Dean Whitbread

Bliptastic: Blip.FM Social Radio

2008-08-25T10:14:00.008+01:00

I try not to be too faddist. It helps that I am not a gamer. Every so often however, along comes a website which combines function with form in delightful way, and such is Blip.FM which in a nutshell is no more than community DJing. I haven't found anything so immediate and addictive since Seesmic, the video conversation site, came along almost a year ago.

Its simplicity is very effective. Whilst in all other social networks I add my friends with some level of caution, on Blip I am happy to add DJ buddies purely on the basis of shared music likes. Leaving the page on autoplay, I am happy to let my friends and DJs play music for me all day long, and when I want to join in, I provide the same experience for them.

I don't know quite how the music industry will respond to this - they don't seem to have taken on board Seeqpod as yet which does a similar thing, scraping the web for MP3 files, millions of which are out there "in the wild" - but it treats the whole experience very differently because it has understood the crucial aspect of modernity which is that we are not alone. Like Last.FM it offers music streams easily shared and personalised according to taste, but unlike Last it offers a more genuinely live experience, with more in common with micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter. For me it beats Last.FM hands down on the basis of sheer ease of use.

You'd hope that labels and artists will see Blip.FM as a positive thing, as it unleashes a veritable army of amateur pundits and tastemakers.

Blip.FM also sensibly includes a "buy this" button prominently in its interface. This currently only searches Amazon, which is a bit useless, but the concept is sound. It works: in a few short days, I have had my ears opened and found many new artists via Blip, as well as been reminded of gaps in my own library which I have forked out cash to plug. There is an upload function (complete with cautionary copyright warning) which I have used to place free downloads from my MySpace music friends, CC-licensed podcasts and my own unreleased tracks in the Blip catalogue.

One word of warning: if you join, make sure you don't let Blip.FM spam your friends with invites! There is an "uncheck all" option when you get to the "invite your friends" page which should prevent this happening.

If this takes off as I think it might, traditional music radio will soon be quaking in its boots. Of course, if I were running a station, I'd be uploading shows to Blip on a daily basis with a link to my internet stream in the accompanying text. As my friend and colleague Brian Greene says, radio is about to get social.

I've added the Blip widget to the right column of this blog.

Video

2008-08-07T02:42:00.001+01:00

I'm going back to my art roots...

I started a Vimeo account for some HD experimentation.

Wordle

2008-08-03T16:52:00.001+01:00

I can' resist Wordle. You can even learn something about yourself by using this random replay of your writing (demands chicken?)

Meanwhile, back to making videos - four coming up in August and September, three to direct, shoot and edit, and a soundtrack to compose.

July

2008-07-23T16:51:00.000+01:00

Honestly, I was really busy in July.

Creativity and Business: Priceless

2008-06-23T08:27:00.006+01:00

Creativity is inherently revolutionary. Business is inherently exploitative.Is creativity inherently anti-business?

These thoughts have been rolling around my mind like a marble in a sweet jar for some time now, as I ponder my own paths in creativity and in business.

Business requires predictability, results and judges by the balance sheet. It demands efficiency, proof and reports. Business exploits ideas for profit. Business people have a platform, a position, and a salary. Creatives on the other hand have a trajectory, a vocation and a journey. Creativity generates ideas, celebrates strangeness, and messes with your head. Business makes money, maintains the market and will sell you whatever you will buy. Creativity wastes time, disrupts the market, and even if you can own it, it's probably worthless.

The art business is the most conflicted in the world.

Creative people alight upon something new and invest it with form and meaning, showing the way forward and lighting the path. Business people seek financial gain, and will gladly steal the patent for the lighting system.

Not being able to sell your idea means nothing to the truly creative person. Ignoring trends is essential if you are to follow the thread of your inspiration, wherever it might lead, even to your personal extinction - although that is not essential. Creativity reinvents itself just by continuing - change is its only constant. Creativity demands the pointless. Blind alleys are the stuff of life. Purpose is a necessary sacrifice along the path of enlightenment. The search for enlightenment is packaged and sold as weekend breaks in the picturesque Cotswolds, £400 per person including organic meals.

Thanks to television, radio and the internet, there is now little left of undivided attention, lingering examination, or even careful re-reading. All is subservient to the immediately useful, the entertaining or the alarmist. The timelines speed past like landscapes viewed from a train, remote, unvisited, unless robot search alert takes you back there. The windows of attention are shrinking as we stare more and more at screens, and less and less at the faces of individuals.

"Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" - T. S. Eliot

"Finding a businessman interested in the Arts is like finding chicken shit in your chicken salad" - Alice Neel

Gore Vidal - American Hero

2008-05-23T08:26:00.004+01:00

What I love about the United States is that they have produced people of the stature of Gore Vidal. I wonder how many more sharp, fiercely intelligent, independent thinkers will arise from that nation.

I'm Voting For Aled Fisher, Green Party

2008-04-30T23:14:00.003+01:00

Aled Fisher (LSE SU General Secretary-Elect) at 21 is the youngest candidate in this year's London Assembly elections, which are to be held tomorrow, so I thought I'd check him out. He seems to have good values, has succeeded in raising standards of pay for poorly paid college cleaners, and has been involved in twinning the LSE SU with An-Najah University, in Nablus, north of Ramallah, so he gets my vote.

Whatever Happened to March?

2008-04-30T13:30:00.003+01:00

Rise and Shine happened to March... I was so involved in making this show, that I completely forgot my once-a-month post to this, the driest of all my blogs. And I've only just remembered that this is the last day of April... but then, I've been on holiday, so that's a permissable exception.

After one hectic month, I was very happy with our pilot show. We proved that the concept of a live, news-based songwriting show works really well. It generated the interest we thought it would, raising over $1000 US in sponsorship and song downloads. Plus, we have a whole series of songs presented in a brand new context - more about that later. Most importantly, we have a road-tested original show format, and people to who want to franchise it, which is a really nice thing to return to...

Rise and Shine: My Triple Challenge

2008-02-29T16:53:00.003Z

I've set myself a triple challenge.

Write a song (with assistance wherever possible) every weekday for a month;

Broadcast the whole event as a breakfast show from 7am to 10am;

Raise money for a good cause - BuskAid

I've dubbed the project Rise and Shine, and I've every intention of making this pilot show into a robust vehicle, combining creativity, commerce and charity, capable of traversing mighty landscapes.

Media moguls, commissioners, patrons, sponsors, and all-round nice people, feel free to contact songs [at] riseandshine [dot] tv to learn more.

Work Changes Everything

2008-01-03T16:55:00.000Z

The year 2007 was a sometimes astonishing journey into places I had never been, which changed what I'm working on, where I work, with whom I work, and how I work, and for simplicity's sake, I'm outlining these changes here.

What I'm Working On

I'm still working on podcast production, notably for John Cleese, Rob da Bank, JM Soul and others, but also now working on live radio and video projects, with music, art, performance and comedy. I will also be producing a brand new live radio format, which pilots end of February 2008, and I continue to write regularly.

Where I Work

Thanks to Michael Franklin, we've moved the centre of our operations to a new office / studio right in the heart of London's West End - 4 Denmark Street, London, WC2H 8LP.

With Whom I Work

Talking Voices Ltd., the company which Funk started in 2006, is still going strong with some personnel changes. Mark Crook, Paul Carey and myself have been joined by radio industry stalwart Michael Franklin, and we're pleased that our Irish colleagues Brian Greene and Sinead Murnane have come centrally into the business. I'll post more about that soon on the Talking Voices blog.

How I Work

Those of you who want to engage my services either to speak, write, or to consult for very reasonable fees, please contact me direct by leaving a comment here. All podcast-related business is channeled through Talking Voices. For music production, contact me via Funk.

And Finally...

I'm really pleased to report that the Cinema du Lyon album I completed at the end of 2007 with Mark Crook is on sale and has some really nice reviews (see below).

I'm also still very much involved in the UK Podcasters Association - will be attending an interesting session on January 15th at Channel 4, held by the Radio Academy.

CINEMA DU LYON: The Particle Zoo

Buy from iTunes Plus (NO DRM!)

ABOUT CINEMA DU LYON: Cinema du Lyon are a European art/music group with the self-avowed intent of being "as pretentious as possible". Amoral rather than immoral, they shun publicity at all times, with the intention of creating a more ego-less space for their consummate artifice to construct within the imagination of their unprepared audience. They constantly collaborate, and release very little of their compositions, preferring to infiltrate the real world and non-music spaces in unexpected ways via guerilla methods.

Their first public performance was at the Hanbury Ballroom, Brighton, April 2004. They played cards, smoked Gauloises, read Le Monde, and treated the astonished audience to art. By the end of the performance, with the venue resounding to avant-garde beats and fabulous visuals, they were celebrating with flowers and champagne at the bar.

Cinema du Lyon – "The Particle Zoo"

"If you would be a real seeker after truth,
it is necessary that at least once in your life
you doubt, as far as possible, all things." - René Descartes

Full of shifting possibilities, alive with a seething miasma of portent, a fiercesome force of nature - "The Particle Zoo" is a place for the uncaged.

Shredding all previous works to relay an absolute truth about the new environmental sonic landscape that escaped from the laboratory and found its way into the world, full of awe, a measurement in the strength of the aural message, given that this is not a pipe, but a maze, lies in the unwavering conviction of the artists themselves to achieve excess in the name of truth itself.

"The Particle Zoo" is Cinema du Lyon's twelfth audio collection, but the first to be made publicly available, the previous eleven having been private commissions and art events.

For more information and a beautiful audio-visual podcast, visit http://cinema-du-lyon.eu

Bear A Grudge This Christmas

2007-12-14T13:14:00.000Z

I managed to avoid November entirely this year, but now we're at the period of festive fun, I've decided to add my scrooge-like tuppence to the holiday season with a reading from my favourite author, Deek.

PodCamp Boston

2007-10-21T19:06:00.000+01:00

As if I can't get enough of the Open Learning experience, I'm scheduled to visit the USA this coming weekend to attend PodCamp Boston where I am speaking on "International Dimensions - The Wonderful Wide World of Podcasting - Dean Whitbread from UK Podcasters http://ukpa.info shares his experience in the online rights field, explains why belonging to a podcast group is more than just tribalism, and why it’s important to make sure that your right to podcast is protected." - it says here.

Appropriate for everyone, apparently.

PodCamp Ireland

2007-09-25T05:19:00.000+01:00

As if I haven't had enough exposure to the podcasting, blogging and social media community recently, I'm off to this one, which is conveniently being held in the country next door.

Hurricane Dean

2007-08-20T06:11:00.000+01:00

How odd to share a name with a mighty force of nature. Hurricane Dean is a big one, apparently, but thankfully just missed directly hitting Jamaica, passing a few miles to the south.

Pods and Blogs Ident

2007-08-08T05:48:00.000+01:00

Pleased to see that the UK's definitive radio programme on podcasting and blogging, Pods and Blogs on BBC Radio 5 Live, has chosen to use the programme ident I recorded for them at the weekend in their very first podcast.

I'm now blushingly proud...

Can You Give Me More Traffic Reports?

2007-07-30T18:13:00.000+01:00

Robert Scoble on Facebook Talks About Twitter, Etc.
Uploaded by deanwhitbread

I really liked this muse on Twitter and Facebook by the insightful Robert Scoble. So much so, that I stole this video from Facebook. Am I wrong? They claim to own everything. I'm not sure who I even stole this from. Anyway, it's a great rap.

Robert, I hope you're not offended that I posted this here. I will give you the traffic reports. Thank you for letting me share this.

Funk Social Media Experiment

2007-07-17T18:21:00.000+01:00

The Funk Social Media Experiment: One Dollar

History is being made - I just made my first dollar from the blog I started writing in June 2004, shortly after starting this one. This didn't take long, I'm happy to report, just few days to reach a whole US dollar or 50 pence as we like to call it.

Funk had 57,525 visits and 252,435 page impressions in June 2007, using 16GB bandwidth.

Save The Planet: 1987 - 2007

2007-07-07T18:51:00.000+01:00

I have to admit to being a little bit cynical about Live Earth. Global warming is at best a misnomer, at worst, a false doctrine. For starters, climate change is probably caused by sun spot activity, which is reaching a 1,000 year high; and anyway, it's rampant industrialisation, pollution, human over-population and mass species extinction which are the real dangers facing life on earth.

I wasn't always so jaded. My very first single, twenty years ago, raised money for Greenpeace and the Women's Environmental Network, and it was called, Save The Planet. Save some for me, will you?

George Melly RIP

2007-07-05T10:14:00.000+01:00

Goodbye George. Still don't know quite what you died of, but whatever it was, enjoy Valhallah, which with your surrealist tendencies should be a more colourful place.

My Heritage

2007-06-28T01:06:00.000+01:00

Facial Comparisons courtesy of http://www.myheritage.com

New Frontiers In Blogging

2007-06-27T08:21:00.000+01:00

The BBC website gives me hours of pleasure. Today I found an article entitled, "New frontiers in journalism" which was about using social media. I'm not certain that my rather cynical comment will be appearing any time soon though:

"YouTube, Flickr, Del.icio.us and Twitter." Why stop there? And, why choose these four? Why not, Digg (which is much more directly related to news - although people might not vote you to the front page), Facebook, MySpace and Slashdot, to name but four more ?

These "social media" sites attract (and are the venue for) many different, only slightly overlapping groups; by choosing the few you mention, and not using others, you are weighting your internet content towards certain constituencies and away from others equally valid.

Admit it: your choice of networks is not made just on popularity, is it? You've gone for YouTube fair enough because the BBC have a deal with them, but the others all tend to be favoured by the new media "Twitterati" currently in broadcast jobs.

Until news media actually engages with the great internet unwashed on their own terms, it's just playing at internet for the sake of appearing relevant, IMHO.

PodCamp Europe

2007-05-26T15:55:00.000+01:00

The PodCamp / BarCamp phenomenon is a grassroots movement which is dedicated to the concept of Unconferences - i.e. they are free to attend and you don't have to remain in any seminar / conversation which you find pointless or boring.

Since this is exactly what I always wished school was like, I am attending PodCamp Europe, June 12th - 13th in Stockholm, Sweden and offering a session on Creativity. Because I am demonstrating creativity, not merely explaining, I keep on changing the name of the session. It will be interesting seeing who turns up and what they expect.

PodCampUK arrives September 1st.

Assimilated? You Decide...

2007-05-18T16:42:00.000+01:00

Dailymotion blogged video
Let Me Entertain Me
Video sent by deanwhitbread

Steady, AIM, Fire!

2007-05-17T18:39:00.000+01:00

A good news day.

Back in 2006 when we started the UK Podcasters Association, we asked all the people who joined what we should be doing, and sorting out podcast music licensing was top of the list. I'm really pleased the music industry is starting to recognise the role podcasting plays in supporting and championing music.

Funk Publishing: Art, Music, Words

2007-04-28T17:26:00.000+01:00

Funk Publishing: we set this up a month or two ago.

Gregarius is a nice way of combining the feeds of all the different creative projects I'm working on, including collaborations and work for clients.

My current favourites are the Anglo-Irish podcast and deekdeekster.com which afford me a lot of enjoyment and maximum editorial freedom.