Category: Uncategorised

Simon B at No Rock ‘N’ Roll Fun is bemused by BMG boss Charles Goldstuck’s comments that the structure of the US music industry will be dictated by CDs and not downloads for some time yet; he writes: “in other words, the record companies intend to try and prop up their lucrative dying format instead…

Looks like Q isn’t the only EMAP title being “repositioned”: according to Media Guardian [free registration required], film magazine Empire is being redesigned to make it more of a “luxury lifestyle title”. Oh dear. I’m a long-time Empire reader (since it launched – I’d hate to think how much I’ve spent on the magazine over…

According to Robert Sandall in the Sunday Times, Q magazine is repositioning itself as a guide to “track by track downloading”, in much the same way that US magazine Blender ends its music reviews with a “download this” track recommendation. Elsewhere Word magazine has its MyPod section on digital downloads, and online music is a…

These days Smash Hits is a fairly forgettable part of a media empire (it’s a brand now, which means it has its own pop video channel and annual awards), but in the early 1980s – when the World Wide Web wasn’t even a twinkle in anyone’s eye, and MTV hadn’t been invented – it was…

Given The Sun’s lambasting of the British National Party this week, you’d think the newspaper was a champion of race relations and a battler against bigotry; however, as this article (via Guy Clapperton’s journalism blog) shows, The Sun doesn’t mind running the odd fictional scare story about asylum seekers.

According to the Evening Times, Glasgow is about to get a bar with a difference: unlike other bars, it’ll ban alcohol, smoking and junk food, and it won’t be open after 6pm. Hmmm. Perhaps the Times would be interested in some of the other interesting, unusual and innovative “bars” in and around Glasgow? There’s the…

According to The Telegraph, U2 frontman Bono is considering rush-releasing the new U2 album (currently scheduled for a November release) via the iTunes music store if pirate copies turn up on the net. The singer told Neil McCormick: “If it is on the internet this week, we will release it immediately as a legal download…

Junk mail is, of course, a menace – but you have to admire the ingenuity of some of the mass mailers. In an attempt to bypass email filters, they’ve started to use bizarre names in the “from” field; recently my inbox has started to resemble the cast of a particularly demented Dickens novel. Today’s highlights:…

In addition to various tutorials, news stories and other magazine pieces, I’ve got a few big features coming up that would benefit from expert comment. If any nice PR people are reading this, I’d be very interested in hearing from experts in the following two areas: DRM: the pros and cons of copy protection. Driving…

Unless it gets cancelled – which may happen, the joys of live radio and all that – I’ll be on BBC Radio Scotland’s Gary Robertson show tomorrow morning to talk about protecting kids from scary things on the Internet. The show starts at 10am.