Craig Hamilton

In my teens and early-twenties, in the 1990s, I worked in 2nd-hand Record Shops and received an education in the various genres, artists, characters and labels that make up Pop's rich history. It was during this time also that I developed a vinyl habit that I've never really been able to properly shake. My mid-late twenties were then spent working as a musician/songwriter and I had lots of great adventures with my friends; we released a few records, played with some amazing groups, and, probably best of all, recorded 2 sessions for The John Peel show.

After a brief spell working in the Live Music sector, I eventually combined my Internet geekery with my love of Pop Music and started working in the nascent Digital Music industries. Working for a online distributor, between 2004 and 2006, I managed the digital affairs of 150+ independent record labels, before eventually setting up a record label of my own, paying the bills by supporting and training people in the use of online applications and software.

In 2011 I started my MA in Music Industries at Birmingham City University, where I'm now employed part-time as a visiting lecturer and work on various projects in the research centre. In addition to this I work for Static Caravan Records, looking after the online side of things relating to their lovely catalogue of recordings, and I continue to write, record and produce music of my own (largely the same group of people who I had those exciting adventures with, I'm pleased to say) and release it on Commercially Inviable Records, the label I started. To date the label has released 28 albums and singles from a variety of country/folk/americana artists.

My final MA project was something I called Harkive (www.harkive.org), which aimed to gather stories from music fans online about how they listen to music on a single day. The project ran for the first time in 2013, and again in 2014 and 2015. It will continue as an annual project. In early 2014 I was awarded a Doctoral Research Scholarship by the AHRC to develop Harkive into my PhD thesis. This work began in September 2014 at Birmingham City University.

If you would like to know more about any of the projects and activities linked below, or if you would like to contact me regarding the possibility of working together, please feel free to drop me a line.

All the best,

Craig