the blog

Show me the money

Show me the money: sources of finance for early stage artists

At last weekend’s Making Money from Music – Early Revenues panel at The Great Escape, hosted by PRS for Music, I promised I would post some links to funders and other sources of finance I mentioned that are potentially relevant to early stage career musicians, so here they are, along with a link to my top 10 […]Read More

Live music discovery app Eventbox is a Joining the Dots winner

The internet is opening up a world of opportunities for evolving how we interact with live music events. Joining the Dots winners Eventbox are primed to bridge the shrinking divide between artists and fans.Read More

three men jumping by a taxi

Taxiing through Tibet provides inspiration for Joining the Dots gaming project

One-word challenge game migrates from extreme sports to live music. Entrepreneur, adventurer and Joining the Dots winner Paul Archer explains how a South Asian odyssey inspired this game-changing idea. Read More

Joining the Dots game changing winners announced

Four game changing live music projects have been chosen for Joining the Dots funding and support. A pioneering gig-swap network, opening up a digital music archive, a mobile game for gigs and a location based app for "listening to listings". Read More

the hub at The Great Escape

The Great Escape is the UK’s leading festival and convention for new music and takes place in venues across Brighton next weekend (8-10 May), attracting over 400 artists and several thousand industry delegates. Saturday afternoon (10 May) sees us de-camp to the Old Ship Hotel for the Joining the Dots-inspired series of panels we were invited to […]Read More

How we are not helping to inspire youthful innovation in specialist music

Music blogger and editor (and hub intern) Deborah Findlater on charts how the state repeatedly deters youthful innovation in music. Read More

Why do you do what you do?

We'll soon be announcing the winners of our Joining the Dots project and finding out what inspired their brilliant music industry ideas. In this blog entrepreneur Derek Sivers offers advice on what should NOT inspire your bright idea. Read More

Why my code and ideas are public

Our six winning Joining the Dots applicants will be sharing their progress and learning as they put their project into practice over the coming months. Musician and entrepreneur Derek Sivers blogs on why sharing is such a good idea.Read More

From Now On Festival packed with fans of indie, electronic and experimental music

A sell-out celebration of the "edgy Welsh-language music scene" translates well into the mainstream - with thrashing harp, ethereal electro pop and a little help from LA's Lucky Dragons. Read More

The music industry has a communication not innovation problem

The problem with the music industry is not a lack of innovation – it's a lack of communication. So says Dr Rob Toulson of the Innovation in Music conference which he co-founded to bring together big thinkers across musicology, technology development and the music industry as well as the artists themselves. Read More