As you probably know, one of my hats is as an advisor to the Council Of Music Makers - later this month we are running a webinar updating music-makers and their managers on all the work around the economics of streaming. Info here: https://t.co/rEtjP6t61W

Look at Facebook reminding me about this adventure in Oslo back in 2018 courtesy of Scandic Hotels. I successfully boycotted Scandic for seven years after this, though I did stay in their Aarhus hotel last year and it was all fine. My boycott of Luxair is still in force though.

Great couple of days at the Leicester Music Conference. I lost a hat, but gained lots of great insights from the experts on our Pathways Into The Music Industry panel. And also got this rather nifty PPL/PRS notebook. So, definitely a net gain! Thanks to LMC for inviting me.

Another dramatic episode in the big ongoing corporate K-pop soap opera. Someone should really turn this into an actual soap opera. Or maybe an opera. I’ll write the libretto if anyone is up for doing the music. Here is my CMU report: https://t.co/CtJKRVVRJH

Dinner in Parliament on Monday evening, with the Council Of Music Makers hosting a gathering for MPs and Lords to discuss various issues music-makers are facing in 2026. It was a very productive discussion + with a Chris-friendly menu! (+ only partly because I picked the menu).

I'm heading to the Leicester Music Conference for the first time this week, which is exciting. Pathways sessions on Thursday and this panel on Friday. There's another Chris Cook speaking (but without the 'e') - I wonder if anyone would notice if we swapped panels?

I have a new copyright obsession - rights management in connection to reaction videos on YouTube - how it works (or doesn't). If any of you work for music companies that have policies regarding whitelisting, blocking or monetising reaction videos, I would be interested to know!

Double lecture day today, talking about music revenues and music-maker businesses at Loughborough University and Nottingham Trent University respectively. All without leaving London! It's very nice of these universities to build campuses that are 20 minutes from my house.

Whenever you release music, always remember: if you mess up the metadata, you will lose money. Next month I'll be explaining how artists + songwriters can make sure they don't mess up their data, as part of the Help Musicians Business Skills programme: https://t.co/yBGkodjL6E

Arrived at Blackfriars Station ridiculously early, so had time to add to my collection of random sunny Thames photos. Heading to Brighton for more Pathways planning - we have FOUR editions of our Educator Pathway Weekends coming up! Info here: https://t.co/VWTZFwkGYR

It's time for another FAC Artist Day! Back to Manchester to once again team up with Sound Roots and present an edition of the Artist Day alongside English Folk Expo. Please do spread the word: https://t.co/SrSk6SR30T

Given how many artist boycotts I've reported in recent years, I thought Alexis Krauss's post this week explaining why it can be so hard for many artists to cut ties with businesses whose practices they find concerning was both interesting and important: https://t.co/W7UTGuwgMn

On the rare occasions that I get bored of music industry stats, there's now an annual helping of comedy industry stats for me to enjoy. The results of the latest UK Live Comedy Sector Survey were published last week and here is my TW News Briefing on them: https://t.co/Wk1gPVLoa2

Fun day in rainy Leeds with the brilliant participants on Launchpad's Future Leaders programme discussing the ins and outs of running music-maker businesses - complete with a few (almost) brand new slides (OK second outing). Now back to (also rainy?) London...

Heading to Leeds in LNER seat D27, which is no Avanti seat H02, but then nothing is, because, as everyone knows, that's the best train seat there is. But it's pretty good + I am in first class at lunchtime which means they're going to serve me a lunch I won't eat, so that's nice.

Spent a few hours today at Chichester Creative Industry Careers Day, delivering a speedy Pathways Into Music workshop, and also answering all and any questions students had about music careers. Well, Phil and Matt did a bit more of that than me. Lots of great questions asked.

Back to Leeds next week to deliver a masterclass as part of the Launchpad Future Leaders programme, which is exciting. It also means I'll be around for this Music Industry Mixer that Launchpad and Music Local are presenting on the same day. Maybe see some of you there.

As all these AI copyright cases continue to go through the motions, you start seeing lawsuits like this one, seeking three billion dollars in damages, and can't help thinking: "what, only three billion, surely you can do better than that?" - read more: https://t.co/lkCEBtDsJV

From this week's TW:Backstage updates: an interesting new report that puts the spotlight on barriers in the UK creative industries that mean working class creatives are struggling to break through. Here's my speedy report on it: https://t.co/6CDYterqrW

Interesting lawsuit. Wixen claims that, during tricky licensing renegotiations, Meta removed its songs from the Reels library + then told affected artists that Wixen had had them removed, all to put pressure on the publisher to accept lower royalty rates: https://t.co/tCbjAFkrPx