The BBC's future (well, maybe) and the Beeb right now

Time spent this week with both the high and mighty and the grafters

A weekend back, I was bantering on air with Les Ross on BBC WM, doing the Sunday newspapers. Les had returned to his first station for their 45^th anniversary celebrations. 

It ran very smoothly. Les was on top of his game, chatting with the newsreader, trailing down the day. It sounded great. We didn't exactly cover a lot of news; that's how it is with a presenter like Les. The vibe in the studio was terrific. A team of pros delivering effortlessly good local radio to a committed audience. It worked, really worked. 

Two days later I went to a meeting run by powers rather higher up in the BBC. This was much more buttoned up, and, dare I say it, a little tortured and convoluted.

Get Up, Stand Up, for your airplay rights!. A chat with Sam Redmore

“I handed Craig Charles a CD at a gig. The next week, he played something from it on 6 music”.

A year or so back, I looked at how the meaning of the word DJ has changed over the last 80 years or so. At radio, DJs have largely become 'talent', 'personalities', or 'presenters'. And they rarely play discs any more. Today's DJ is a club and studio beast: producing and mixing. Music knowledge, taste, imagination and production skills are now essential to craft a seriously good mix.

Sam Redmore is one such beast. He's increasingly picking up national airplay for his mixes. In particular, there's a fruitful relationship with Craig Charles at 6 music, who has given his work several airings. Sam is due to guest on the show next Saturday, 20th September. 

That moves Sam into a new position. He's recognised as a creator, an artist in his own right. He's releasing mixes on vinyl. Here's the latest in his own name – a limited edition vinyl pressing on specialist dance label Felt Tip.

Here's the thing: if you're an artist, you should get royalties for airplay. And mix artists should in turn pay royalties to musicians whose work they sample. That's the principle. It's also the law of the land. So, how does that work? 

Sam, what's the deal with rights to the original source material in your mixes, once they get a commercial release or proper airplay? Just curious....

There's no deal on them as such - I don't have the rights to the material, but the stuff on vinyl is pressed in such small quantities (500 copies) that we're unlikely to be taken to task over it. I've never received any money for 6 Music airplay.

 Wow. I figured that nobody's going to mess with small circulation material. But does that places a limit on ever making serious money? What is the route – is there a route - for mixer guys like you?

There's certainly not money to be made on sales in small quantities like this. Usually a reworking of a high-profile artist comes about for me with the intention of tailoring something to fit in better with my DJ sets (rather than creating a version to sell). If I get DJ bookings of the back of putting out these edits though, then I think that could ultimately be a way to make money from them. There's a DJ called Reflex. He has a huge re-edit release back catalogue. I don't know what he's made from sales, but his DJ fees are now a very decent amount. He's getting at least two bookings a week, so I guess it's working out fairly well for him!

The other route and the one that I'd like to move more in the direction of is making more original material, although obviously something that has 'Bob Marley' on the sleeve is more likely to get listens in the first place...

The interesting angle for me is that there are two copyrights in recorded works - composer for the song and mechanical for the recording. Both attract royalties. So, while you are sampling existing works, and so should cut a deal for commercial exploitation of these works - remember all that fuss over James Brown samples 25 years ago? - a creative mixer such as yourself is making work which needs both of these rights cleared. Especially the mechanical right, which is your creation, even if the building blocks come from somewhere else. 

I think that's why there's not too much of a fuss made over something which might get a play or two or get a limited run of 500 on disc - it's just too much trouble to go to court when the returns would be pennies. But airplay money on a national station is not to be sneezed at, and the mechanisms exist to collect royalties once you're in PRS. A lot of recorded work earns airplay fees that don't get to the creators. Money for one or two plays goes unclaimed for various... and flows into a general pool which is sliced up among existing members. And the big boys get the lion's share.When it's all your work, matters get much more lucrative, of course...

That's interesting, I hadn't really given it too much thought to be honest. I will be getting PRS registered very soon though, especially as I finally have some of my own material nearing completion.

As of publish date, the latest Sam Redmore remix on Soundcloud

It's pretty rare for a DJ mix to be picked up by mainstream radio. How did you get noticed by the likes of Charles and Stevens? 

Very simple - I went to a night Craig Charles was DJing at, and handed him a CD. I had no idea whether he would listen to it, or even remember to take it with him, but the following week he played something from it on his show. There were quite a few tracks on that CD that he went on to play, and then his manager got in touch (the CD obviously had my contact details on) asking if I could send him some more stuff. With most of the other 6 Music DJs like Huey Morgan and Rob Da Bank, their producers got in touch with me asking if I could send some stuff through. I guess they had probably heard some bits on Craig's show.

So it can work! Excellent. As you move more towards using real instruments to add texture to your mixes, is the role of mixer/creator becoming more important? 

There's certainly a creative element needed with most of the work I do now that wasn't there a few years ago. The first tracks I did were mash-ups, taking a vocal from one song and an instrumental from another. Everything was pretty much there to begin with, and it's about trying to find existing material and parts that work with each other, rather than composing anything new. Most of the tracks I work on now involve building things from the ground up, and that can include writing original parts. On the other hand the stuff I did with The Bluebeat Arkestra was based around taking a song that they had written and moulding all the different parts so that they worked together as one. This involved much less creating, but lots of mixing to make everything fit. 

What about incorporating new studio techniques live? Or is live always a matter of live sequencing of pre-recorded material, as opposed to flying in your own instrumentation? Are you turning full circle, or meeting bands with DJs halfway? 

I think that the studio work influences how I play live in so much as I tend to listen to the arrangement of the tracks I play and look for that perfect moment to mix from one tune to the next a bit more closely than I used to. I don't imagine that I'll ever move to playing any live instrumentation, simply because I'm not proficient enough at any instrument to be able to do so. There are lots of options out there today to make your sets more live, but if the end result is that the music doesn't sound as good, then it's not necessarily the right way to go. 

Combining live performance with DJ techniques can be wonderful and highly creative when done well – Fingathing, for example, mix turntablism and sampling with live double bass to tremendous effect. One of the things I like about DJing is having the freedom to play any tracks from any artist, any genre and in any order depending on how the night pans out. Playing my own music for an hour or so seems a bit... tedious. I have worked with a very talented local beatboxer called Ed Geater, where he's provided live beats to pre-prepared beatless tracks that I was playing. It went down really well. It made the set more interactive, more of a spectacle, but it's not something I'd be keen to do for a full set. 

Links
Sam's facebook page

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So you wanna be a radio star? Then listen now to what I say...**

Neil Spragg, a veteran musician and DJ/mixer, wrote to me the other week. Working as Sir Real (careful, there are several) he's presented 'The Mouth Of God' on Music World Radio for ten straight years now: an absolute internet radio veteran. Neil wondered it there was a way to move over to to mainstream radio. Did I have any ideas on how to go about it? 

Tricky. But, yes, I did. 

It's not unreasonable to want to take your radio and music chops on to bigger and better platforms, after doing it for a while. I applaud this. What make Neil's proposition interesting is the diversity of his activities - a veteran musician with a vast range of experience, a DJ (twenty years at House of God in Birmingham), sound for gaming and installations, a guy who thinks and experiments. Neil's just collaborated on sound for a couple of huge interactive A/V installations in Lima. One is an LED panel 20 stories high installed on a skyscraper in the business district. It's controlled by the public from a huge motion sensitive panel in the foyer at street level. 

So - this is a man with stories to tell. What makes it tricky is just how far radio has moved away from offering new slots to people who have stories to tell.  

Here's Neil:

Hi Robin, hope you're good. Just wondering if I could pick your brains a bit...I'm thinking of trying to get a DJ slot on *actual* radio lol, figure I have enough experience (and a decent enough collection) to make a reasonable pitch. Do you have any tips / insider info / words of warning etc? I assume the situation is much the same as in most other areas of the music industry (ie there is a snowball's chance in hell of getting work), but interested to hear your perspective...
Cheers, Neil.

And here's me:

Hi Neil. 
The problem, as always, is not what you've got, which is a lot, but what the buyer thinks he needs. What does radio 'need' these days? And can you make them need you? Get them to kill for you, and you're home and dry. 

Breaking it down at national level, and assuming you don't have Radio 1's teenies in mind, Radio 2 and 6 tend to hire big names in preference over experienced veterans. For example, Alex Lester, a totally solid and very listenable broadcaster, seems fated to stay on R2 overnights; he's been there since I produced his show twenty years ago. So I think we can write off the 'start at the bottom' scenario here. 

To be scrupulously fair to beeb parachutees, some of them are fabulous broadcasters, like Tom Robinson and Cerys Matthews. Others have claimed their niche by doing it for long enough, like Craig Charles. Much as he loves his genre, and is now associated with it (he was back at Mostly Funk, Soul and Jazz this year), it didn't hurt that he was a name after working on Red Dwarf and Coronation Street. 

It's not a complete brick wall for new talent. I was absolutely delighted to see Radio 2 hand a one-off cover slot to the Derby-based (commercial radio) Gem 106 breakfast team after they scooped the Music Radio Personality prize of the Year at this year’s Radio Academy Awards. Only a gesture, but a gracious one, and lovely to see. 

So what's there for you in the commercial sector? Would they use you? Mostly, not. Mainstream outfits want young, sprightly, preferably good looking, articulate and, especially, biddable. You play what they want, not what you want: the call is definitely not for deep music knowledge of any type. 

Off in the more specialised areas, there are possibilities at the likes of Absolute, Kerrang, Planet Rock and XFM, but you'd have to mount a pretty cool campaign to convince them to snap you up. I can't back this up, but I've heard the money is pretty rubbish. 

Beyond these areas, there are more possibilities, but the financial pickings get progressively thinner. Amazing Radio plays new music pretty much exclusively. If you can make a case for the areas you want to cover – if there is enough new activity for you to showcase – it's worth giving them a call. They are a tiny national DAB only service operating out of Gateshead. Send them your music, by the way. 

BBC Local Radio? Sorry. Since they networked evening programmes, there is very little room for specialist shows. And the emphasis is solidly on local news topics. But cultivate your local BBC Introducing team. There are excellent people working in this area, and I would love to see this cohort of committed talent go on to greater things. 

Community radio and Internet radio? You're doing this already. But I do think that, just maybe, there is one possibility you could explore: syndication, with a marketing strategy. The odds are slim because the community and internet sector is so disparate, and standards vary wildly. Most internet operations are tiny, with minuscule audiences; some are vanity operations; few know much about marketing. And I'm not sure about the legislative climate. But here goes - syndication and programme-sharing works fine at all levels in the US.

1.  Think who your show appeals to. Do some research. Get facts and figures. 
2.  Find a sponsor who might want to hit the market you serve.
3.  Work out a sponsorship deal where support increases with exposure.
4.  Offer support funding that comes with the show to the stations.
5.  Build, but, of course, don't compromise content. 

Armed with financial support - and that's a very big if - you have a decent chance to get syndication going, as the show would come with funding which all these stations desperately need. Yes, you are buying time, but there are precedents for this, some of them honourable. 

If you can make it work, it builds you as a product. It spreads your reputation. You can legitimately claim a growing audience. And, after a lot of hustle which might yield exactly nothing, bingo! You might just have something which, all of a sudden, stations might want. It means you've got to be producer, presenter, salesman, PR and marketing man.... just like all the musos I talk to. It's a lot of work. And, as in so many areas, you have to wonder if the effort you make to float the project will eventually overshadow the creative effort. 

Hope that helps. I don't think it does, really.

Robin

Now, it's over to you. This little idea may be anathema to people at online and community radio. Call it manipulative, or call it pragmatic; the radio story of the past six years or so has been relentless consolidation. So why stop at BBC and Commercial local radio? As with many of the superb musicians I follow on my patch, there seems little point, ultimately, in being brilliantly creative, for pennies or less, to an audience of dozens. Unless it's for the thrill of music making, which, of course, is priceless. Maybe my deeply manipulative stratagem might work. But it is a risky, risky path to take. Anyone else got any ideas?

Links
Here's Neil's bandcamp page. Check it out - it's difficult to pull out a 'typical' sample.
Here's info on Omnia Opera - 20 years of space rock, and Neil's latest 7 Shades project.

** Thanks to the Byrds' deeply cynical and brilliant original for today's post title

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Spoonfed by robots: What do we get from music streamers... and what do we give?

Step aside, Radio. The web is the hot way to get new music. Or is it? How we relate to music and performers isn't a commodity you can easily exploit. 

2010 Facebook traffic. Look - that's me, Liking The Destroyers

A question: where do you go for new music? I follow tipoffs, or I catch a promising support act; I dig around. I use the web, but I'm not happy.

I rarely get any leads from radio now. After decades listening to people putting themselves before the music, or relegating music to filler status, there’s only a few shows I can stand to listen to. In truth, that's probably how it should be. 

And it's fun following my nose to live and local new stuff, before it becomes product. There are inventive, fresh performances to discover, played to interested audiences. Do this, and you’re a grassroots part of something unique, priceless and intangible, that’s at the very core of the music industry. That's what this post is all about.

Airplay: a howl of frustration

Busting past the music gatekeepers to get radio exposure. How is it? How should it be? Tips, tricks and opinions

Name's not down, yer not coming in  

Two weeks back, hazily happy after a great day, I joined a brilliant Facebook rant/thread led by a long-standing muso pal, Neil Spragg. At the heart of it was this question: How the hell do you get people at radio to listen to your stuff? 

Lots of people pitched in with comments, sympathies and tactics, both ethical and imaginative... and downright creepy. In fact I have deliberately not included the creepiest one of all in this post. Me? I weighed in as someone who was regularly on the receiving end of demos, pitches, and hustles, back in the day. 

Read this and you'll also see it suggested that musicians might not even wish to try that hard at radio anymore. I still believe that radio has a huge part to play in supporting new and local music, so I found that hard to take; but, equally, I concede it's hard to argue against that view in the present radio climate. 

It was (and is) a great chat thread. It's the kind of thing social media does well. So, with my sincere thanks to everyone who joined in, here's a condensed version, sorted roughly by topic, after the jump. 

The Nightingales: sharper, stroppier, older, wiser. Tips and tricks from a survivor

36 years of philosophy, wit, sarcasm and survival: Rob Lloyd shares thoughts on longevity, learning, and sticking to your guns. 

Rob Lloyd nearly smiles. He's a pussycat really

I met Rob Lloyd again, after thirty years or so, at a meeting of the Birmingham Music Network a few years back. We circled each other with pleased fascination, as insect collectors stumbling on rare specimens: a 50 year old working punk muso, and a 20th century rock jock, both now largely seen as endangered, if not extinct, species. I don’t know about Rob, but I get that insect collector thing a lot these days. 

Rob Lloyd has been kicking up an almighty racket since the late 70s. Time has not knocked any of the rough edges off, but there is an increasing depth and wit to his writing, belying the splendid bared-teeth rattle, pulse and crash of his music, which has been a constant. 

He's played in just two bands, as well as solo: the Prefects back in the day, and the Nightingales now. That’s close on four decades of uncompromising music; lots of roadwork, and regular ecstatic reviews along the way.  He’s still hungry. Since that re-acquaintance, we’ve chatted on and off, and this conversation largely took place around the release of the latest Nightingales album, No Love Lost, on Cooking Vinyl.

If you could meet up with the young Rob Lloyd in the Prefects, your first seriously promising band incarnation, what would you say to him? And would he give you the time of day?  

In truth, the Prefects were never seriously promising. This is a hard question - although I have changed in lots of ways over the years, there are some things I still have in common with that young Robert Lloyd, for better or worse. But it is, obviously, hypothetical: that young chap was pretty unconsidered and inconsiderate, and, I think, arrogant without cause. I reckon he almost certainly wouldn't have taken any notice of - and certainly would have shown disrespect towards - a fifty year old "I've been around the block" type. But also the bloke I am today would probably not have the time off day for such a snotty nosed, big headed no-talent.

Nightingales now. Rob on the right...

Forced to say something to the young prick... I'd say: “Your group is shit, don't think you're any cop just because John Peel and Paul Morley say so. Stop posing about and work harder. Be more adventurous and don't copy other artists, and certainly don't align yourself with any 'movement'. Be serious or don't bother - but also have fun. Ignore both born again rockers (Pete Townsend et al) and modern puritans and do try out of few drugs and have lots of sex - don't be shy. 

You’ve notably done South By Southwest. Was it worth it? How can you make things like this work for you?  

SXSW is a heap of fun and with good planning, especially for new bands, can maybe open a few doors, though I do think that the hyped bands are pretty much hyped before they get there. Austin is a top town, and the SXSW organisers seem enthused and very competent - UK take note - and I would certainly say that any invitees should give it a whirl if they can.

But, and it's a big but, it is an exceedingly expensive thing to do. These days, you definitely need a visa, and to do things legally. That will set you back a couple of grand before flights, accommodation and such. Remuneration is minimal; indeed it'd non-existent if you choose to have SXSW wristbands in lieu. So unless you are super flush or have rich parents and/or a very helpful manager or label, you will need to find funding, or it will be near impossible to make it happen.

The Nightingales were invited again this year but - despite what I thought was a top notch application and proposal - we were turned down by PRS Music Abroad and a couple of other funding sources which made it impossible to carry off, much to our disappointment, and in spite of offers of other U.S shows.  Thankfully it sounds like we will be re-invited next year & we can plan for this well in advance. That means booking a whole tour, coinciding a new album, sorting some funding - but for a lot of artists I guess it would involve getting in to a mass of debt. Is it worth it? That's up to the individual act, and what they think or hope they can achieve. I have no definitive advice.  

The Nightingales - Mutton To Lamb from 'No Love Lost', issued 2012

You’ve had oodles of support from 6music over the years. Granted, in the early days when they had smaller audiences, that might not have meant all that much. Are you noticing anything now they’ve got a million plus listeners?  

I find radio play and press reviews very difficult to quantify. Obviously it means more people get to hear the music or read the group's name, and consequently learn that we are out there and doing stuff. But does it influence sales, etc? I really don't know. I think our live shows maybe do more for that - Mark Sampson's Iron Man mail order store apparently always sells Nightingales gear when we play live: we play Edinburgh one night, and he sees sales in that area the very next day. I'd guess that to some degree this happens from radio play also but there is no way of being certain of the extent. You need Jools Holland's 'Later' for absolute guaranteed sales improvement I reckon. I'm sure Seasick Steve, Joanna Newsom and others would agree. 

But obviously it's great to get radio support, because it gets the music heard by new ears and maybe gets folk interested in the records and gigs. Plus the PRS royalty payments helps keep me afloat.  It's been difficult since Peel, with ever decreasing payments until recently. And of course part of the reason to make records is for them to get played on the radio and heard around the World. 

Some people get success by moving from the dangerous edges to the blander centre. I see you as resolutely still at the dangerous edges. How do you see it?  

I just do what I want to do, whatever others think of it. The band does not have any blueprint or agenda. We certainly do not try to be left field; we would definitely like a bigger audience, and wider appreciation, and to actually earn from our music… but we obviously do not do it for the money. Unless that is your prime motivation, I cannot see the point in making art that is anything other than stuff that allows you to express yourself, and that you like yourself. So the Nightingales plough our own furrow, for better or worse, for richer or poorer. Not dangerous but definitely, er, free. 

'No Love Lost' album cover artwork

I do not seek celebrity. If I were to be acknowledged I would like it to be because of the work. The work is everything and lives on beyond a person's lifetime. So I think it should be something that you think is worthwhile, and hopefully it will bring the creator some permutation of appreciation, money & fun; if not, so be it. I do hope, though, that when I die the group has everyone pretending they always dug it and that the band members can make a few quid. It would be totally depressing to think that even in death the group remained a super minority cult thing.

Nightingales - Born Again In Birmingham, from 'Out Of True', issued 2006

You tell stories. What’s more important – the story or the song? The live music or the creating of it?  

For me the lyrics are important… but I'm in a group, and so the songs and live shows are what is most important. The creating gives vent to my ideas and will hopefully be a fun process - but ultimately this is a rock group, so rock rules apply. Maybe the volumes of poetry and such can come later. 

You don’t hesitate to recommend people – you tipped Poppy and The Jezebels – who are way more  ‘commercial’ than the Nightingales. And you’ve seen other bands do well by adjusting their marketing and style. Ever been tempted to do the same thing?  

I had a solo deal with Virgin Records for a while and had a stab at doing some pop music but generally it is not an area that interests me. I’ve already explained where I am at regarding 'changing style' or whatever you want to call it. But I'm not a snob about it - I like Little Richard as much as Beefheart, the Troggs as much as Faust, etc, and if I see or hear something 'commercial' that I think is great I will plug it, no problem. And there is no jealousy, nor any gloating, if and when my 'recommendations' are a hit. As Roy Walker would advise, "Say what you see".

 How do you feel about Spotify, who pay very little for the the music they stream, and pirate downloads and torrent sites, who offer your music to anyone for free? Is there a promotional value?  

I am a bit ignorant about Spotify, indeed the whole web, social networking area. Fliss our drummer does all the 'Gales web 'business'. I guess there is some promotional value with any outlet for your work whether you get paid or not, but obviously getting paid for your work is the accepted ideal whatever the trade.  I know some musicians go ape shit about being ripped off. I have more friends in stand up than in bands, and they are zealous about copyright and payment for jokes. I understand their point of view totally, but I have also never been majorly hung up about bootlegging and piracy myself - Maybe that is one reason why I am always borassic? 

Survival as a working band. You know a lot more now, but times are a lot tougher, is it easier or harder?  

Harder now I think, at least for 'unpopular' bands.

Links: 
Nightingales website 
Nightingales myspace music page
Rob Lloyd's own record label Big Print Records 
If you want back catalogue, Rob would love it it you bought it here

March/April 2012 Airplay

Last Month saw a really pleasing burst of radio activity at national level for West Midlands acts. Time for a few facts and figures. 

Impressive music is emerging from the West Midlands. Some of it is starting to get equally impressive recognition at National radio. 

This is a big deal. Scoring airplay at Radio 2, the country's most listened-to station, even in off-peak shows, means more than scoring airplay on any other station in the country. It means that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people, will have heard your song, and that it will have been presented, sympathetically, to an unusually receptive audience. It's a great trick if you can pull it off, and it is definitely not easy - just ask anyone who's tried. 

Local acts are breaking out. When you gather it all together, it begins to look good: we're talking about millions of listens at national level. Of course, I have no way to ensure that this info is comprehensive; there's probably a lot more to celebrate.


Star performers in March:

The Musgraves: Last of Me single, with 6 plays in the past month at BBC Radio 2

Also shining brightly: 

Destroyers: Hole in the Universe single. Transition Records 
Mike Harding Show, BBC Radio 2, 28 March
It’s also worth noting that the Destroyers logged two sell-out shows last week to alarmingly enthusiastic crowds in Birmingham and London. And if you play the video, do note the comment, from Taysidethistles, up near the top.

Urban Folk Quartet: Jaleo Bus/Up In The Air. Taken from 'Off Beaten Tracks' CD 
Mike Harding Show, BBC Radio 2, 28 March

Dan Whitehouse: My Heart Doesn’t Age, It Just Gets Older single, Tiger Dan records.
Alex Lester, 21 March; Steve Lamacq, 3 March, BBC Radio 2; also playlisted at Q Radio (National Digital)   

  Sam Redmore: Is This Love Remix 
Craig Charles, BBC 6 Music, 17 March.

Thanks to the excellent Compare My Radio website, we also know that
Ruby Turner scored more play at BBC Radio 2 with Lord I Thank You - thank you for the update comment, PF - in March. 

Nightingales: Best of British Luck / The Burster, new CD tracks
Marc Riley, BBC 6 Music: 8th/13th/19th/22nd/28th March

Chris Tye and Wes Finch 
Honourable mentions in Guardian reader playlist, 21 March

So, so far, so good, but I've almost certainly missed some stuff out. Researching this in detail is time-consuming; getting play details out of all the key specialist shows isn't the easiest thing in the world. If you're not on the above list, and you’ve scored some national play, please drop me a note so that I can update the post. 


There are some interesting issues to consider: 

How did these guys score national airplay? 

In particular, what steps did each act take to bring their work to national exposure? 

There are a number of routes, but it’s heartening to note that national DJs are going out of their way to explore new music from the West Midlands. 


Now, this can’t be the whole picture, and it goes without saying that Kerrang, BBC Introducing at WM, CWR, Hereford and Worcester, Shropshire and Stoke are all playing their part, as are WCR-FM, Bridge FM, Scratch Radio and other community operations. And, as I have repeatedly suggested, judicious local plays for the right local artists can bring unique benefits to both station and artist.

Future of Local Radio???

Stop press - this post seems to have gone modestly viral. BIG response. I'm pleased.

I was the keynote speaker at Creative Networks last night. Brilliant, interested audience of students and practitioners. I gave a seemingly bleak overview of the state of UK radio and the shrinking opportunities for creative work, as cuts continue to bite at the BBC, and the commercial sector continues to strip jobs out, and ramps up automation and networking. All is not lost, however – in fact, all is never lost, if you approach things the right way.

Bullet points after the jump.