My friends Jackie and Stephen have started a series of salons in Dennistoun called, "House Music." I had the privilege of performing last night along with the artist Sue Tompkins. The feeling in the room was great and it resulted in some very nice performances.   I've mixed the recordings of the performance and released them on the "name your price" site,Bandcamp, where you can download them in a variety of formats, including FLAC, which will give you the same quality as CD

Only 15 shows booked so far, but an interesting idea - sort of the Air BnB of concert booking.  If this could be combined with the new trend in concerts in private homes, it could get really interesting. Helping Bands Play to the Crowd, Long Before the Show - NYTimes.com.

Free music just in time for a celebration of the equinox. Have an ambient weekend with the full Cinema Volta back catalogue, now available on the pay what you want music site Bandcamp. You can find the albums, "Space Exploration," "Tube," "Stuff," and "Music from The Kitchen' there. And as an added bonus, "Stuff" now includes the never before released track from the mid-1990's, "Portsmouth."

I've added another person to the Influences playlist - Syd Barrett, the founder of Pink Floyd. Toward the end of his time with Pink Floyd, there were stories of him simply playing one chord throughout an entire performance. I used to think that was odd, but now I think he might have been onto something. By the way - there's a direct literary connection between this song and the name of my band, Cinema Volta.  The first person who guesses right in the comments below will

I'll be chairing one of the featured panels at IBC this year called, "Waiting for the Sergeant Pepper Moment," looking at the potential technology has to change the way we make television. You can read about the panel at the IBC website. In 1967, The Beatles released their album "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," a watershed in modern music and the first time a mainstream band created music expressly for vinyl, as opposed to its being a mere recording of a traditi

I've put together a collection of composers and performers who have influenced the creation of "Music Chamber."  I think you'll be able to see a common thread here. All of these pieces have a focus on the resonance and sonorities created by massed voices, whether human or instrumental.  You'll find Rhys Chatam, Glen Branca, György Ligeti,  and Charlemagne Palestine.  This playlist will keep developing as more influences come back to me. And on a side note - I produced the G

I've released the "Angels" pieces as an album called, "Music Chamber."  These are the high quality masters of the tracks, which I highly recommend listening to.  Because of the nature of the music, a lot of the overtones and "phantom" voices are lost with the compressed streaming versions. I've put these up on the "name your price," site, Bandcamp, where you can download them in a variety formats.  I recommended you choose FLAC, which is a "lossless" format that will give yo

Netflix is now responsible for 30% of all internet traffic in the UK during peak viewing hours. Netflix reaches 1.5m UK subscribers for its internet video service | Media | The Guardian. Update: Either I misread the article originally, or it's been changed, but the 30% figure refers to US Internet traffic, and not the UK.

And yet another take on the Spotify/streaming payment story. Because of the complexities of musical ownership and royalties, as well as the myriad ways of listening to and buying music, this story will always be like the story of the blind men trying to describe an elephant through the sense of touch.  Except in this case, some of the blind men are touching something other than the elephant. Spotify and Pandora artist payments: Not as exploitative as they’re made out to be.

What do you call TV on the internet?  "TV."  Netflix is playing in the same league as the cable channels. Netflix steals Weinstein movies away from Showtime — Tech News and Analysis.

Are we about to see an extension of the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act?" Will copyright be extended 20 more years? An old debate returns — Tech News and Analysis.

I've just finished a three part guitar piece called, "And Angels Sing Thee To Thy Rest," and here are the rough mixes of them. They are very simple pieces each in an open tuning, and all of them played into a massive reverb. Part 3 was written for David Gamper and performed at his memorial concert at Roulette in NYC last year. Part 1 is in open D on my Stratocaster, using two Spider capos. Part 2 is in open E on my Yamaha acoustic, also using the Spider capos. Part 3 is

Pretty compelling evidence that most media piracy is driven by a search for convenience rather than a desire to get something for nothing. What we have is two giants battling over crumbs while ignoring the fact that they are standing on the deck of a ship that is both sinking and on fire. CBS/Time Warner dispute causes sharp rise in TV piracy | Company News content from Broadcast Engineering.

More musicians weigh in on the subject of the financial side of online streaming: Streaming Shakes Up Music Industry’s Model for Royalties - NYTimes.com.

Cellist and independant musician Zoë Keating on the realities of making money from online music. A blog about an email about a blog about a news article about music streaming | Zoë Keating.

I've written an article for the BBC Academy looking at the dramatic changes we're experience in broadcast technology. Check it out here: BBC Academy - Technology - Out with the old, in with the new.

An easy to follow essay on how we got into this mess: Who killed the music industry? An interactive explainer | PandoDaily.

In my previous post, I discussed the recent announcement by Thom Yorke of Radiohead that he was pulling his music from Spotify. This announcement has caused quite a stir, with lots of people taking pro and anti Spotify positions.  It's important to have this sort of debate, but the focus on Spotify is causing people to miss the real point. Although his target was Spotify, ProducerNigel Godrich defined the real problem when he posted, “Making new recorded music needs funding

If the user interface is good, this could be the step Connected TV needs - at $35, it's a great price and by being so simple, it's far more flexible than an Apple TV. Google’s Solution to Bringing Online Video to TV | MIT Technology Review. Related articles* Why Google Chromecast isn't quite Apple TV... yet (macworld.com) * The World Isn't Ready For The Chromecast Yet (buzzfeed.com) * Apple TV vs. Google TV (cabletv.com) * Google's TV (buzzmachine.com) * How Chromecast Fits

Reflecting on the link I posted about Thom Yorke quitting Spotify, I kept thinking about the statement in the article that, "The industry average offers slightly less than 0.4p a stream – meaning that 1m streams of a song would generate about £3,800. Most songs receive far fewer streams." The problem with this statement is that it equates streaming with sales, instead of viewing it as the modern equivalent of spins on radio, which is far more apt an analogy. People stream th