It’s been 2-3 months since I wrote about the first MusicTech Summit. The second summit is happening tomorrow May 8, 2008. Go to the SanFran MusicTech Summit site in you want last minute details.

It’s unusual for conference organizers to stage a follow-up event so close to the first. It’s also a somewhat unusual event, worth paying attention to. Like last time, I’ll take notes and post them here as time allows… You can do your part by continuing to do whatever it is you do and I’m sure everything will work out fine between us.

tags: SanFranMusicTech

There’s a great segment on People’s Grocery at CNBC online, featuring Simran Sethi and Brahm Ahmadi.

Follow this link to watch the video: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=720421629

Awesome job you guys!

tags: People’s Grocery, Simran Sethi, Brahm Ahmadi, CNBC

I’ve only got a minute here in between important job responsibilities and pressing concerns, so trust I won’t waste your time. Christgau’s online archive is a great place to waste some time.

Here’s a gem as Christgau recreates the experience of interviewing rock legends the Archers of Loaf.

His favorite interview question ever: “Do you love the Archers of Loaf?” His answer: “Yes. I must love this band, because I think about them more than I do myself.”

I interviewed the Archers once after a ‘93 or ‘94 show at Rick’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tough to pin down, irony was just getting hot and they owned it. Maybe the most exciting rock band at the time.

It’s fun to travel back with Christgau!

Travis Wright at CultivateGreatness.com has pulled together an excellent list of 100 free podcasts from top colleges. It’s a great resource for lifelong learner types.

tags: academic podcasting, CultivateGreatness.com

February 25, 2007 I turned on Google Analytics. Here’s a quick sense of what you like:

1.) Top Post (with four times the traffic of the second ranking post), “Corporate Graffiti Still Sucks“. The image has a high rank with Google so that’s probably why. It was an experiment in blog activism. That wall space pictured has been vacant ever since then. Maybe the property owners would consider donating the wall space to Precita Eyes as a Valencia corridor beautification project.

2.) Second Place, I deleted it. May seem counterintuitive to delete some of the most popular content. Depends how you look at it. The blog isn’t central to my business - it’s a practice I use to improve my writing. Besides, the more popular posts put us at risk of not hitting the Blogosphere 2.000.000™.

3.) Third Place, “How Much of Nestle’s Growth is Organic?“. This was a longer format post. Featured more research and analysis than I’m typically prepared to give away. Have gravitated away from that quasi-journo style for a couple reasons, foremost being the amount of time involved in doing a thoughtful, accurate and responsible job.

4.) Honorable Mention, deleted it.

5.) Also Ran, deleted it.

Any of you who’ve read more than a couple posts here may have noticed that I’m trying hard to hit the technorati 2,000,000 mark. You’ve seen the tags. You know it’s a serious deal - a big deal - the Blogosphere 2.000.000™. We’ve been fighting since day one and I’ve gotta confess… it hasn’t been easy.

In honor of our joint efforts, you and me together, today we should take a second (together) to reflect and declare premature victory. We win.

We’re at 1,910,875. We’re already within 95.54375% of our goal!

A couple of my friends linked to us. That kinda screwed it for awhile but no problem because otherwise we’ve been kicking butt. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. It’s time to celebrate.

We may not be at or near the 2,000,000 mark forever so let’s do ourselves a favor and enjoy it while it lasts.

tags: Blogosphere 2.000.000™, digg this, add me to your favorites, spread the word

At this point no one knows which way to go… eventually someone somewhere will find someplace good and we’ll give music a new rev level and blog about it ’til you puke.

In the meantime, here’s an interesting perspective from the frontier (h/t PotLuckCon):

Technology is advancing far too quickly for the old safeguards of intellectual property rights to keep up, and while we wait for the technical fixes to emerge, those of us who want to explore the opportunities the Internet offers need to establish a set of ground rules that give us the power to decide how our music is exploited and by whom.

That’s singer/songwriter Billy Bragg in an intelligent opinion piece last month in the NYT titled “The Royalty Scam”.

tags: intellectual property, publishing, Billy Bragg

She likes cupcakes…

If you’re bar crawling tonight, please don’t slip and chip a tooth.

Comparing activities to golf is feeling like a lazy angle. If I ever write about something being the new golf, please submit Plan Resonate refund form #5 for complete satisfaction. That’s an honest-to-god-money-back-guarantee friends.

Here’s an interesting business idea via Andrea James at Seattlepi.com:

Employees at Seattle law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro recently got a big incentive to take up the sport. Management promised bicycles worth $3,500 to any employee who pledges to bike to work three months out of the year.

Firm managing partner and cyclist Steve Berman said he wanted to find a way to reduce the firm’s carbon footprint and encourage fitness.

Berman said he gets the bikes at cost from Ridley Bicycles for about $1,800.

So far, 35 of the firm’s 100 employees have signed up. Berman expects to hand out the bikes by May, and it will cost the firm $63,000.

Cool idea and good storytelling by Berman.

FWIW, riding a bike isn’t the same as cycling, and neither are the exclusive domain of type A fashionable at 4AM workaholics. Spandex, faux sponsorships, and $3,500 geometrically insane racing bikes are entirely optional.

Excerpt from Adam Bellow’s “In Praise of Nepotism” (2003, Anchor Books):

Far from being embarrassed by their nepotistic practices, most family-owned companies call attention to them as a guarantee of stability and quality. According to Yale business professor Ivan Lansberg, family-run companies take a longer strategic view, are more humane employers, and display a strong work ethic; they also “worry a helluva lot more about quality because the bosses name is on the product.”

Excellent book for those of you who care about the topic. He starts with history - natural, social, political, and economic history of nepotism. Spends over half the book discussing specific examples of nepotism’s impact on American history and cultural development.