music

Our metrics are failing

February 10, 2012

The most amazing thing about Leonard Cohen being number three on Billboard is that it only took 41,000 records to get there. Adele’s been at the top end of the charts for 19 weeks now, but number one – Lana Del Rey – got there with 76,000 copies of her ‘Born To Die.’ Twenty years [...]

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[Reading #8] Discounting, data stories and long journalism

May 1, 2011

1. Discounting So discounting is what retailers do – at Christmas, to seize the momentum of buying ahead of Christmas, and, in June, to get cash rather than debts on the books ahead of the end of financial year. But it’s something we all do. Think about the choice between watching TV or doing exercise. [...]

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Think you can make a phone app one weekend and storm the appstore the next?

February 13, 2011
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Think you can make a phone app one weekend and storm the appstore the next? Hear the backstory from the three guys behind Flare Scratch.

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The world according to Andrew Ramadge, or how he made that online novella about Gareth Liddiard from The Drones

February 8, 2011
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In October, 2010, a news post went up on Mess + Noise about a different kind of music interview. I’m a music fan and a writer, but most writing about music follows a pretty straight format. And with the changes in the music industry, and the media, the music media has been hit hardest. It was a great piece, and I found myself wondering how the story came together.

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Three great things I came across this year

December 30, 2010
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I love lists. They can be arbitrary, but there’s something to them: a look back, before leaping into a new year. I’m a science writer and researcher, arts broadcaster and music obsessive, and a compulsive reader, so there is a  lot to draw on. So I focussed on three great things I came across this year and haven’t been able to stop talking about: Tipping Point, Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Brisbane’s Other Film.

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