Created in Birmingham

A couple of weeks back I put up a survey because I was interested in seeing which websites or online services people use to find out what’s going on around Birmingham.

We’ve had 100 submissions, which seems like a good place to draw things to a close and have a look at the results:

Listings/what’s on

70 – Venues’ own websites
49 – CiBmail
30 – Birmingham City Council – What’s On
29 – Live Brum
18 – What’s on in Brum
17 – Ticketmaster
14 – Visit Birmingham
10 – Scene Central
6 – Birmingham Alive
4 – Birmingham Gig Guide
4 – What’s On Midlands (online)

Suggestions left in the ‘other’ box included The Ticketsellers, Last.fm, Songkick, Ents24, Brum Notes, finditinbirmingham.com, More Canals Than Venice, The Wire and Upcoming.

Arts/culture news

80 – Created in Birmingham
76 – Blogs/social network updates from individual artists/organisations
34 – Digbeth is Good
32 – BiNS
32 – More Canals Than Venice
24 – Birmingham Post/Mail (online)
20 – Arts Council England Arts News
15 – Audiences Central

Others included Ryan’s Gig Guide, An Craic, We Are Eastside and Area Magazine.

Who filled out the survey?

We had a roughly 50:50 male/female split, a wide spread of ages (with a slight skew to 18-25 and 26-35) and pretty much everyone has a B postcode, with a smattering of WV and DY’s too.

Any conclusions?

Nothing really concrete, but it was interesting. I’ve got an idea of the level of web traffic of some of the sites listed, so I know that the results certainly doesn’t indicate which are the most popular websites around the city. However, you could say that this shows which other websites overlap with CiB’s readership.

If anything, I was expecting the Post & Mail to come up a bit higher. Nice to see Live Brum up there.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out and/or forward on the survey.

• Tate team up for Ikon – Audiences Central
  “Ikon Gallery are one of the partners of the new Plus Tate initiative which aims to support the development of the visual arts across the UK, and to foster a climate where exchange and partnership can flourish”
• Women admitted as Birmingham’s Saint Paul’s Club modernises the rule book – Birmingham Post
  “Falling membership and a desire to modernise are why women are allowed, said Bart Dalton, membership committee chairman”
• Twitter / Simon Lawson: The most recent Ace Bushy …
  “The most recent Ace Bushy Striptease album has sold out now so we’re giving it away for free download”
• Shetland ponies escorted by Police, Created in Birmingham, and new exhibition – a day in the life of Hippodrome staff!
  Next post in a nice series showing the people behind the scenes
• Royal Television Society Midlands 2010 Nominations
  And the nominees are…
• Area Culture Guide – November 2010
  The new one’s out
• Paper on Advantage West Midlands’ Digital Media Cluster | daveharte.com
  “It’s had a wide distribution via email to the various business/public sector bods who were doing the LEP lobbying but I suspect it’ll never get formally published anywhere so I thought I’d dump it on here”
• New apprenticeships launched in creative sector – Birmingham Post
  “Noel Dunne, director of Creative Alliance, an organisation which aims to support and develop creative talent, said: “The new creative and digital media apprenticeship will help employers attract talented young people to their organisation”
• Jobs in the Meeja | Mind over Matter
  Ian gives a few of his top tips for getting a job in the media (although most of it applies to pretty much any sector). Worth a read

The next ARC at The Vaults is to be hosted by Companis on 29 September.

Bawdyville promises to be an evening of fun, frolics and titillation(!?) With absurdly arresting gestures, one-on-one performances and installation laced with a healthy dose of humor and frivolity.

If this all sounds rather intriguing, maybe this post on Area will give you an idea of the kind of people Companis are.

Drop by from 6 – 8pm, when there’ll also be free cocktails – if you can catch one!

• A Conversation with Government – Help!
  On Weds, Clare Edwards is off to “a 90 minute session to tell Government how they can better help creative entrepreneurs and where things are working and where are they failing”. Suggestions welcomed
• Introducing-DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing-Live | Hare and Hounds
  “Full 10 piece live band perform DJ Shadows classic album – “Endtroducing””. Looks interesting
• Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: March 2010 « Oh. (Russ L wishes you way more than luck)
  “The theme of the month definitely seems to be “motion pictures””. Russ cherrypicks the pick of the cherries
• Postcard from South Africa – Reloaded |
  The film of the seminar. I turned up late to this and completely missed it. People were saying good things though
• Area Culture Guide 06 « Area Culture Guide
  “The latest edition of the Area Culture Guide is out now for March 2010″
• We Are Eastside | Birmingham
  Ooh, tasty. “Welcome to We Are Eastside; your guide to the organisations that host and produce bold new work across film, digital media, crafts, music, visual arts, literature and photography all based in Eastside, Birmingham, UK”

• New Art Gallery Walsall is 10 « area magazine
  “To mark New Art Gallery Walsall’s double figure milestone they will be celebrating with Party! an exhibition designed both to celebrate their 10 years of achievements and the range and diversity of visual arts”
• Library of Birmingham to partner with British Film Institute
  The Library of Birmingham (or LoB, meaning the people working there will be LoBsters) “will become the home of a BFI Mediatheque”. No doubt croissants will be served with a gallic shrug
• Art Events for Feb-April « area magazine
  A round-up of visitable stuff. I would urge you to go to at least one of these things
• a photog blog & more…
  It’s a photoblog (spotted by @getgood), presumably by someone living in Birmingham town (I have deduced this based on the photos that are blogged)
• GET A GRIP – Handpulled Waterbased Screenprinting in Brimingham, UK
  Sam and Kay are based in the Custard Factory. They “Started from a combination of DIY ethics, ecological thinking and a mutual love of Punk Rock”

It’s actually a little tricky to find out about local music around the city, I find. This is the stuff I know about, feel free to add other stuff in the comments.

News

Brum Notes is the website for the free, monthly music and lifestyle magazine (Nov issue out now, Oct one online here).

The Birmingham Post have news and reviews here and the Birmingham Mail do rock/pop news.

Fused Magazine‘s site does the odd bit of music news, as does the website for sister magazine Area.

Surge Music takes a wider, Midlands-wide view of things, with articles and lists of gigs, bands and venues.

Cul-de-Sac turned out to be a false dawn for this sort of thing, but may come back one day.

@birminghamlive and @brumpunks are good sources for concert info too.

Reviews

Birmingham Live is the obvious choice here – someone from their ranks of volunteer reviewers and photographers will be at a gig in Birmingham pretty much every evening. Steve Gerrard organises this one (Lee Allen and I have also chipped in occasionally).

The Hearing Aid is a blog by someone called The Baron who goes to an impressive number of local gigs.

The Birmingham Mail do gig reviews too.

Get-togethers

The Birmingham Music Network meets monthly at the Department of Technology, Engineering and the Environment (T.E.E.) at Millennium Point. Their website has a good range of resources too.

Audio

I’m on shakier ground here – which radio shows promote local talent There’s Brumcast on Rhubarb Radio and Introducing on BBC WM. I don’t know enough about the shows on New Style Radio, Aston FM or any others.

Are there any Birmingham-based mp3 blogs worth talking about?

Anything else?

Let me know in the comments. Just to be clear, we’re not looking for bands/venues/promoters to plug themselves but if that’s you, where do you look to get featured?

Oh, and see also Birmingham listings.

(pic – The Editors by Steve Gerrard from the opening night of the new Academy)