"Imagine Dylan on a laptop meeting Tom Waits uptown. You get the picture."

Music Tech UK asked me to contribute an opinion piece for their blog. You can find it on their site https://musictechnology.uk/where-are-the-creators/ along with a lot of other interesting stuff. Where are the Creators?By John Maxwell Hobbs, CEO, Streamline Media Over the past year, I’ve attended a number of music panels focussed on everything from the impact of AI to the challenges of having a career in the music business for people from under-supported demographics. They al

My startup Streamline Media Limited has launched a podcast. We’ll be talking to a wide variety of people in the creative industries about their work. The second episode features Tim Boggs. Listen to episode 2 with Tim Boggs Timothy Boggs is an award winning filmmaker, Artist and songwriter who lives and works in Los Angeles. His 30 year career as a sound supervisor and sound editor include notable television shows - “The Sopranos,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Good Wife,” “Queen Su

My startup Streamline Media Limited has launched a podcast. We’ll be talking to a wide variety of people in the creative industries about their work. The first episode features my old friend Eric Liljestrand.

I'm pleased to announce that my new album, "Sporadic Outbursts" will be released on the 9th of December to all streaming services. I've put together a collection of ambient guitar studies. Originally released on this site under the Sporadic Outbursts heading, these are explorations that led to the creation of "Music Chamber" and "Live in Glasgow," and fit together nicely as a collection. These tracks also marked my return to playing guitar after a 20 year diversion into keybo

A post I wrote for the National Film and Television School https://nfts.co.uk/news/engineers-creative-partners-–-how-film-tv-industry-can-learn-music-production NFTS Head of Technology, John Maxwell Hobbs, believes the film and television industry should view and work with engineers as creative partners as the music industry does and has designed the School’s new Production Technology MA to do just that. Why it is that broadcast engineers have long been viewed as boffins w

Years ago in New York City, I had a funk band called, Your Monkey's Not Funny. At various times it was called, Calamity Jane, Magnetic Dog Sisters, Spiny Norman (and once Spiny Richard due to confusion on the part of the booker at CBGB.) Various members at times included Steffen Franz, David Azarch, Tom Hamilton, Marc Solomon, and at a couple of rehearsals, Jim Fourniadis of Rats of Unusual Size. The final line up (before crashing and burning) was: John Maxwell Hobbs: key

Published earlier today on MediumThere are a lot of articles analysing Apple’s new music service. (James Cridland’s got a good list of them here.) The majority of them are coming from tech journalists, and unfortunately, they suffer from a major lack of knowledge of how the music business actually works. They are worth reading, but prepare yourself for a lot of confusing the tray for the meal. Where most of the current analysis falls down is by treating the three elements of

More news on the Apple music front - Radio 1 DJ, Zane Lowe is leaving the corporation to work for Apple. Jimmy Iovine, and now Zane. Apple's lining up some heavyweight A&R talent.

Rumours floating around that Apple is going to move into the label business, as I predicted a few months ago:  http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/08/exclusive-streaming/ Although the TechCrunch article shows a remarkable lack of understanding of how the music industry works and what exactly a record label does, the information at its heart leads to some interesting possibilities. More info here: http://hitsdailydouble.com/news&id=294560

I'll be performing live at Redmond's in Dennistoun to celebrate the launch of the album, "Live in Glasgow," recorded last autumn at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow. I'll be improvising on the same themes, but with a new guitar this time.  But don't worry, the sparkly suit will still make an appearance.  The performance will also be streamed live.  You can watch it on YouTube below:

Solo Ambient Guitar Performance at CCA Glasgow Tuesday the 21st of October , 7pm - 11pm £4 + £1 booking fee All ages Centre for Contemporary Arts 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow G2 3JD United Kingdom Tickets available through the CCA box office: http://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/542058977932e9a37600002d And Flights of Angels Sing Thee To Thy Rest  is an extended duration performance of four ambient solo guitar pieces. They are very simple pieces, each in an open tuning, a

The full multi-camera shoot of Rhys Chatham's "A Secret Rose" for 100 electric guitars from the Frontiers Festival in Birmingham is now up on YouTube.  I'm in the back row, stage right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HC9o0DaNow#t=1043

It seems clear now that the headphones and the streaming music service are secondary acquisitions for Apple - with the Beats deal, they've just acquired the head of Interscope records. I would expect an announcement of an Apple record label fairly soon.

I just got the score and the details for the Rhys Chatham piece I'm playing in this June in Birmingham. Now, time to get practicing! http://www.rhyschatham.net/news/2014-feb-19-secret-rose%C2%A0-100-guitars-birmingham-uk-june-7  

I'm really excited! I've been selected as part of the 100 guitar orchestra that's playing the UK premier of Rhys Chatham's "A Secret Rose," at the Frontiers Festival in Birmingham on the 7th of June.

Back in the 80's and 90's in NYC, I had a funk band called, "Your Monkey's Not Funny." (And sometimes called, Calamity Jane, Spiny Norman, but never Vicious Fishes.) There were a lot of members who went through the band - at one point it was 10 members and I wanted to add a horn section to that.  We had a stable line up for a few years and that's the group that's playing on the video here. This is a rough video of a rehearsal for a gig at CBGB from around 1990. The lineup

Lights Out by Chris Leslie My friend, the documentary photographer and filmmaker, Chris Leslie has been working on and off for three years on a film project called "Lights Out," about the closing of the Bluevale/Whitevale public housing complex in Glasgow and I'll be providing the soundtrack. From Wikipedia: "Faced with crippling housing shortages in the immediate post-war period, the city undertook the building of multi-storey housing in tower blocks in the 1960s and early

An article from Digg on audio vs. video on the internet.  Worth a read. Why Audio Never Goes Viral.

An interesting take on the nature of radio promo in the brave new world of the music business.  Is this a new version of payola or the only way to stay in business? Music acts fear they wont make waves if they dont play radio events for free | Helienne Lindvall | Media | theguardian.com.