ had a good set too. Even had a brief grunge moment (Soundgarden, Nirvana then early Pearl Jam), great stuff which led me to jump around like an idiot. Didn't see much in the way of celebrity, but then again they'd probably have to be hugely famous or a band/artist for me to recognise. I'm not good at celeb spotting.

I wasn't up for a large one as I was still completely buggered from Monday, but got in at about 2.30 this morning. Tube trains seem to get more and more comfy these days as they form part of my daily sleep routine.

Tonight is Suzie Wilkins at the Troubadour, it's her birthday too so if you're going down be sure to wish happy birthday. The gig's near Earls Court so even in worse case scenario I could probably walk it from the office. No more taxi drama's. :-) If I get any video/pics I'll stick em up tomorrow.

Just read some of The Alchemist in the park. Was hoping for a repeat of yesterday's weather but no such luck. It actually feels cold.

Currently listening to Just who I stumbled accross recently. I wasn't sure about them at first but on a couple of listens I've warmed to their stuff quite a lot. Have a listen if you get some time.

What a random blog, wrote it over several hours. So what you up to out there? Any news?

IB

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I've never actually had a 'Duvet Day' before. It was originally described to me as a 'Doona Day', but they were Australian and have funny words for just about everything. I was corrected on the expression by a fellow brit. I've really enjoyed it and hope to do it again soon. Though I don't think my boss would like it.

I booked today off and didn't surface until just before lunch, which was great. :-)

It was so dark all morning that I was very glad I didn't have to go to work. Something has gone very wrong with the English summer. I mean, wet.. ok, sunny... very ok. But I just don't know how to dress at the moment (many would say I've never known how to). One minute it's nice, the next a monsoon with hailstones the size of peas. That happened a couple of weeks back.

Today we had this:

Rain

Anyway, less weather more music. I went to see Captive State last night and they were fookin brilliant. It's the best gig I've been to in a while. It was at the Spitz in East London. Last time I was there I nearly set fire to the stage when I knocked a drink into the pedal board of my organ. It made a very loud bang and the gig went a bit downhill. I should have checked to see if the burn mark was still there. :-)

Have a listen to their songs. I'm not articulate enough to give you a running commentry or insightful comparisons other than I can say live, they were great. 9 people, mostly on stage, with a great mix of keyboards, percussion, brass, guitars, great backing vocals and most importantly strong songs. Normally when there's loads of instrumentalists involved, half of them needn't be there, for this band it wasn't the case. A great bit of mixing from the sound guy too. Even the backing vocals were tight and added to the layers of sound.

In many ways their set up and performance reminded me of Hot Chip. I'm not sure the recordings can reflect their greatest asset which was their live set.

As usual, I got very drunk which isn't the cool thing to do when technically I'm working. I think I'm meant to be in the shadows at the side of the venue, secretly taking notes and leaving undetected like a Ninja. Rather than drinking several pints, getting shitfaced and making a fool of myself at the front of the stage. :-s Had bad paranoia this morning but that was probably the hangover.

How rock n' roll is this? It's Friday evening and I'm at home writing a blog. Saying that I was meant to be at the barfly tonight but the guy who was taking me can't make it and the tube is stuffed because of the above weather apparently.

Hope all is good out there.

IB

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Have a look at our Youtube channel. (Again if you were here for one of my first posts that mentioned this)

It will give you the opportunity to have a good laugh as I'm not my of a TV personailty. Ged (the Chairman) is up there, along with Mike (Head of Columbia) and Craig (Head of RCA).

I don't think any of us are thinking of quitting our day job but it gave us an opportunity to show you at least what we look like. I think I will try and stick a few more videos up there of what actually goes on in here so it makes a bit more sense.

I'd like you to comment on what you think of all this on the channel if you can, be honest, good or bad. The reason I ask is the only people who seem to have commented on there so far aren't involved in our community and don't seem to see it for what this is.

The reason this is starting to take off now is because all of you are supporting this very much from the inside. Which I'm really grateful of. As a result of the growth of the site I've managed to get a few things in the pipeline that are going to be really exciting. I can't give any details away as yet but I will soon.

Hope all is well with you out there.

IB

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