Hi. I’m Andrew Dubber. That’s me there.
I’m an academic for a living: Reader in Music Industries Innovation at Birmingham City University.
I’m a researcher – a member of the Interactive Cultures Research Unit – a university lecturer, author, consultant, public speaker, and blogger.
I’m also a broadcaster, music producer, jazz fan – as well as a whisky writer and online tasting host.
I’m a director of an organisation called New Music Strategies, and I’m also a co-founder of Music Think Tank. I buy and collect vinyl. I throw CDs away.
I’ve invented a board game and I have a television series in development. I’m an ex-musician for a very good reason, but all the same – I have played on a gold record, so that’s something.
And that reminds me – sometimes I’m also a DJ. I usually play jazz (mostly down the funky end of the genre), but I’ve played disco sets at festivals, 80s indie nights in pubs, and I had a residency for about a year or so playing soul/funk tunes in a bar in Bearwood.
I’m on the advisory board of online music companies in France, America and Britain, and I’m currently working on online projects with UB40 and Nitin Sawhney.
I co-host a phone-in radio programme about technology for local BBC radio every now and then, and I tinker with micro-entrepreneurship – which is to say, I start a lot of things, and take a ‘fail early, fail often’ approach to them.
In my spare time, I like to play a game called Go – both the board game version, and on the iPhone.
I like food – I’m trying to learn how to be a better cook – and I enjoy a bit of photography. I’m currently photographing and blogging everything I eat and drink for a year as a bit of a project. You can see that here.
I travel a lot. I’ve been to 25 cities in the last 12 months, and I’m looking forward to going to some interesting new places very soon.
All this (and lots more besides) keeps me pretty busy, which is how I like it, but I’m also a huge fan of naps. Naps rock.
I’m one of those people that likes to have an empty inbox each day, and I’m also quite fussy about spelling, grammar and punctuation. I think typography’s important too. This website is in Helvetica Neue Light, which I’m particularly fond of.
I use a Macbook for pretty much everything – and an iPhone for pretty much everything else.
I’m originally from Auckland, New Zealand, and moved to the UK with my wife and our son five years ago. Jake has recently started at 6th form college.
My motto, to the extent that I could be said to have one, is: ‘Be helpful, be interesting’. It started as a bit of advice I came up with about blogging – but it pretty much applies to everything. So that’s what I’m trying to do.
Want to get in touch? Here’s my card.
