Hello IASPM-CA crew.

Jeremy Morris here, hoping to keep the ball that Paul and Micheal so eloquently started rolling.

I’m a PhD candidate at the University of McGill in Communication Studies. If all goes well, I should be able to drop the candidate part of that title by the end of the summer. My research focuses on the changing form of the music commodity over the last two decades. Specifically, it traces the transition from music on compact discs to music as a digital file on computers/mobile devices and the economic, industrial, aesthetic and cultural consequences this shift has for how we produce, present, and consume music. I promise to try not to talk about it too much here.

Outside of school, I’m a blogger and podcaster at a hyperlocal website called Midnight Poutine. Other than a never ending quest to find the best fries, gravy and cheese curds in Montreal, the site is dedicated to tracing out the city’s many arts/film/music and food scenes.

I’m a relatively new member to IASPM-CA…I think my first conference was 3 years ago. I remember being worried that, as a Communications student with a presentation about the industrial and commodity aspects of music, I was going to get laughed out of the room by more serious and studied music scholars. Instead, I found an incredibly warm and welcoming group and I instantly felt connected to the organization.

I was excited when Jacqueline and Paul asked me to blog a bit during the Going Coastal conference last year, and I’m happy to try and help out around the IASPM.ca site on a more regular basis. I was going to write about developments in new media and music listening services (i.e. Cloud-based music), but with the copyright debate heating up again, maybe that deserves some attention for the next few posts. It’s not the snazziest topic, but an organization like IASPM-CA (full of academics and musicians) should definitely have a point of view on the proposed changes in the new copyright bill.

I’m with Michael that this site could be a great tool to extend the ways we’re already developing community at conferences and other meet ups, but that goal will only be achievable if we get regular feedback and comments from the folks who drop by the site from time to time.

So, bookmark the site or fire up your RSS reader and add this feed.

P.S. Sadly, I missed the conference this year in Regina. If you have to use this site to boast about how fun the conference was, I understand. But realize that I will be crying on the inside.