Tamara Littleton

This year, we welcomed over 110 Members into the community and our association took many of its first steps from vision to reality. In our final blog of the 2024, our Chief Executive Matt Cartmell writes how we started the process of forming a thriving UK music tech ecosystem recognised globally for innovation, collaboration, and growth. This includes: 🚀 Positioning the UK music tech sector as a global leader in innovation through thought leadership on the MTUK Blog. 🚀 Partnering with Digital Catapult on their High Growth AI Accelerator and supporting winners Halo and Echo Ltd, Feedback, and Flossy AI Ltd. 🚀 Creating connections between MTUK and the wider music business, including hosting a partner event with the MMF (Music Managers Forum). 🚀 Nurturing talent through regular educational opportunities, including a three-part workshop series of music tech legal insights from Russells Solicitors. 🚀 Uniting with other leading national music technology associations and music industry bodies to form Music Tech Europe. 🚀 Fostering interdisciplinary innovation, hosting our FuturePlay event on music, tech, and entertainment in association with Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates Createch and House of Music & Entertainment (H.O.M.E) during London Tech Week. 🚀 Built a robust music tech network, hosting regular roundtables and an Innovators Huddle at The Halley focusing on fan engagement. 🚀 Partnering with H.O.M.E on a co-working initiative to create collaborative opportunities for our members. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dRv4ZP73 This incredible first full year is just the tip of the iceberg, and we’re ambitious about continuing to drive recognition of the UK as a global leader in music tech innovation in 2025. Thanks for being a part of our journey. #MusicTech #MusicBusiness #MusicIndustry #Innovation #Startup #Founder #Entrepreneur #Investment #Technology

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Last week Laura Harper was invited to chair the 'Media Renaissance: Emerging Technologies and Content Creation' panel at Manchester Digital's Emerging Tech Conference. Laura was joined by industry experts Criss Richards and Paul Caporn, Creative Technologist at McCann Manchester and Paul Caporn, Head of Architecture, iPlayer and Sounds at BBC. Together, they discussed the capabilities of AI tools in creating incredible advertising content to help solve client challenges nationally and internationally, as well exploring some of the ways in which the BBC is trialling emerging tech with the aim of creating operational efficiencies; improving accessibility and expediting the publishing and republishing of editorial content; all in the context of a dynamic legal and regulatory framework. Read a summary of the event here: https://okt.to/pZvx3K

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📰 The Future of News: A Two-Tier Media Landscape? A stark warning from parliament.uk: without action, we risk a fractured news ecosystem, with informed citizens on one side and disengaged communities on the other. 💡 “Having informed citizens with a shared understanding of facts isn’t guaranteed—and may not endure.” The UK’s media has defied the odds these past 15 years, with exciting new formats and diverse perspectives. But it’s not all good news… 📉💔 🔎 Trust in journalism is falling 🙈 News avoidance is rising 💸 Revenue streams are drying up 🤖 And AI? It’s shaking up EVERYTHING The risk? A “two-tier” system where some stay informed while others fall into news deserts or questionable online sources. So, what’s next? Tax breaks for local news 🏡, smarter AI policies 🤝, and more innovation💡 could help us steer away from the cliff edge. We are doing our bit at Contribly by trying to innovate the audience engagement side of the news, by getting real people’s voices included and heard in a safe way that social media doesn’t provide. The aim is to build trust and relevance! Let’s keep the news serving everyone, not just the privileged few. 🌍💪 What’s your take on this? Let’s chat! 👇🗣️ https://lnkd.in/enjesFrY

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Abi Watson covering the consumer book market in the context of media, ents and tech at #FutureBook, The Bookseller conference dedicated to the future of the industry. Abi asks: what makes books distinctive, and what challenges lie ahead? Abi and Joseph Teasdale's Enders Analysis subscriber report follows. Philip Jones

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Brilliant piece from Nicola Kemp - thank you Collette Philip for your wise words - "What cannot be named cannot be changed" Please READ!!! Don't DEFUND, #DEFENDDEI #Languagematters "Our collective silence has contributed to a media ecosystem that has fuelled both misinformation and outright racism. The way we use words has power. In choosing to stay silent, we are complicit. The uncomfortable truth is that, in this industry, many of us have placed our careers ahead of our compassion. The “silent majority” cannot continue to say nothing in the face of media narratives causing real-world harm." Media For All [MEFA] explained: “Now, more than ever, it is crucial for organisations to maintain and strengthen their diversity and inclusion programmes. Cutting back on these initiatives or down-tooling is simply not an option. If anyone thinks that DEI is not required, think again. These riots underscore the urgent need for continued commitment to inclusive practices.” Fund DEI. Commit LONG TERM to inclusive practices. #Changemakers #Inclusion #Equity

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What can you do to usher in a golden age of effectiveness for your brand or agency? This LBBonline - Little Black Book interview with Andy Nairn explains how they've embedded effectiveness into their operations. So have a read, and make sure you join us at October's IPA #EffectivenessConference.

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🎬 Yorkshire’s Screen Success: Investment Yields Over £234M in Film and TV Production.  In the past ten years, Screen Yorkshire has invested nearly £23m into local production, leading to over £234m in production spend, more than ten times the return on investment. This funding has driven high levels of film and TV activity in Yorkshire, showing that strategic investment in the screen industries can deliver huge economic benefits regionally.  Read more about our work here: https://shorturl.at/DXeu6 or in our bio link. *Feature Image: Enola-Holmes. Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes. Image: Credit.Alex-Bailey. Netflix-©-2022 #FilmIndustry #Filmmaking #TVProduction #FilmProduction #Cinema #MovieMaking #Television #BehindTheScenes #EconomicGrowth #LocalEconomy #EconomicImpact #BusinessGrowth #Investment #SupportLocal #JobCreation #SmallBusiness #FilmTourism #Tourism #Travel #Yorkshire

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A sensitive report leaked to the Cable reveals ‘super users’ of stop-and-search powers and the police who prolifically and disproportionately target Black people in Bristol, providing an in-depth insight into the prevalence of racist policing in the city over the past seven years. The Cable can exclusively reveal a report which shows that, over a one year period, 60 individual officers accounted for half of all 375 stop-searches on Black people. It singles out two teams of officers who have been stopping significantly more Black people than others. Between 2022 and 2023, 12% of all stops on Black people were carried out by one team. https://lnkd.in/e6hmkjHf

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What better way to recognize Global Acxessibility Awareness Day than to chat with the co-founder, Joe Devon - here his chat with Steven Scott on todays Access Tech Live https://lnkd.in/eBYPjX5Z #gaad #accessibility

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The importance of accurately reflecting the prevalence, diversity, and intersectionality of disabilities in society… -The Valuable 500 #Disability #DisabilityInclusion #Advocacy #Inclusive #Accessibility #AuthenticRepresentation #Marketing #Advertising #Inclusion #Diversity #Intersectionality #InclusiveImpactBranding #TheResourceKey #Community

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Lets QUALIFY quality media! This is def worth a read. An excellent and timely piece by Omar Oakes Editor in Chief of The Media Leader UK. Omar references Cal Newport's ‘quality pyramid’ in which minimally processed media — which he terms as “linguistic media” (books) — as placed at the bottom, TV and other mass/broadcast media are in the middle, and social media (the most ‘processed’ of all media types) is at the top to signify lowest quality. He uses two main criteria for what is ‘high quality’ versus ‘low quality’: >> The curation of media: How much skill and craft has been deployed to create content? >> The delivery of media: How much work a human has to do to consume media versus how much work is done for them by a machine to serve it to them? #BrandsDeserveBetterMedia #MediaForGrowth https://lnkd.in/g6WMYufW

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"With less than two weeks to Christmas, we’re not slowing down! Today will be another action-packed day: starting with the Safer Business Network to discuss how we can collaborate and make a safer environment for all. Then, we’ll be live on BBC Radio Scotland and later on China’s Global TV Network. The afternoon will be filled with exciting meetings with Jump Global, Asobares Colombia, the International Nightlife Association, and Ogilvy. We’ll finish the day with Kit and Michael from GigPig, making sure we close the year strong! The countdown to Christmas is on, and we’ll keep pushing forward! #NightTimeIndustries #Collaboration #GlobalConnections"

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Purpose resonates deeply with every initiative we undertake. In a recent episode on the Impact Boom podcast hosted by Tom Allen, our MD Darren Taylor shared some insights into the strategic significance of impact branding. As he so aptly put, "Our purpose is to harness the passion and ingenuity of good people to ignite change for a fairer and better tomorrow. Our vision is that all Australian businesses and organisations, regardless of their size, stage, structure, and sector, can ignite the change that's needed in the world by leveraging their brand to amplify their impact." Tune in here to explore how strategy and purpose intersect in driving impactful branding 🎤⚡ https://lnkd.in/g6s3tmFy #ImpactBranding #SocialEnterprise #Strategy #PurposeDriven #ThoughtLeadership #SocialChange #Changemakers

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This BBC/Ipsos report on what audiences think of generative AI is valuable for corporate publishers. https://lnkd.in/e9AExapw Public service media organisations like the BBC are a good benchmark for people who produce commercial editorial because the brand trust requirements are similar. The report lays out in detail what formats and use cases the public will and won't accept. And the "semiotic analysis" that rounds up every AI depiction in film and TV for the last 75 years is an unexpected bonus for sci-fi fans. I realised very quickly that some of my favourite characters are AIs - Hal in 2001, Bishop in Aliens and Ava in Ex Machina. But I digress... Thanks to the Benedict Evans newsletter, where I first saw a link to the report. What will the public accept and what are they sceptical about when it comes to editorial? Acceptable uses: AI in audio production, personalisation (recommendations), editing, reformatting content (from text to audio, for example); reporting on hard facts - weather, markets, sports scores. Acceptable with human oversight: translation, boilerplate content, headline generation, image generation for "filler" imagery (never used to depict real events). Sceptical list: AI in video; AI replacing humans for advice or decisions; personalising social media content; AI newsreaders; AI writing opinion-based articles; researching and drafting reports without human checking; modifying images that are part of news reports about real events. What comes across too are the values that underpin beliefs about generative AI - fairness, transparency and consent. And just how sceptical people are that these values are being applied by tech companies. This is an open goal for organisations to use AI in a way that promotes trust rather than undermining it.

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Misinformation in an #election period comes with a heightened source of caution. With the added influx of #GenAI technology, the ability to disrupt the information ecosystem is inevitable. Really pleased to contribute to Press Gazette on my experience in how to spot #misinformation from #disinformation and #malinformation and how it commonly presents https://lnkd.in/egKkbGQt

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A useful course for prepping your Head and other media spokespersons.

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Our latest case study shows how NewComma assisted the Let Black Girls Be Girls with sourcing talent for their Black Girls in Britain programme, in partnership with Getty Images & the BBC. By leveraging NewComma's Opportunities Board and Applicant Tracking System, they connected with talented Black British female photographers for a collection that captures the beauty and complexity of Black British girlhood while addressing the effects of adultification bias. Highlights - 30,000+ impressions on the open call for Black Female Photographers in the UK listed on NewComma - 29 photographers were shortlisted from a final cohort of 41 women using the Applicant Tracking System - A stunning collection for the updated BBC Kids Collection, redefining representation on Getty Images & iStock. By searching hashtag #BlackGirls on gettyimages.com and istock.com, the updated BBC Kids Collection will offer advertising agencies, creatives and media outlets a broader selection of imagery of Black girls, enabling the development of a positive visual narrative. Thank you to Martha Omasoro + Eboni Lamine for choosing NewComma as their talent recruitment partner. We’re proud to be the go-to platform for sourcing Black creative talent and amplifying voices that have been underrepresented for too long. For more information on how to use NewComma for your talent sourcing needs you can visit our site www.newcomma.com or pop me a message on LinkedIn to get started!

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