Longing for the day ...

Queenslander!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a sensational period for us ...

Personally, I won my two games (there was no need for a third) 9-1 and 8-1. QLD won the NTRA tournament 13 divisions to 3.

Tonight QLD SOO wins a record 4th straight State of Origin League title ....

How much batter can it get? Of course ... I'm bracing for the periods where it's not so good ...

Goal 1 down. Goal 2 just beginning ...

Well, last weekend I played touch for NTRA QLD over-35s against NSW in Coffs Harbour. This was the achievement of the first physical goal I set myself at the start of the year. Actually, we smashed NSW in both games: 9-1 in the first and 8-1 in the second, which was unexpected but rather pleasing.

I was also selected to play for Australia against New Zealand in Rotorua in September. This represents the start of my second physical goal for the year. I will have to manage some injuries and raise some funds if I'm to achieve it. My left ankle came through the quagmire at Coffs intact but sore.

But I'm definitely looking forward to the challenge and hope to get there when it counts!

Sweet Freedom

In the past 6 months or so I've started doing some work for a social-justice oriented, not-for-profit record label called Sweet Freedom. they've been around for a while with considerable success but they realised that they knew little about online sales and marketing, so they asked me to help ... I'm now Vice President.

Anyway, some years ago Sweet Freedom made two albums of songs written by asylum seekers in Brisbane about their experiences and hope for the future. The two CDs are wonderful blends of Western and other cultures' instrumentation, languages and sounds, and it's my pleasure to announce that they are now available on CDBaby: Scattered People and Normal Days. More releases are planned from Sweet Freedom's back catalogue.

I hope lots of people discover, buy, enjoy, promote and thereby support this wonderful initiative.

Maintaining relationships ...

Just caught Techdirt's coverage of Shaun Groves' pontifications on the importance of fan relationships (got it via CDBaby on Facebook - how networked it THAT!!)

Shaun discusses the changing nature of relationship-building for indies - about how the only important relationships used to be with managers, publicists, agents, etc, but how the new value is in building relationships with fans. That's very true, but it's also important to keep building relationships within the industry. However, the new relationships within the industry are likely to be more complex, less exclusive and more along the likes of peer development and/or mentoring.

One of the best ways to get gigs is to put a program of other bands together and hit up a venue. To do that, you need to be in good with other acts. You need to trust them, respect them and rely on them. That requires relationship-building within the industry.

Similarly with other songwriters/producers/guest musicians - whoever you need - managers (probably only one of those, but advice from others is good), agents, publicists, etc. The more of these relationships an Indie can draw on to meet their needs, the better. But fan relationships are different, and no less important.

You need both ...

Not really a model ... yet

Just read Mike Masnick's take on U2 manager Paul McGuinness's rather tiresome whinge about the online music environment. I generally agree with Mike but I wanted to pick up on one thing he said that I think is misleading.

Mike quotes McGuiness as saying "Radiohead is 'seeking' a new model... ignoring that they found one and that it worked amazingly well, without requiring an ISP tax. I'm wondering if he's simply ignorant of Trent Reznor's wide-ranging experiments."

I don't know that you can fairly call Radiohead's experiment any more than an experiment, as Reznor's have been. It certainly doesn't constitute a model. To constitute a "business model" it needs to work in pretty much the same way with pretty much the same results for pretty much anyone in similar circumstances. Reznor's experiments have produced some wildly disparate results, often unexpectedly, and I don't know of anyone else getting the kind of result Radiohead got.

Although Radiohead showed that there is promise in some of the the techniques and approaches they used, I'm not sure we really understand what happened, let alone how to make it happen again, if it ever can. Much more needs to be done before any of this can be called a "business model".

Mind you ... I think McGuinness is revealing his ignorance and self-interest and I hope for the sake of people who believe in U2's good works that he shuts up before he completely undermines U2's ethical credentials.