I Eat Music

[I didn't write this. Andy Malt does not like to write about himself in the third person]

The BBC have released the long list from their Sound Of 2010 poll, the thing where the Beeb ask 136 music pundit types, including CMU Editor Andy Malt, for their hot musical tips for the year ahead. All the artists tipped have to be new, and not have had a Top 20 single or album before mid-November. A final list of five will be announced in the New Year.

This list has a long history of tipping at least a couple of the big new musical names of the following year. Andy CMU voted for two of the artists who have made it to the final long list. There’s a Quality Street chocolate for the first person to guess which two. Well, providing you guess before one of us eats it.

Daisy Dares You
Delphic
Devlin
The Drums
Everything Everything
Giggs
Gold Panda
Ellie Goulding
Hurts
Joy Orbison
Marina And The Diamonds
Owl City
Rox
Stornoway
Two Door Cinema Club

[I didn't write this, Chris Cooke did, but it mentions me in an amusing and sort of newsworthy way, so here it goes]

It’s the UK Festival Awards tomorrow. As previously reported, the UK Festival Conference will take place in the Vue complex under the O2 Dome during the day, while the awards themselves will be presented in the Dome’s Indigo2 venue in the evening.

Among the awards to be presented will one for Best Line Up which, unlike most of the other gongs, was chosen by a panel of judges rather than a public vote. Among the judges was CMU Editor Andy Malt, who did know who’d won, but had the information surgically removed from his brain by the team at VirtualFestival.com. We’re just hoping that when he hears who’s won at tomorrow’s awards bash it doesn’t bring on any dangerous flashbacks.

Another award selected by pundits rather than punters is the Lifetime Achievement Award. With somewhat ironic timing – given the recent demise of the Big Chill company – this year that honour will go to Katrina Larkin, co-founder of the Big Chill enterprise. Of course the good news is that the Big Chill festival is set to live on thanks to a new deal with Festival Republic, and Larkin will remain at the helm, ensuring the quirky mix of music and other cultural nonsense that makes the festival so special will remain.

Larkin is also set to guest on Cerys Matthews’ radio show on BBC 6Music tomorrow afternoon ahead of the presentation of the award, and will talk about the development of the Big Chill brand ever since the initial parties at Islington’s Union Chapel way back in 1994.

[Taken from this morning's CMU Daily]

Hey there people, welcome to the CMU Daily for this lovely sunny Monday morning (feel free to cross out ’sunny’ and ‘morning’ if neither of these are true wherever it is that you’re situated, though we can’t be held liable for any Tipp-Ex or permanent marker applied to PC screens). There’s a note here at the top of the CMU Daily to let you know about two big developments happened around these parts this week.

First, CMU has a brand new editor. Well, not ‘brand new’, in that it’s Andy Malt, who has been working on CMU for eighteen months now. But it’s as of today that he does so with the editor hat on. Which is a very fetching hat to wear. If you like mauve. Yes, Andy, who already edits both of CMU’s weekly bulletins – the CMU Weekly and Remix Update – will now be heading up all of our editorial operations, including this here Daily bulletin, the most read daily news bulletin in the UK music business.

In case you’re wondering what this means for me and my fellow former editor Caro – well, we’ll still be here, as co-Publishers of all things CMU and co-directors of all things UnLimited Media. I will also continue to have a daily involvement in CMU editorial as Business Editor, continuing to oversee all of our music and media business coverage, including this week’s launch of Sky Songs and the latest shenanigans in The Pirate Bay saga. I’ve also written today’s Courtney Love story, though this is a blatant step outside my new remit, and may as yet prove controversial. Caro, by the way, is not giving up her editorial ways; she will be editing a brand new UnLimited service of which we will talk more in a future Daily.

A lot has happened here at CMU in the last twelve months, and even more is going to be happening in the next year. Andy has played a key role in these developments, and we’re all excited about him expanding his editorial role as we head towards 2010. Andy shares mine and Caro’s passion for great new music, our fascination with the way the modern music business works, and our slightly irreverent outlook on the world. Basically, your daily dose of all things music is in safe hands.

Talking about more happenings in the next year, that brings us to development number two. We are in the process of ‘refreshing’ theCMUwebsite.com, and the refreshed site will slowly emerge this week before going properly live next Monday. Part of that refreshed website is the CMU NewsBlog, which will present all the stories that appear in the CMU Daily in an easy-to-navigate fashion for those who prefer their music news on a website rather than in a daily e-bulletin. The NewsBlog will also make it easier to link directly to CMU stories, and means that for the first time you can subscribe to CMU, or sections of CMU, via RSS. Check the blog at newsblog.theCMUwebsite.com. And watch the new site materialise at www.theCMUwebsite.com.

And here ends the big developments. For now. Expect more soon. Meanwhile, let’s get on with the CMU Daily. Right now.

Chris Cooke
Co-Publisher, CMU Daily

The very first Music Producers Guild Awards took place on 12 Feb at the Café de Paris in London. I know this because I was there. I was there because CMU sponsored the Best Remixer award. Here’s a picture of me, CMU’s Chris Cooke and the winner of the aforementioned award, Calvin Harris. That’s me on the right. I’m not as short as Calvin is making me look. Neither is Chris, although he is shorter than me.