Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

Huawei to Hell

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Huawei to Hell

Today, Jeeni returns to Crowdcube to raise more funds for helping new talent. Jeeni founding director Mel Croucher says, “We’re ahead of our original schedule, but there’s still so much more to do. We need to scale our online platform globally now and build our mass artist showcases to hit all our targets, and give our new artists the recognition they deserve.” If you want to see our pitch click HERE.

Mel has been writing the best-loved column in top-selling tech magazines for over 30 years. Now he’s agreed to share his work with our members. He’s a video games pioneer and musician, and to to find out more about Mel check out his Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Croucher. Here’s Mel’s latest!

Trade wars are dangerous. When tariffs are imposed, and when sanctions get slapped on, and when one nation ceases to trade with another nation, then a trade war has a funny habit of turning into a real war. And here we all are, slap bang in the middle of a lulu of a trade war between the world’s two most powerful states. This is a trade war that’s not based on essentials like oil, or wheat, or toilet paper, but a trade war based on the pixies and fairy-dust of software algorithms. One day a peace treaty is waved, next day missiles are launched. Here is what happened in the future.

The proxy war between the Donald Trump and Boris Johnson axis against Xi Jinping didn’t affect me much, seeing as I had never owned a Huawei handset. I admit that I did find some comfort in the fact that cellphone zombies became totally bereft at the prospect of not being able to view TikTok on their little Chinese screens. All I could say to those morons was - suck it up guys, you had it coming!

In the first few hours of the Huawei denial of service attacks, the bewilderment and confusion of being unable to access social media apps soon turned to anger. This was triggered by the fact that the masses were unable to access social media apps to tell one another that they could not access social media apps. They soon realised they couldn’t remember any contact details of any of their virtual friends, or why they were virtual friends in the first place. Neither could they remember where they were, or where anything else was, or how to find their way around the real world at all. And without the Uber app they found themselves physically marooned within the perimeters of their ignorance. Deliveroo failed to respond the following day, so to avoid starvation, people who had a strong sense of smell managed to find their way to MacDonalds. But the computers were down and riots began when the Cola ran out, as slow-motion customers blamed Covid19 for the fact that China and the USA were having a software spat.

That night, the younger, more active elements of society went on the rampage and looted Tescos for pot noodles, which was a total waste of effort because the electric kettles no longer worked, thanks to smart-meter reliance on dodgy apps. Tuesday evening, after martial law and compulsory prayers, the county lines failed to supply recreational drugs to their app-driven client base, and hospitals were targeted to fill the gap in the market. Amusing video clips of the descent into chaos were not shared, not because of any sense of social responsibility but because Instagram was kaput. This added to the howling rage of the mob more than somewhat. Then, not long after the dogs began to disappear, the hunting of the weak began, and there was the smell of woodsmoke and bacon in the air. On a more positive note, a lot of overweight people slimmed down fast and learned new skills like shadow puppetry and crossbow production.

And so it was that all those predictions how civilisation would end as the result of electro-magnetic-pulse attacks turned out to be wrong. There was no need to launch missiles, zap communications or fry every electronic circuit in the land. All it took was an old man with an orange face to start a pissing contest. The irony that the old man’s preferred means of communication was Twitter is not lost on me, but then I don’t need Google Maps to tell me that we’re all up shit creek without a paddle.

And that, dear reader, is how come we all ended up on the Huawei to Hell.

04
Feb

Calling All Graduates Looking For Work, Jeeni Officially Partners With Gradfuel to Create 654 New Jobs!!

Kickstart is a governmental scheme, introduced by Rishi Sunak as a response to the pandemic and the difficulty it created in employment for young people. Since its introduction last September, the initiative has boosted the careers of over 100,000 young people in the UK. This scheme has provided hope for young people who are trying to find their passion, career and purpose at a time when they need it most.   Jeeni has been working with our specialist partners, Gradfuel who are consultants for the Department of Work and Pensions, which is where the Kickstart grant funding comes from. It’s a great opportunity for companies like Jeeni to bring keen young graduates on board for a minimum of six months, and scale up the business. Also, there’s no financial risk, with over £8,000 worth of grant money to support each young person taken on board. Gradfuel has worked with over 20,000 graduates and have been praised by companies such as ‘Fethr’ and ‘Thursday’.  Apply to Gradfuel here: https://careers.gradfuel.co/kickstart-application-j/    That's why Jeeni is so proud to be making good use of the Kickstart scheme with Gradfuel, to train, support and build the portfolios of people aged 16-24 and on universal credit.  The Kickstart scheme can be essential for both employers and employees, because young companies can build a workforce at no cost at all to them, and young people get paid positions in the industry of their passion. The Government provides the grants to cover 100% of wages and national insurance contributions for well-qualified, pre-screened young workers on universal credit. The positions span across 6 months for up to 25 hours work a week and you receive a £1,500 cash injection into your business for each new person you take on with Kickstart.  Although the governmental Kickstart scheme itself provides this crucial helping hand for companies and graduates, websites like Gradfuel are vital in guiding those graduates to the perfect Kickstart role for their careers.  Gradfuel is a mediator between the Kickstart scheme and those it was designed to help. They provide an interpersonal and proactive connection to young people looking for a career path and “matches you with the perfect graduate jobs”. As of right now, Gradfuel have carried out over 100,000 conversations with their clients about their future and career opportunities. The pool of possibilities after education can seem endless and overwhelming, so a company like Gradfuel that takes you by the hand and leads you to a company that needs you as much as you need them is an extraordinarily valuable service.   Our partners, Gradfuel are the experts in the market, and have raised £18.7m in Kickstart grant funding so far. Gradfuel have had a 99.5% success rate in their applications, against the market average of 22%, supporting over 1,400 companies to process their Kickstart applications.  Jeeni can personally attest to the effectiveness and value of using the Kickstart scheme through Gradfuel. Zak Ahmed, Jeeni’s HR specialist had this to say about the opportunity, “The Kickstart Scheme has helped me gain the vital experience I need as a recent Masters graduate. I’ve found a very meaningful role here at Jeeni, where I’m progressing quicker than I could’ve imagined!”  Zak Ahmed, HR Manager Ella Venvell used Gradfuel to find her Kickstart position as Jeeni’s Artist Liaison and Marketing Leader, “The kickstart scheme has given me an invaluable experience which has helped me learn about the professional world as well as given me the time to develop myself and my portfolio.” and with regards to Gradfuel, Ella said that it’s “helped me find a job doing what I love, and am hoping to do as my lifetime career.”  Ella Venvell, Marketing Leader Past Marketing Executives, Rebecca Allen and Kate Stewart mention how invaluable their kickstart positions at Jeeni have been for them in her Inside Story interviews. Kate said, “In terms of kickstarting my career, if you will, my time at Jeeni has been so helpful, I’ve been provided with lots of training opportunities and learned lots of transferrable skills”. Rebecca also reflected on the skills that she was able to hone from her kickstart role at Jeeni, “I definitely think I’ve developed a knowledge of social media. I was also able to complete a lot of training courses, I did one on SEO and Google analytics.” Available here: Rebecca Allen, Kate Stewart.  Among the 655 new roles available across England include; 116 sales positions, with a focus in London, Manchester and remote situations, 143 roles in Marketing, also for people based in London, Manchester or remote, 118 hospitality roles particularly in London and Birmingham, 121 admin positions focused on remote and London. There are also 31 roles for those specialised in graphic design such as Photoshop and Adobe for remote and London-based applicants. IT and data have 81 roles for London-based and remote situations and finally, there are 25 roles in finance, also for London and remotely working applicants.  Don’t miss out on these opportunities and visit here for more information. https://grants.gradfuel.co/kickstarter-landing-c/  Apply to Gradfuel here: https://careers.gradfuel.co/kickstart-application-j/  

06
Jul

Artist Focus: Eden James

    Devoted to bringing depth, grit and sophistication to his alt-rock sound, Eden’s success has been steadily building momentum since 2002.    Hailing from Australia and currently residing in New York, Eden has been grinding and innovating for years, always striving for greatness in his craft. Eden joined Jeeni after being initially impressed with the marketing team and the brand established which at the time was led by Ella Venvell, “The first thing I noticed and liked about Jeeni is the quality of the visual design of the whole Jeeni brand and how it brands each artist’s posts. It’s slick and contemporary which is absolutely necessary if your content is going to stand out.” Jeeni are honored to be uplifting and supporting an artist of Eden’s caliber and it seems as though both us at Jeeni and Eden himself are excited to see what we can do for each other next.   Eden's style is in a lot of ways a romantic call back to the most iconic days of rock music.Eden is directly inspired by acts such as Leonard Cohen, Iggy Pop, The Strokes and a good many others. With such a lineup of rock icons to look up to, it’s no surprise that Eden’s own work is so varied, layered and mould-breaking. His voice is certainly reminiscent of the great Nobel Literature winning Bob Dylan, another one of his legendary influences. Full of character and swagger, Eden’s voice is no mere copy of Dylan’s however; Eden brings an unplaceable uniqueness and charismatic tone that is entirely his own. It's strangely refreshing to hear someone single-handedly bring back the golden years of rock with such fresh and exciting projects and performances.   If rockstars bothered carrying around resumés, Eden James’ CV would make for quite the read. Having a career lasting over two decades and contributing with the bands of Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie, Eden has made a giant splash in the world of indie rock, “The last 6 months have been a huge success for me, winning 35 music and video awards from ceremonies around the globe, gaining chart entries on itunes and Amazon Music, and receiving a slew of reviews and interviews from some of the biggest music magazines out there, including Classic Rock magazine and American Songwriter magazine.”    Driven purely by a passion for music, Eden began his career as a musician in the early 2000s. Music has been Eden's ultimate goal since he was a young boy, “I have always been spellbound by music. I started playing the drums when I was 8 years old and around that time began listening closely to songs and how they were put together. I started writing songs in my teens so I’ve been making music a long time. I was, (and still am) very independent so I taught myself a few other instruments and began recording the songs I was writing. I released something very early on as an electronic artist, then realized my true passion was in the rock genre so began to focus on writing in that genre. I scraped together funds for the recording of my debut album and went ahead and recorded it and co-produced it in Brisbane Australia. The album was picked up by a large indie label called Collision Records Australia and the first singles were released in 2002 with the debut album to follow in 2003. Since then, I’ve never stopped releasing and producing albums.” Eden’s dedication to the rock genre and the industry as a whole is nothing short of astonishing and it's that kind of dedication that is essentially what keeps music alive and well.    If Eden wasn’t already a giant asset to Jeeni and its mission, He’s provided an exciting and busy list of Eden James projects that fans can look forward to this year:   1. Album release of "All the Good Blank Are Taken" Alternative Mix 2022 (with new artwork) OUT NOW!   2. Video Album Release of a concert: Eden James Live at Baby's All Right, NYC. Alongside album release on streaming platforms, too. (Potential Jeeni Exclusive, later this year!)   3. A limited edition vinyl record release of the 2021 album "All the Good Blank Are Taken" - August/September 2022.   4. Live shows in the summer with my New York-based band. Eden also hopes to tour all around Europe in addition to US shows.   5. Studio album number five (As yet untitled) - July to December 2022       Jeeni are honored to be uplifting and supporting an artist of Eden’s caliber and it seems as though both us at Jeeni and Eden himself are excited to see what we can do for each other next.    How can Jeeni support artists like Eden James?     JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience.    • We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make.  • We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.  • We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.  • Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team.   

06
Jun

Never too late for Jeeni!

by Mel Croucher I was a young man living in Stockholm. It was the summer of 1969 and I was flat broke. I had the clothes I stood up in, a diploma in architecture and a kazoo. I was too shy to be a busker, so I invented pay-on-demand live-streamed entertainment. I became a human jukebox. I got me an abandoned cardboard box just about big enough to hide inside, and I cut a horizontal slot near the top for my media input/output. Below the slot I punched eight holes to act as the graphic user interface. The reason there were eight holes was because I only knew eight songs, and I scrawled the song title alongside each hole. The idea was for passers-by to provide me with digital input commands by sticking their finger through the hole of their choice, and I would give them a short rendition of the selected song on my kazoo. As a token of their appreciation they would reward me with loose change dropped through a small vertical slot labelled Thank You in English and Swedish. It was very hot squatting inside that box. So here we are, more than half a century later, and the music industry should be in crisis. As a result of the pandemic, artists and musicians have seen their venues close down, festivals cancelled, tours abandoned, and wary audiences slink off to go online. The new normal for live performers should be that they are well and truly buggered. But I am delighted to say the very opposite is true. The new normal has revealed that the traditional models for the entertainment industry were a hoax. All those record labels, agents, managers, ticketers and merchandisers were a bunch of parasites. Half a century later, the new generation doesn't even need a kazoo and cardboard box to squat in for a live performance. They've got smartphones. And they don't need to rely on passers-by to busk at. They've got a global audience, thanks to utilities like Soundcloud, Tidal and Jeeni. Even on Facebook we have the facility for interminable live broadcasts of self-indulgent shite from the box-room. And I'm not just talking about singers and musicians. The same applies to actors, dancers, poets, voiceovers and kazoo virtuosos. There are more independent artists than ever before who have been able to break into the mainstream without any support from a lousy label, a poncy publisher, a suffocating sponsor, mingy manager or arrogant agent. This is an entertainment revolution, where digital distribution, streaming platforms, social media and online marketing tools have changed the way artists perform their work and reach out to fans. By cutting out all the spongers, an independent artist can suddenly enjoy a number of important advantages. To me, the most important is that they now have 100% complete control over the direction of their music, spoken word and creative work. They also have full control over distribution, marketing, artwork, merchandising, deadlines, gigs, ticketing, prices, schedules - in fact all of those affirmative decisions about their creative vision. But it's not just about control. The new normal means that independent artists can keep 100% of all the profits generated from sales, streams, licencing deals, merchandise, and small change dropped through cardboard slots. The reason they can do this is because without the parasites they own all their own stuff. Independent artists own the master rights to their creative work, which means they also have the freedom to negotiate licensing, streaming and publishing deals, and they don’t have to worry about shyster contracts, expensive lawyers, and signing over their rights. Of course the parasites are not going to give up without a fight. Book agents, publishers, distributors and publicists are still clinging on, years after it became obvious that nobody really needs them now that anyone can self-publish in the digital age. In the music and entertainment industry the leeches will still argue that they are vital, even though they already know they are dead. They will keep trying to treat artists like idiots and tell them they don't have the money for mastering, or production or touring or merchandise. Which is a lie, because if artists don't have to pay the leeches then they will save the money. Artists will also be told that they have a limited network of fans and contacts, whereas organisations and labels have access to big fat fanbases and red hot connections with professionals, promoters, booking agents and media. This is an even bigger lie, demonstrated by the fact that even a no-hoper musician like me has a Facebook network big enough to fill The Royal Albert Hall, including the bogs, with or without social distancing. The biggest problem I can foresee in this brave new world of independent entertainment is lack of discipline. Put simply, if creatives were once prepared to rely on a bunch of parasites and leeches, they must now learn to rely on themselves, and that involves actually getting down to some hard work and doing stuff, irrespective of whether or not they have oodles of native talent. Desperation and hunger is an excellent motivator, so I invite the independent artists and performers of the new normal to get hold of their own electronic cardboard box and give it a go. And above all, don't forget to have fun while you're about it. Mel Croucher is the founder of the UK videogames industry, and writer of the most widely-read, longest-running column in computer journalism. He is the founder director of Jeeni and owns a black T-shirt. Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com