Matthew Shorter
Matthew has 15 years' experience as a producer, project manager, writer, editor and strategist on the web. Until the end of 2009 he managed the team responsible for the BBC’s music website, music TV, BBC Introducing and online coverage of major music events such as Glastonbury and the BBC Electric Proms, where he achieved huge growth in reach as well as building the size, profile and strategic focus of his team and output.
Less storied than the award-winning event and TV websites, but equally notable achievements, included launching the new generation of the BBC's artist pages, a music uploader for BBC Introducing and building a long-term strategy for music discovery. The artist pages project saw massive and highly innovative use of dynamic publishing based on linked open data, as a foundation for the strategy for music discovery and personalisation. And the BBC Introducing uploader was accompanied by the launch of an internal asset management system which directly linked together broadcast systems with the content being uploaded by users.
These are massively complex operations which connect the dots between the corporation’s music broadcasting across many genres and production systems, and an increasing and fascinating wealth of open linked data on the internet, to help the BBC continue to punch its considerable weight on the web. Both the purpose and the detail of these projects are exactly the kinds of things that most motivate Matthew professionally. On the one hand, the details of the multi-faceted challenge: understanding a set of technical principles; their transformative potential; the complicated legacy architecture of broadcast systems; the editorial and branding considerations and the institutional diplomacy required to see the project through. On the other, the sense of mission that comes from holding a vision of how linked data can enable far richer user experiences and engagement for both listeners and creative contributors.
Matthew gained a first-class degree in music from Oxford University in 1992. He later joined the BBC as a classical music archivist, before moving into production at Radio 3, where he worked across a wide range of programmes including a season coordinating the administrative machine behind the Proms broadcasts, before moving on to produce strands such as The BBC Archive and Through the Night. Alongside the editorial pleasures of writing scripts, working with presenters, desktop post-production etc, Matthew was also able to indulge his penchant for systems building in this role. At Throught the Night he took particular pride in devising systems to streamline the complex sourcing and playout operation on this fledgling strand, which draws music from across the European Broadcasting Union to fill six hours a night of broadcast. Many of these systems persist today.
He led the adoption of the internet for Radio 3, authoring a pioneering study of multimedia in 1996 and later being sponsored by the BBC to study multimedia production alongside a hand-picked group of professionals from across the European Union in a three-month practical course based in Paris, Bristol and Stockholm. There, he conceived, designed and developed a Director-based interactive animation which explored analogues between minimalist music and art.
When the BBC began to expand its online operation in the late 90s, Matthew was well-placed to ensure that Radio 3 led the way as a deep, content-rich online offering with production values well ahead of the norm at the time even within the BBC, gaining a shortlisting for the Prix Europa for his pains. During the early days of BBC Online his portfolio expanded to include oversight of all of the radio networks' websites (among other things, launching the first live streams), as well as producing and commissioning websites for high-profile brands such as The Sky at Night, the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and the BBC Proms.
Following several years of commercial experience around the turn of the century as senior producer and project manager at digital solutions agency Razorfish, where clients incuded Umbro, Britannia and the Italian broadcaster Rai, Matthew returned to the BBC intially to project-manage the Golden Jubilee Queen's Concerts. He moved on to develop a specialism in music learning projects, where he variously wrote, produced and project-managed a suite of games, websites, interactive applications and bimedia radio-based initiatives such as Radio 2's Sold on Song, eventually being appointed as Interactive Editor for Music Learning. His greatest satisfaction during this time came from his work (often alongside Justin) on music games which experimented with different paradigms for web-based composition and learning, involving object-oriented composition (Drumsteps), online midi sequencing (Tonetag) and interactive guidance and diagnostics (The Songwriting Game). Better still, Matthew was able to use those games to bridge the radio, the classroom and the concert hall, running composition workshops with schoolchildren, and on-air competitions, and commissioning orchestrations for the BBC orchestras of the resulting works, to be performed live all over the country.
There's a strand of journalism running through Matthew's career. His biggest scoop while running the Radio 3 website was an interview with Yoko Ono, and in the days before parenthood, Matthew used to find time to write occasional album reviews and conduct interviews for the BBC and for Fly. Later, his role as Interactive Editor for Music gave him editorial oversight over the whole portfolio of album reviews on the BBC's music website (about 1000 reviews every year), which made great strides in quality and popularity under his stewardship. Matthew can also occasionally be found playing, improvising and composing music. He is behind the keyboard noodling on these pieces.
Matthew joined Double Shot as a director in January 2010.
"Matthew stands out as someone who marries outstanding insight and vision with the ability to deliver it. He has a deep understanding of digital media in general and music. He's a delight to work with."
Mark Friend, Controller, Multiplatform & Interactive, BBC Audio & Music
