A BLOG OF SORTS FROM CHRIS COOKE
Hello there! Here is some stuff I did…
CMU Guides
I got to deliver my CMU Guide to Making Money From Music as part of the Eastern European Music Academy this morning – with lots of great questions from attendees. Next Saturday I’ll be delivering a different CMU Guide – Music Copyright Explained – over at BIMM. And all with slides in our lovely new colour scheme!
EEMA this weekend
Looking forward to meeting the latest cohort taking part in the EEMA programme this Saturday, when I deliver my session on music industry revenues and trends – with participants this time from Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine.
Reeperbahn 2023
A productive three days at Reeperbahn, I think. Moderated a great panel. Watched some great panels and bands. Caught up with lots of great people. And then got to queue for 418 days to get through security at Hamburg’s comedy airport! The one thing I didn’t do, however, was figure out how my room – 290 – could be in both wings of the hotel at the same time.
TikTok Top Trumps
After three days staying ON the Reeperbahn I am now AT Reeperbahn! Mainly trying to work out how the TikTok Top Trumps cards in the delegate bag work. Does “partyschlager” trump “R&B”? My Reeperbahn panel is on Friday at 12.30pm where we’ll be discussing the ‘Revenue Politics Of Streaming’. And possibly the rules of TikTok Top Trumps. In the meantime, I’ve got some podcast interviews and meetings to arrange.
Concise Setlist
This week’s Setlist is surprisingly concise. In it we discuss FanFair’s call for a big old ban of for-profit ticket touting in the UK and the indie community’s criticism of Deezer’s so called “artist-centric” model. If you like the conciseness, maybe I should always record my half of the podcast in a hotter climate, in a hotel room with a very noisy air con unit which has to be turned off while recording. That possibly motivated the relative brevity!
Šibenik sunset
My seven day trip became a fourteen day trip while in transit, which meant – before I left Šibenik – I had to wash some clothes. While sitting on a bench across the road from the rather conveniently located self-service laundromat – with the tumble dryer busy going through the motions – I also got to enjoy a rather fine sunset. And now I am in Hamburg!
Talking distribution
Here we are discussing digital distribution at SHIP yesterday – thanks to my brilliant panel and to everyone who listened in to my Digital Dollars speed briefing. I had a great day in Šibenik, finishing off with some gigs in a castle. I think maybe every showcase festival should try and have a castle as a venue.
Another sea!
Overlooking a different sea this morning! I’m in Šibenik in Croatia for the all new showcase festival and music conference SHIP. Tomorrow I’ll be delivering a speed briefing and moderating a panel. Today I’ll be working from my hotel room trying not to get distracted by that view.
Digital Dollar AI guide
If you are at the MMF Manager Summit today, do pick up a copy of ‘The Music Manager’s Interim Guide To AI’, the latest guide in the Digital Dollar series. Alas, I can’t be there because I am on my way to Croatia. But I will tell everyone on the plane about all the challenges and opportunities posed by generative AI, and might even give a short lecture on the rising importance of publicity rights, even though we don’t have them in the UK.
Is it really “artist-centric”?
I delivered my Digital Dollar speed briefing here in Poland earlier today, complete with a brand new slide running through Deezer’s “artistic-centric” model. Or should that be Deezer’s “Universal-centric” model? Interesting to see Believe’s commentary on what’s being planned there beyond the bird-song ban. We report on that in today’s CMU Daily and discuss the proposals more generally on this week’s Setlist here.
By the Baltic
I am back on the move again – at last! – and this will be a week of two seas. From Wednesday it will be the Adriatic, but first the Baltic. That’s it there through the trees across the road from the lovely ZAiKS building in Sopot where I am currently residing. Looking forward to providing some Analiza Cyfrowego Dolara at the Culture ON LIVE event on Tuesday.
All new CMU
Some of you may have noticed that CMU got a new look, a new logo and a new website this week, which was rather exciting. We’ve also been getting two new reports ready for publication and – it being September – the webinars returned in full force. So it’s been a rather busy week. We’ll be adding lots of new features and functions to CMU in the weeks ahead, so do look out for all that.
