Been using Google Workspace for Nonprofits (free) for over three years, and I've never been upsold for additional services once. In the last 3 months I've been upsold a paid AI subscription at least 4 times, each time using language like this. Hate that many orgs will take this up. Exploitative.

Yo is all retail completely recessioncore this year? Dropped into Myer CBD and you'd barely know it was Xmas! Is this economic or social malaise? Zero festivity.

A long but hopefully interesting letter on how @sydneymusic.net is doing as we close out 2025 (Spoiler alert — we're funded until EOFY)

Wow it's almost like making a website designed to serve the needs and interests of your audience by being actually useful produces good outcomes!!

lol you know what doesn't have the juice? (Bluesky, it's Bluesky)

Boring old Web 1.0 websites have still got the juice!! @sydneymusic.net just keeps on growing

Just because you're doing the thing, doesn't mean the thing is being done

As with every week, I'll be on ABC Radio Sydney at 0935 AEDT to talk local gigs. It's a record breaking week for us in terms of show volume, so there's a lot to get through! Listen here: www.abc.net.au/listen/live/...

Not wanting to disappoint you so much that it lies is the last quality I want in a computer.

Sold out in 24 hours! Blown away by the response. Very excited.

RSVPs are 50% gone already

Record labels somewhat famously have never been in the morality business and somewhat more famously have always been in the “squeezing artists for profit until they burn out and die” business

SYDNEY. Very excited to announce our second discussion on the viability of grassroots music culture, hosted in collaboration with Offbeat Collective. No talks, no panels: just a full room discussion with whoever shows up. Spaces *very* limited. RSVP essential. events.humanitix.com/building-a-v...

Phenomenal piece

Speaking with Chris Taylor about QÄNTÄS DU SOL 😎 on ABC Sydney this morning

hey guys i made a seasonal meme

I swear to god, the amount of wasted productivity waiting for AI prompts to come back, there is absolutely no way this is helping us.

I've had a weird life. Over 30 years I've worked with, but never for, governments both in Australia and abroad, at both national and semi-sovereign levels of jurisdiction. The one thing I've learned from experience is that THE only good governments are ones that are willing to upset vested interests

As of 8:20am this morning, neither The Music or The Music Network had published anything about the ARIAs or the results, supposedly the biggest night in Australian music. Am I allowed to say we don't have a functioning music media yet or is it still too soon?

This is tomorrow!

Michael Burry, known for his $1B bets against Palantir & Nvidia, is reportedly closing his hedge fund. He claims market fundamentals are divorced from stock prices, blaming the AI bubble. I guess he's admitting the market can stay irrational longer than he can stay solvent.

Melbourne! I'm in your city next Tues to co-host a community discussion with local DIY producer and organiser Kuya Neil. We'll be exploring what makes a healthy grassroots music ecosystem, why things have gone a bit off the rails, and how to rebuild. Presented by @sydneymusic.net + Sound School

*blinking* ?????

Sydney's most comprehensive gig guide @sydneymusic.net needs your help to stay in the game! Our popular "Music In Every Corner" t-shirts and tote bags are getting another run and will be shipping soon. Pre-order yours today! store.sydneymusic.net

Here's the rate of increase for AI/LLM referrals to SydneyMusic.net this year. Shit's crazy. It's a real worry for website publishers. We estimate these figures reflect around 1-3% of queried on chatbots for (in our case) "what gigs are on in Sydney?"

The independent web needs and deserves your support. And sites like Stereogum inspire everyone.

🥴

US small caps are up 0.5% y/y, worse than cash and bonds and that includes dividends $IJR

dafuq is going on in here (been following for a while, pretty fun)

Live Nation's Q3 financials are out. Interesting that one of their key results is "record stadium show count, up 60% globally"

software is eating the world yo 🤙

It's so weird that we move on from debacles like Crowdstrike or us-east-1 as if they never happened. Surely these should prompt deeper reflection than we've seen.

More BTIG: “.. we saw a similar set-up into the ’99-‘00 peak. As $NDX saw its final high in March '00, 60% of the Consumer Staples sector was making a 52-wk low. Utilities and Healthcare were also extremely weak.” 👀

BTIG: “.. S&P 500 hit an all-time high on Wednesday, yet 33% of its components are down 20% or more from their 52-wk high, and 24% are within 10% of a 52-wk low .. “.. Divergences continue to mount .. last Thursday, 9% of the SPX hit a 52-wk low ..”

In the trenches of information delivery via traditional websites: some good news! 1. We finally grew past the huge traffic loss caused by AI/LLM chatbots to record our best month ever (UBs) 2. # of referrals from chatbots. read as: ppl asking ChatGPT "what gigs are on?" 3. It's all ChatGPT

New campaign spearheaded by Music Australia. I find the tone a bit weird. Did they actually test this with real Gen Zs? I can't see them going for the message. They want to be inspired, not scolded.

This piece doesn't do a lot to discredit Ed's general arguments, just his tone and approach (which I agree is massively offputting), alongside some of his philosophy and - yeah, his PR clients. I do wish we had better figureheads for the AI naysayer role - the guy really gets on my nerves.

Grog's rule of privatisation: "The day you decide to allow the private sector deliver a public service is also the day you should set the future date for the Royal Commission into abuses in the system."

It was not always so

The thing I think I'm really wrestling with is how can a "content" company be so shit at making content about themselves

Tim Burrowes explores what's going on with Vinyl Group (owners of The Brag, The Music Network, Tone Deaf, and AU/NZ licensees of the RollingStone and Variety names) They've just announced their new "AutomAIt" program for generating "10x the amount of content" Inspiring stuff.

OpenAI just sent me their first-ever email comms trying to re-engage users with ChatGPT. I feel like that's an interesting development — but could be any number of reasons.

phenomenal take. read this.

Did not know how much I needed new Gary Larson cartoons. A small good thing, just for the joy of the craft.

I've finally hit the dreaded midway inflection point of SXSW where the free drinks are no longer currency of value

"early figures supplied by SXSW Sydney show 11 per cent of this year’s ticket holders are from overseas, and 21 per cent of domestic ticket holders are from outside of NSW" good investment of $12m of taxpayer dollars from Destination NSW!

If Garbage can't really afford to tour any more, and are warning that smaller bands REALLY can't... Where is the music industry gonna go?

remember when X was going to be where all job marketplace activity took place?

Christ these two

A tragedy: under plutocratic ownership media bias shifts from economic to political and traditional objectives fade. But, yes.