John Mostyn – Managing Music Workshop, Birmingham

A few words from John Mostyn who will be running the Managing Music Workshop

“In 2006 Geoff Pearce and I ran a project called Managing Music. It had European Regional Development funding and ran for 18 months. It was for managers in the music industry or self managed artists. Each applicant joined us for 6 months attending a workshop on a weekly basis with individual mentoring in between. It was a great success. It was a joy to deliver because we were able to work with some of the best up-and-coming artists and managers in the area at the time. We even had a budget to spend on recording and promotion; delightfully Geoff and I were paid for delivering the project.

Everyone who came on the project agreed that it was more than worthwhile and I suppose the ultimate accolade was when Scott Matthews won the most prestigious Ivor Novello award for his song ‘Elusive’, the recording of which was partly funded by the project as both his manager and record label were participants in Managing Music. One of the strangest aspects of European Funding is that even if something is going really well it has to end and cannot be repeated.

As I look around the ever-changing music industry scene today I am recognising that there is absolutely nothing like what we did available in the area and should an aspiring manager or self managed artist wish to seek advice or mentoring there is nowhere for them to go (please tell me if I’m wrong). There may be University courses that teach certain aspects of the music industry but who has 3 years to spare and who can afford it?

I am currently being trained to be a professional mentor and I’m starting to wonder if the time has come for me to offer my skills and experience via paid one-to-one mentoring. Although the industry is changing so quickly there is still a lot to be learned from someone who has seen it go right lots of times, and of course wonderfully wrong and from someone who frankly isn’t too bad at sharing his knowledge and experiences.

I am going to hold a free workshop on Tuesday 3^rd July 2012 to take a look at how people in Birmingham’s music history have made a successful living, and how those aspiring to do that now might also be able to achieve similar successes. I will share some of my stories and I would like aspiring managers and self-managed artists to come and share with me what they feel are the gaps in their knowledge that they are facing today. This initial workshop will help direct future Managing Music seminars.

If you would like to be part of this free Managing Music workshop held at Highbury Studio, please get in touch by emailing managingmusic@gmail.com with the subject ‘Workshop’.

If you would like to be kept informed or find out more about my mentoring services, email me at managingmusic@gmail.com with the subject ‘Mentoring’.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Onwards and upwards.” – John Mostyn