- I started testing a new music marketing consultancy package that I plan to unveil next month. The process in a nutshell: I interview the client and audit his or her online assets and overall presentation. I create a report with my initial insights and recommendations, and we get on a call to discuss and brainstorm. I follow this conversation with an expanded, final version of the report containing actionable tasks that the client can immediately implement. We then have a limited email exchange to go over any questions about my recommendations, and I’ll follow-up a month later to check on progress. The client is also welcome to schedule regular brainstorm sessions and audits to keep the process going. The goal is to set the client up for the next stage in his or her music career, whether it’s for an upcoming release, a tour, or just a professional ‘polish’ to become more attractive to the likes of record labels, promoters, or managers. I can work this magic for recording artists or labels — or both, as was the case with the first client to go through this procedure, the talented techno producer Deepak Sharma of Hidden Recordings. I’m excited for what this will bring and the people I’ll be meeting and advising.
- Two new releases I’m assisting with that you should check out: Arthur’s Landing – Spring Collection EP on Buddhist Army; and More Ghost Than Man – The Courage To Lie To A Dying Man on Westerns With The Sound Off. Also, we’ve received vinyl copies of Nirosta Steel’s The Dry Ice Remixes (featuring remixes by Sleazy McQueen), and these should be hitting the cool record stores at the very beginning of May.
- I’m always testing new systems to improve daily productivity. This month I’m trying out Cal Newport’s Daily and Weekly time-blocking scheme. In the past, I attempted time-blocking using a calendar app but found this to be too rigid. For example, there was no room to extend a task ‘on-the-fly’ for a few more minutes when nearly finished, and it was difficult to change a schedule if confronted with the unexpected. These issues, combined with nagging calendar alerts, stressed me out more than increasing effectiveness. Newport’s system allows some ‘float,’ is refreshingly paper-based, and it’s easy to rearrange the calendar if things get out of whack. I also like the idea of a Weekly Plan reminder in my email inbox. It’s become a game to have that reminder email be the only thing in the inbox at the end of the day. The early results are encouraging and, if it continues to work, I’ll do a blog post about this and the rest of my productivity system.
- Great discovery: Kanopy. If you’ve got a local library card (and you should), then chances are you will be able to access this streaming movie service for free. You’re limited to five movies a month, and the selection is strong, including more than a few Criterion classics (French New Wave, Italian Neorealism, those samurai movies I love …) and recent independent offerings.
- What I Read This Month:
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
Wait But Why: The Elon Musk Post Series (which is basically a book) - What I Watched This Month:
Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web
Wild Wild Country
SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock
Journey To Italy
and @garydvisualz took me to my first 3D blockbuster, Ready Player One - What I Listened To This Month:
Gwenno – Le Kov
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto – Glass
Mariah – Utakata No Hibi
Kenneth James Gibson – In The Fields Of Nothing
The wonderful ‘long’ versinon of Wire’s “Outdoor Miner” - A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:
Anil Dash on what it’s like to be a ‘non-celebrity’ with 500,000+ Twitter followers
An interview with the mayor of the curious, Orwerllian town of Scarfolk, UK
Planet Earth as described in the 116 photos aboard the Voyager spacecraft
This video of Brian Eno getting giddy over his Ultra-Harmonizer in 1994
Ten moments in the history of Cocteau Twins … some which were new to this longtime fan
That time Sterling Morrison left the Velvet Underground for an academic life in Texas
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