A Scrapbook of Inspiration and News
Every day, we are surrounded by inspiring design and great communication. But it’s often easy to miss because if implemented well, it fits seamlessly within an organisation and doesn’t look anything special. But of course, that’s not the case. We also see news from authors and creators all over the world that can help give meaning and direction to our own work.
Digital music distributors seek royalty reduction in US courts
This is something that we in Europe may not be aware of, but that will affect us in the future. Google, Spotify and Pandora are in the US courts right…
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2019-2020 Streaming price bible released
This report from the excellent Trichordist website is essential Sunday morning reading for anybody wondering how the next generation of songwriters is going make a living. The most alarming takeaway…
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Songwriters Association of Canada “Black History Month” playlist
Our client Songwriters.ca do important work and are without exception, tirelessly passionate and enthusiastic about music. As a result, their playlists are an amazing way to discover new artists. Join…
Read MoreVulfpeck – Live at MSG
This band has no manager, no record label, and earlier this month, sold out Madison Square Gardens on word-of-mouth. Then they released the entire convert video for free. Oh, and…
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How a failed economic theory still rules the digital music marketplace
This great article is an essential read for anybody that wants to know how the digital music ecosystem got into this state. In summary, music streaming services were built on…
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Value of UK’s live music scene hits record high
Today the Guardian newpaper reported a new study that reveals live music is worth £1.1bn to Uk economy with industry as a whole put at £5.2bn. This is great news…
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Global Collections on behalf of Creators Hit €9.7bn
We have spent recent summers in Paris working on the CISAC Global Collections Report and the latest 2019 edition is published today. It tracks and analyses the earnings collected on…
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What can startups (and the rest of us) learn From a zero-brand marketplace?
This is a photograph of the fresh food market in Ljubljana’s BTC shopping centre. If you’re used to regular supermarket produce, it’s an amazing array of fresh food. By Slovene…
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How to make digital copywriting easier to review
We all understand why context is important in a piece of copywriting. To create the impact we need, it’s vital to understand the place that your opinion occupies in the…
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When a brilliant and beautifully executed idea doesn’t fly, perhaps you just failed to explain it simply enough?
This is the premier lounge of the Côte des Flandres cross-channel ferry that takes travellers from the UK to and from France. The lounge is a haven of quiet relaxation…
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We’re all brand communicators now
Having coffee with a friend recently and they noticed the advert above stuck to a lamp post. “Look at that – they don’t even give their address. How is anybody…
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Bad news may sell papers, but perhaps positivity sells everything else?
Much of our work is in the creative sector where our experience helps international organisations to promote the rights of artists and creators. It’s a fascinating area, an extremely worthwhile…
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Hammond Organs and the merits of choosing the difficult path
This is the inside of a 1960 Hammond C3 organ. And it’s being repaired. Again. Even if you’re not a music lover, you’ll recognise the sound of this instrument in…
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Introducing Fair Trade Music
This is an amazing Japanese hip-hop artist that we discovered on Spotify this week. There is zero chance we would have even found this artist a few years ago and…
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How working abroad taught us to communicate back home
If you get the chance to work abroad, seize it with both hands. Apart from the amazing experiences that travelling and working in new places will bring, the change you’ll…
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Paris Monster: You don’t always need to follow the rules
We saw this amazing band in a small club recently – the photo above shows just how small! One guy plays drums with left hand, synth bass with his right…
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Support Europe’s Screenwriters and Directors
The EU parliament’s draft Copyright Directive could guarantee audiovisual authors an equitable share in the success of their work. But it needs a little encouragement … please consider signing the…
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Women-fronted films are top three highest-grossing movies of 2017
It’s worth remembering that even *apart* from being simple common sense and absolutely the right thing to do, ensuring equality and diversity in filmmaking also ends up just producing more…
Read MoreLogo design for the screen
As an addendum to the post on the craft of logo design, we spotted the new Sonos logo this morning. It seemed interesting but perhaps a little complex … until…
Read MoreThe truth about logo design
When you’re commissioning a new visual identity for your business, it’s easy to imagine that brand communications consultancies and designers are unjustly getting rich from this simple task. It’s just…
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The 22 immutable laws of marketing
Our approach is absolutely rooted in classical marketing and there is no better way to understand the key principals then to spend an hour or so with this book. “The…
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Kubrick and Us
It seems that Kubrick and us have at least one thing in common … we both love movies and typography. He was, it seems, “wedded to his sans serifs”. A fascinating…
Read MoreLeadership: Strategy vs. biology
We just found an incredible film that we had to share. Here Simon Sinek describes the biological reasoning for leadership in a manner that is the antithesis of the usual…
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Stomp box branding lessons
We spent a number of very happy but tragically wage-less years in the music industry. Like many companies today, the brands that dominated the equipment market in the 1990’s had…
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Don’t say it, prove it
There is a great pub near our office that serves beautifully prepared, home cooked food. The menu tells us that the ingredients are of the highest quality, individually selected and…
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Be generous with praise
The importance of good manners with colleagues and with competitors is not new and not just for reciprocity. Just ask Alfred Hitchcock. (Found via the excellent @FilmHistoryPics Twitter account)
Read MoreAlways listen to Seth
As usual, there was more great stuff in this one hour keynote speech than I could write down so here’s the whole clip. It’s a really worthwhile way of spending…
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When differentiating, lead with the meat
We took this photograph from a dining table in an amazing Turkish restaurant in Sheffield, UK. It is located in a city that boasts one of the highest student populations…
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Brand positioning at sea
Thanks to a combination of foreign parentage and international clients, we’ve been crossing the English Channel up to a dozen times a year since the mid nineties. During that time…
Read MoreJust because you might not understand it
Just because you don’t understand it, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t art. There are a few organisations that really excel at one thing. They can get so good at…
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