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Next Music Network Meeting Thursday 3rd December 2009 4pm at Major Key Studios, The Public, West Bromwich

November 23, 2009 /

The Dates and Location of all Music Network Meetings from November 2009 to February 2010 are as follows:

Thursday 3rd December 2009 – Major Key Studios, The Public, New Street, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 7PG Tel: 0121 533 7137

Thursday 5th January 2010 – Major Key Studios, The Public, New Street, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 7PG  Tel: 0121 533 7137

Thursday 4th February 2010 –  Major Key Studios, The Public, New Street, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 7PG  Tel: 0121 533 7137

The next free Routes to Music workshops are:

Monday 23rd November 7.15pm – 8.45pm – Committee Room A, West Bromwich Town Hall, High Street, West Bromwich

Wednesday 25th November 7pm – 9pm – Wollaston Studio, Stourbridge Town Hall, Crown Centre, Stourbridge

Monday 30th November 7.15pm – 8.45pm – Committee Room A, West Bromwich Town Hall, High Street, West Bromwich

The MUSIC NETWORK meetings will be taking place in cooperation with Black Country Music Network on the first Thursday of every month from  4pm at the offices of Major Key Studios at the Public in West Bromwich. more info here: http://blackcountrymusicnetwork.wordpress.com/The meetings will be hosted by Andy Derrick and Sostenuto LLP.

Sostenuto LLP is a partnership of creative workers bringing their collective experience and knowledge together under one organisation to help sustain music industry activity in the West Midlands and beyond.

Headed by experienced practitioners in the creative industries, Sostenuto LLP provides expert advice and support for music businesses small and large, delivers funded projects and helps the local music industry to network.

Routes To Music is an innovative new programme of workshops and support giving the unemployed and economically inactive an opportunity to gain an insight into developing their interest in many aspects of the music industry.

Through a series of workshops taking place in the Black Country attendees can find out more about how the music industry works, what the potential career paths are, strategies for success and how to set about developing a music act, product, skill or interest. Each workshop focuses on a specific aspect of music industry. Attendees can participate in some or all of the workshops as appropriate with those attending the complete programme gaining the most from this project in terms of experience and insight.

Our programme of workshops aim to cover many different aspects of the music industry and form part of a series that learners can gain much from.

Our next free workshops are:

Monday 23rd November 7.15pm – 8.45pm – Committee Room A, West Bromwich Town Hall, High Street, West Bromwich

Wednesday 25th November 7pm – 9pm – Wollaston Studio, Stourbridge Town Hall, Crown Centre, Stourbridge

Monday 30th November 7.15pm – 8.45pm – Committee Room A, West Bromwich Town Hall, High Street, West Bromwich

All Routes To Music sessions are run by Sostenuto LLP and staffed by experienced professionals from the music and creative industries with a background in education work.

To sign up for any of our free sessions, email info@sostenuto.org.uk or text 07595 663966
leaving your name, address, phone number and where possible, your email address

*To qualify for a free place you must be unemployed and between the ages of 16 – 65

The Black Country Music Network is aimed at organisations, business, traders and individuals in and around the music industry in the black country. The event aims to provide those attending with a forum for discussion, asking for help and advice, meeting and connecting with new partners and collaborators or just to discover more about their local scene
It takes place on the first Thursday of each month from 4pm to 6pm at Major Key Studios, The Public, New Street, West Bromwich. If you want to come along, please email info@sostenuto.org.uk to reserve your free place.

To find out more, please visit the BCMN website:
http://blackcountrymusicnetwork.wordpress.com

The Black Country Music Network is a place for anyone working or studying in the music business to come and meet and have a dialogue with others.

Meeting on the first Thursday of every month from 4pm at the offices of Major Key Studios at the Public in West Bromwich

Anyone from music student, solo performer and songwriter to sound engineer, publisher, and producer can attend and network for free.

Whether you want to find out things, source local collaborations or make announcements, the Black Country Music Network is ideal for providing a forum for musicians and music businesses of all genres, experience and backgrounds.

Funding the Creative Industries by Andy Derrick 13th Feb 2009

February 13, 2009 /

Inspired by several things, I thought I would look at the funding situation for those in creative industries.

At a recent Creative Networks event in Birmingham, Mike Ryan from the LSC stood up and told us all some good news about some funding being made available for the sector as part of Train to Gain. The only condition is that your business has 5 employees or more. As the next talker put it, that excludes nearly 90% of the sector who are embryonic, micro or whatever a sole trader is called these days.

Advantage West Midlands has been putting money into supporting the sector as well through the setting up of projects like Digital Central and Music for Media. They have supported activities like research into audiences, venue development, training in music technology and lots more. Those projects ceased to be funded by AWM in March 2008. The next round of funding was advised by a document drawn up by Clare Edwards who also ran Gigbeth. The early news in Summer 2008 was that the funding was to be split between Birmingham City University (formerly UCE) and Tribal supported by Gigbeth.

To date (13/01/09) no money has been given out.

Arts Council England also support ensembles, projects and other things across the region and some of their money has been swallowed up by the London 2012 Olympics. The funding does seem random with an emphasis on Classical and World music.

So where does this leave us? Funding for a new or developing creative business exists, sometimes, if you are not a sole trader, you play Classical or World Music and you hope to never make a profit. By the way, the money doesn’t come into your account; you have to bankroll it first and claim it back at the end.

So why bother? Most of the people making the decisions don’t have an understanding let alone a grounding in the creative industries. How could they possibly understand your project?

If your creative idea isn’t commercially viable in the first place, should it be helped to survive or left to die?

We should not expect to rely on these funds – they are politically skewed, shrouded in bureaucracy, absorbed by admin costs and near impossible to obtain.

We are in the early stages of a global financial realignment. Old ways of doing business are changing, some dying, some staying. New models of working are being developed.

This is the time to take risks and try something out.

It is worth bearing in mind that in the America of the 1930’s the economy supported the popular music of the time having large touring bands – a situation that has never been repeated in better times.

People still need to eat and drink and after that, the simple things in life – friends and good times are what people want. As musicians, our audience needs us as social commentators, shoulders to cry on, people to share experiences with and for escapism. A man with £3 in his pocket doesn’t mean much, but 100 people make a paying audience.

Remember who you work for, remember you are entertainers – funding doesn’t work, it distorts the market.

This article is printed in full at: http://www.andyderrick.co.uk/

Andy Derrick is an independent freelance musician based in Birmingham, UK. He used to work for the Musicians’ Union delivering front line services and advice to musicians of all genres, experience and backgrounds. Andy’s main work is as a trombonist in many groups playing Jazz, big band, classical and other kinds of music.  He also works in studios as a session musician providing horn tracks for writers and composers. Since 1992 Andy has written and arranged music and currently has works published by Warwick Music and Andek Music.  Andy also Teaches jazz, trombone and music theory working with pupils of all ages and standards across the Midlands.

Click here for some further reading

https://birminghammusicnetwork.com/2009/02/03/a-vision-for-the-music-industry-in-the-west-midlands-by-clare-edwards-june-2008/

https://birminghammusicnetwork.com/2009/02/10/andy-ward-another-view-of-the-west-midlands’-music-industry-and-funding/

http://anthonyjhughes.vox.com/library/post/mad-as-a-march-hare-march-madness-beware-the-eyes-of-march.html

http://anthonyjhughes.vox.com/library/post/gbs-usp.html

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