Agentry

22/04/2025

Elliott Bledsoe's weekly reading round-up:
Because of the break I am putting out my round-up today. Here's WTF happened last week:

1️⃣ Staff and more sector players express concern at Creative Australia’s ongoing handling of the decision to drop Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino as the artistic team for Australia’s Venice Biennale exhibition next year.


2️⃣ Arts and Disability Network Australia is a new consortium of the disability arts state peak bodies recently funded as a Creative Australia delivery partner and the Office for the Arts is calling for Advisory Group members for the Equity: the Arts and Disability Associated Plan.
Accessible Arts DADAA Incite Arts Access Arts Arts Access Victoria

3️⃣ The National Advocates for Arts Education is using the election to draw attention to a crisis in arts education amidst the decline in arts subjects in schools and universities.
National Advocates for Arts Education - NAAE Art Education Australia Ausdance National Australian Society for Music Education (ASME) Drama Australia National Association for the Visual Arts

4️⃣ Lady Gaga’s Australia tour has been accused of dyamic pricing hikes, prompting Labor to renew their promise to crackdown on predatory pricing.
Ticketmaster Australia Ticketek Australia Live Nation Australia

5️⃣ 6️⃣ 7️⃣ & 8️⃣ Multiple antitrust cases in search, ad tech, cloud services and more could reshape Big Tech significantly.
Google Meta Facebook Instagram WhatsApp TikTok Microsoft Amazon.com.au Amazon Web Services Apple Federal Trade Commission The United States Department of Justice Competition and Markets Authority

Also the National Folk Festival wraps up a good year, more universities have announced job cuts and Apple has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent in the past decade.
Western Sydney University UTS: University of Technology Sydney

Big Tech faces multiple antitrust cases, arts and disability leadership, arts education in crisis and Lady Gaga reignites predatory ticketing concerns.

03/02/2025

Here's WTF happened last week:

1️⃣ Chinese AI DeepSeek’s low-cost and efficient AI model R1 caused an existential and financial crisis for American AI companies. US government agencies are banning it and its potential national security implications are being investigated. OpenAI also claims DeepSeek stole its data (the same data OpenAI acquired in an ethically dubious way).

2️⃣ The US Copyright Office says AI-generated work is only protected under copyright if it includes sufficient human creative input. No surprises there.

3️⃣ US Congresswoman Representative Zoe Lofgren has proposed a copyright website-blocking law similar to SOPA/PIPA. Public interest protections are a welcome addition. We will wait to see if the bill gets up. I would love to see the consideration of the public interest added to the Australian scheme.

4️⃣ Spotify thinks it is the saviour of music. Benjamin Eltham disagrees.

5️⃣ Following executive orders from Trump Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Denali back to Mount McKinley; a reminder that maps are inherently political.

Also the Louvre (Musée du Louvre) is moving the Mona Lisa, Google released Pebble’s OS as open source, trade marks claims over AI names are popping up, Logitech corporate surveillance, changes in theatre leadership and more.

DeepSeek has Silicon Valley spooked, there is a renewed push for piracy internet filtering in the US and Spotify talks up streaming.

27/01/2025

Here's WTF happened last week:

1/ Meta is adding ad options to Threads, possibly to woo advertisers. We are yet to see if ad spend on the Meta platforms will dip since it announced it was dropping fact-checking. They have been on the offensive trying to reassure advertisers though, so they must think there is some risk.

2/ Penguin Random House has acquired Text Publishing. The Aussie indie publisher will reportedly maintain creative control but commentators are concerned what it means for Australian literature in the long-term.

3/ Spotify’s mechanical rights royalties have decreased dramatically and it is not clear why. Seems that’s another reasoning for Björk to hate on the music streaming platform.

4/ Commons has introduced a new strategy for troubled times. It is bold and ambitious and optimistic – which I am here for!

5/ Also: more on the TikTok ban in the US, new features on Threads, the British Museum hit by a cybersecurity attack and more.

Meta is trying to retain advertisers, Text has been acquired and Spotify's music royalties have decreased for unknown reasons.

12/09/2024

On Monday ArtsHub published an article by Elliott Bledsoe looking at the state of arts marketing. (And how to improve it!)

Arts marketers are facing an uphill battle with dwindling resources and support, but here are some tips that will make a difference.

18/06/2024

Elliott Bledsoe was recognised by the Australian Marketing Institute as a Certified Practising Marketer.
https://bit.ly/45sgozK

06/04/2024

In terms of socials Twitter is tanking and the fediverse is finding its feet yet Meta platforms remain dominant. Is LinkedIn the promised land? Elliott Bledsoe put down some thoughts about what artists and arts brands should thinking about before signing up.

Artists and arts organisations can enhance their professional presence by leveraging LinkedIn’s professional focus.

19/02/2024

Last week Elliott Bledsoe attended the Future of Arts, Culture and Technology Symposium. He has shared some reflections on the event on Medium.
ACMI

Reflections on the Future of Arts, Culture and Technology Symposium

20/09/2023

Yesterday Creative Australia released the results from the fifth National Arts Participation Survey. Dig into the data to see what the arts looks like since the last survey in 2019.

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18/09/2023

City of Sydney says housing affordability is why there has been an exodus of artists and creatives from the city over the last decade.

The high cost of housing has caused artists, musicians, writers and performers to flee Sydney, a phenomenon the government has been challenged to address in its new arts and culture policy.

01/06/2023

This morning Ed Husic MP released a discussion paper on Safe and Responsible AI in Australia. Submissions are open until Wednesday 26 July 2023.

Have your say and share feedback as we plan, develop and consult on our department’s policies and projects.

28/01/2023

Making it easy for a user to update their email address on your mailing list may be the difference between keeping them as an active subscriber and adding another email to your bounce list.

Why arts organisations should include ‘Update preferences’ links in their mass email footers