Beck, David Bowie & Live Music Evolution

Beck has always been a musical cameleon, changing and constantly pushing styles from album to album. 
Bowie the same, it's great to see his new album on the top of the charts globally.
Critics are calling it the best come back of all time, but you don't need a critic to tell you that ;-)

In this experience Beck has teamed up with Chris Milk to pay homage to the Bowie track 'Sound & Vision' 
- and might just have realised an avenue for the music industry at the same time...
sure there is YouTube live events and other filmed music sites, but this is a much richer experience.

When broadband speeds expand could a fan of an artist pay a small fee to see a live gig
from the other side of the world? As the songs are performed live could you purchase them
first from the site, or at the end of the performance? The interaction here, letting the user
choose their own camera view gives a personalised touch and is something Chris Milk is
really getting great at, involving the audience. You can see this in his other projects for Arcade Fire.
You could still do this with many viewers at the same time if launched a little after the
live performance and the broadband was in place, or let people see in a queuing system 
or by a sign-up / notify process. I once worked on a music project called 'Almost Live', 
a collaboration between record labels and cinemas, but it was nothing like this. 

Spotify are currently looking to expand their brand and services as they don't own 
the music you play, they pay the record labels every time you listen to something,
they are rumoured to be getting into TV content, interesting but isn't everyone these days.

IDEA...
So what if Spotify started their own record label with new talent (there is enough out there)...
this would be a perfect platform for them to showcase the best talent on their label and
by creating gigs with bigger artists to headline would create demand and awareness. 
By charging a small fee to view the gig it would create a unique revenue system which
supports the up and coming music ;-)

Anyway...

Check out the experience HERE >>>

WARNING - HD version best viewed with no other applications running etc 
It will take a while to load, so go do something else for a while ;-)

Self Development for Brand Development

A few weeks ago I made a presentation/seminar to a group of 60 people... 
(my biggest audience so far)... it all seemed to go well and there were questions at the 
end about certain topics I covered, which is always a good sign that there is interest 
and impact in what you are talking about.

Below are some of my Keynote slides, not in any order really, but just give a glimpse of
some key topics and title slides to which I built cases, numbers and inspiration around.
It's a little out of context here without my VO (they always are unless recorded) but I'll post
an expanded version to Slideshare at some point hopefully ;-)

Since 2008 I've been doing this type of thing, to small groups, to clients, in-house and even
to individuals sometimes. I don't profess to be a professional speaker or anything like it, 
nor do I wish to be (I think)... it's more a thing I like to do get my research, insights and
analysis out in one go, or out in a bigger way. There is definitely skill to creating flow and
how you join the dotes, the biggest problem I find is what to leave out as my inspiration
presentations are structured in a specific way, designed to help brands and companies 
see the light and the opportunities to relate to people in the new world. That saying though,
it's more about personal development ;-)

How to make a hit music video...

Dreams + storytelling + action (in slo-mo) + fast bikes (in slo-mo) include bike stunts...
add a bit of a love story! And mix together with some slick but raw cinematography ;-)



Birdy Nam Nam - Defiant Order from NicoDVNL