A BLOG OF SORTS FROM CHRIS COOKE
August 2024 Updates
Back from Edinburgh
Back in London after a brilliant few days at the Edinburgh Fringe – managed to review six shows, interview ten comedians and moderate a really interesting panel on comedy careers. I guess I better now write up and edit that little lot. Don’t forget you can check out all the ThreeWeeks coverage of this year’s Festival at threeweeksedinburgh.com.
Comedy careers
I am heading to Edinburgh for a few days tomorrow. On Thursday I am moderating a panel as part of the Fringe Central programme all about comedy careers, and how comedians can build an audience and a business around their comedy through digital platforms and live shows, and how they can maintain the momentum that begins at the Festival. If you know anybody early on in their comedy career, do let them know – you can get free tickets here.
Back to Denmark
Looking forward to returning to Denmark next month to put the spotlight on the international flow of song royalties in streaming at this event organised by Musikforlæggerne. I’ll provide a big picture overview, and then hear from and talk to Indi Chawla at the MLC and Erik Brataas at Polaris.
More ThreeWeeks
Here’s another Edinburgh Fringe Q&A I’ve done for ThreeWeeks, this time with comedian Josh Glanc. I’m not reviewing until next week, but the ThreeWeeks team have been seeing shows since last week and their reviews are all appearing here.
EEMA session
Last weekend I got to deliver my music industry overview session at the start of the latest Eastern European Music Academy programme, which is always fun. So many good questions from the participants. There wasn’t enough time to answer all of them but, the good news is, I have a follow up session this evening which is all about the Q&A.
Edinburgh Q&As
With the Edinburgh Fringe now in full swing, I’ve been doing some Q&A interviews with people performing there this year. Here’s one with the producer of a very interesting show called ‘No Dragon No Lion’. I’ll be up at the Festival in-person next week, so there’ll be some reviews to follow too.
TW Backstage Fringe tips
With the Edinburgh Fringe now very much up and running again, I spoke to a group of performers, producers and marketeers about how people performing or producing at the Fringe can best use the experience to progress their careers. Based on those insights, we put together some top tips. You can read the advice given by our experts – and all ten tips – right about here.
Music + AI news
Lots of music + AI news this week, with both Suno and Udio responding to the major label lawsuits with a bombastic fair use defence, and the NO FAKES Act being introduced in US Congress. The US Copyright Office also published an interesting report considering how current laws can help people stop the distribution of unauthorised deepfakes and voice clones. It concluded “not very well” and proposed the introduction of a new ‘digital replica right’. My CMU report on the Copyright Office’s report is here.