Category: Strategy (Page 9 of 11)

Strategy, policy, ideas, opinions and discussion of

Andy Ward – Another view of the West Midlands’ music industry and FUNDING

February 10, 2009 /

Andy Ward responds to the blog post

https://birminghammusicnetwork.com/2009/02/03/what-is-your-view-of-the-west-midlands%E2%80%99-music-industry/

Off topic to start with I guess – it is the 1st time we (Musoplex.com) have been mentioned alongside Artisan and Magic Garden outside the phrase ‘a lot louder than….’ or ‘not as posh as…..’ but I am aware Si at Framework Studios is a more than exceptional producer but that is not why I am here (but thanks for the inclusion).

I feel I should establish my lack of credentials here….I have played for over 20 years from empty pubs to 3000 people….I love music, but not all of it – all my formal qualifications (degrees / MPhil) are outside of music – I have only been running my own business for less than two years.

Funding: It hasn’t yet been 18 months since we moved Framework Studios out of the congested basements of Hockley to bigger premises with a vision of creating a small hub of people genuinely interested in music and ALL of its associated artistic and business areas.

I have to say that after 6 months of sheer bloody-minded arguing and some truly mind-numbing blunders we received a 5k Creative Space grant – which was a massive boost for us in year 1. But this is the thing….that 5k went towards relocation, rent, building materials (we built every room ourselves),  infrastructure, security, legal and professional fees for 3 people in a 2, 500 square foot business. Now that’s value for money…

However – these types of grants are available for pretty much any start up – but here is the thing: we spent 5k and created a thriving, happy, encouraging, inclusive music playground AND business turning a small profit in year 2 from start up without the wasted hundreds of thousands thrown at most god-awful music programmes and projects in the West Midlands. So – I have to agree, though somewhat hypocritically, that I don’t hold with the principals of the funding either – or at least not under the current system anyway of chucking hundreds of thousands into a bottomless hole and hoping to fill it.

As another aside you have no idea how much bile and anger has started to come back to me just writing about this topic some 18 months after the events over funding.  A few people in the end were angels but the rest…and the system….AARGH!!

Having attended several funded and sponsored events over just the past 2 years I remain utterly dumbfounded as to where the money goes or exactly what any funding has hoped to achieve – except for watching some nepotistic, city-centric, self-promoting truly awful nonsense. I attended one with a Bristol arts writer bud and we left half way through both howling with laughter and crying that that is where our money was going – shameful really.

I have reached the point where I consider this to be fast becoming a rant and a tirade against the near-contuniuous stream of a**-holes that you have to wade through only to reach an uninhabited atomic island, stripped of ideas and bereft of a sense of reality (Lost, anybody??). It really shouldn’t be – there are some excellent bands out there, young and old, great promoters, great venues, great times ahead but all of them survive, just about.

There are no paid gigs except for those who turn to the dark side of covers and tributes, there are no easy promotions and many lazy promoters, there are venues looking and needing to make money in a tight and overcrowded market faced by closures that are reluctant to try new music for lack of new crowds or alienation of existing ones.

You do not fix these things by throwing money at them. Good bands will be listened to, good promoters will source good acts and promote them well, some venues will stick by their guns to raise themselves above the others. Sandwell needs a venue, cheap, simple for use by all – what do we get? The Public…shame on you all.

All this can be achieved by small donations and grants, spreading the money around in small packets to those with drive and commitment. Instead – all the huge amounts of money we get assigned goes to a handul of organisations to squander and fritter on self-glorification and the further promotion of expensive white elephants.

Andy ward, Musoplex.com

A Vision for the Music Industry in the West Midlands by Clare Edwards June 2008

February 3, 2009 /

This report was commissioned primarily to inform potential investment in the West Midlands music industry by Advantage West Midlands between 2008 and 2011.

In particular this report suggested options for projects to be included in the Audio and Music Programme of Activities that is outlined in the Screen, Image and Sound Cluster Plan 2008 –2011.

To do this the report included:
1) A Brief Evaluation of the Music work undertaken by Digital Central

2) An Overview of the Region

3) A Suggested Outline of Activities

The report was compiled using a number of sources of information:

1) Minutes and Documentation from the Digital Central project at Birmingham City University (BCU)

2) Reports, Strategies and Planning Documents for music and the creative industries both National and Regional.

3) Interviews with Music companies, freelancers and organisations and agencies that support the Music Industry

This approach was adopted to gain as many views as possible and to set them against the current context for music. The ambition for this report was to try to set out a  vision based on the needs of the industry as a whole to try to build consensus around a package of support for the forthcoming Audio and Music Programme of Activities.

A Brief Evaluation
This section will look at the work undertaken by Digital Central so far and look at the opportunities that arise from thefirst phase of activity (2005 –2008).

Background
Digital Central was a regional development project funded by Advantage West Midlands that worked to help the West Midlands to be nationally andinternationally recognised for its digital media and music sectors. That includes Film, Television, Animation, Interactive Media, Computer Games, Digital Imaging, Music and Radio. Digital Central developed and supported activity against three key strategic themes: networking, showcasing and innovation.

From 2008/9 the funding from AWM that was spent on Digital Central will be split into three pots.

The first will be aimed at support for Film, Television, Animation, Interactive Media, Computer Games and Digital Imaging and will be administered by Screen West Midlands.

The second will support the Business Futures programme and the final pot will be aimed at support for audio and music and will be put out to tender so that it can be delivered by the most appropriate organisation(s).

Evaluation
After reviewing the documentation from the project such as reports and minutes from meetings it is clear that Digital Central has achieved many things during its two years. It is not in the scope of this report to comment on the non-music activity of Digital Central other than to say that the screen and new media sectors do seem to have a more coherent strand of activity in the project.

The music projects that have been supported were all worthwhile and in most cases very successful. Digital Central’s role in these projects varied, sometimes simply adding a small amount of funding support to match a great deal from elsewhere
through to projects where Digital Central took the lead and funded the projects entirely.

Feedback from those in the music industry that I interviewed was mixed. Some of this was due to the high expectations placed on the Digital Central project from the outset set against the relatively small budgets that Digital Central had to implement the many ambitions people had for it. Other issues came out of the way the project progressed and some individuals’ personal experience of applying for funding through the scheme. These are addressed below.

Impact
Digital Central has had a number of successes that will leave a lasting impact on the local industry:

The Research
A significant strength of Digital Central was its ability to utilise the academic assets of Birmingham City University. As a result a number of helpful reports and studies were published during the project. Amongst the music based research there were three reports that in the end formed a box set of music reports. The first one was ‘Making Money out of Music’ by Professor Tim Wall. This was a very useful document outlining how the music industry makes money and how the international market relates to regional music activity.
The second document ’20 Things You Need To Know About Music Online’ by Andrew Dubber is equally helpful and continues to be quoted by people I meet as useful.

Simon Harper’s collection of views from members of the region’s music industry ‘Music Matters –a regional profile’ was equally useful and was a good basis for this report. This booklet concluded that the priorities for the regional music industry going forward were:

Working Together
Working with public bodies
Promoting the West Midlands
Working internationally
Capitalising on our heritage

All of these areas are considered again in this report as they came up as key themes in the interviews I conducted with music industry professionals. However, for those of us who like to read these documents they are very useful but
for the vast majority of music industry practitioners their impact is less tangible at this stage. There is a feeling now amongst those I interviewed who had engaged with Digital Central, that the focus of the next phase (i.e. the Audio and Music Programme of Activities) should focus on action leading from those report findings.

Venue Development
The venue development project was very simple: To look at what venues needed to do to improve their ability to host live music and to help a number of venues make those improvements. There was an interesting and helpful music venue survey that lead to a report that informed the funding process. Despite a reasonably small response to the survey this project was successful as it had a very clear vision behind it and garnered good support from the industry.

Projects
Digital Central was able to support a number of important and successful initiatives in
the region including:
supporting Capsule to hold the Metal Symposium and a subsequent project on music heritage
enabling music companies to go to MIDEM and to San Francisco for a games conference
Events like Birmingham Jazz Festival, Gigbeth and Rootsville were also supported

Issues for Digital Central
Letting committees get in the way
The most important issue that has arisen from my observations and from people I have spoken to on this subject is the lack of strong direction for the music work that DC undertook. This may well be in part due to a sensitivity that has arisen from the perceived ‘ in fighting’ in the sector. This led to DC holding a series of consultative meetings and forming a number of groups to try to steer the direction of the music work. This approach took in the views of a very diverse group of sector specialists and so there was no shortage of ideas and no real mechanism to prioritising them. DC should have taken a stronger lead so that the parameters of these discussions could be more clearly defined. A common observation was that many projects started and then stalled because of apparent changes of direction during the project. This lead to disengagement by many industry partners and some mistrust that was a result of a simple lack of clarity. Also from the minutes of one of the meetings there was concern raised by those on the committee about the admin spend of the project –however they also wanted those on the committees to get paid for their time. This model was obviously unsustainable but perhaps came out of frustration from those ‘consulted’ that their time was not being well spent.

Lack of joined up planning
Many of the businesses I interviewed observed that Digital Central seemed to operate in isolation to other similar projects, possibly missing out on opportunities to make the Digital Central budget go further through strategic partnerships. This is backed up by interviews undertaken with key agencies during this research that almost universally felt that they had very little involvement in Digital Central and so had not found ways to add value to the project through the work that they were
doing. Most had praise for some elements of the projects work but felt that their own lack of knowledge of the project as a whole was probably evidence of a general lack of a joined up approach.

To download and read the rest of the report click here

comments on this invited

Dominic McGonigal PPL Director of Government Relations launches blog on the copyright term directive

February 3, 2009 /

I don’t know if you are aware, but Dominic McGonigal, our Director of Government Relations just launched a blog concentrating on the progress of the copyright term directive and the surrounding debate. We have had a huge amount of interest in this subject from our performers (38,000 of them!) and there is of course wider interest in the debate. The particularities of the European process leads to an unusual unfolding of the story, one that must be told for all the performers who as I’m sure you know, are currently treated as second class creators.

Please feel free to use material from the blog. Equally, we would be very interested in any information or viewpoint you might want to contribute to this particular saga.

You can find Dominic’s blog at: http://dominicseuroblog.wordpress.com/

-Dan.

DAN MELLINS
Web Editor

PPL
1 Upper James Street, London W1F 9DE

What is your view of the West Midlands’ music industry? by Mark Iron Man Records

February 3, 2009 /

What is your view of the West Midlands’ music industry? In particular, what are our strengths and weaknesses?

Here’s something I wrote in 2007, if anyone would like to take the title of this blog post and write their own version then please do, the more thoughts and opinions the better. I don’t know it all, I am only familiar with my small area of activity within the so called “Music Industry.”

Written by Mark Iron Man Records, Birmingham, June 2007

Wikipedia defines the Music Industry as “the business industry connected with the creation and sale of music. It consists of record companies, labels and publishers that distribute recorded music products internationally and that often control the rights to those products. Some music labels are “independent,” while others are subsidiaries of larger corporate entities or international media groups. The world music market is currently dominated by the “big four” record groups, Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner, each of which consists of many smaller companies and labels serving under different regions and markets.“ (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry) As far as the West Midlands is concerned, I would suggest that The music industry is a term most people use to describe a range of music-related businesses and organisations including community groups and not-for-profit organisations and others such as Musicians’ Unions and writers’ copyright collectives and performance rights organisations.

In order to look at the West Midlands Industry I sometimes find it helpful to imagine what the “West Midlands Music Industry” might consist of (in general terms) in a simplistic, imaginary world and then look to see if this is demonstrated to be true in practice.

Continue reading

Music “Manifesto of Independence” written by Jonone100 2009

February 1, 2009 /

The history of the present King of Music [RIAA] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over Music. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

They have persecuted through the courts people guilty of no other crime than the enjoyment of music.

They have treated the Internet with contempt.

They have misused and abused the power of authority by representing their own interests as if they were those of the Creators.

They have attempted to impose their will by nefarious means across national borders so as to bring into submission all people of the Internet.

They have made people afraid to listen to music on the greatest medium of modern times by denying their right to privacy.

They have prevented the free association of music, technology and people by the use of DRM.

They have misrepresented their interests by claiming that they invest in the development of new music whereas in truth their interests are best served by protecting and exploiting those rights which they already own.

They have colluded with broadcasters to feed the audience bland and unhealthy fare whilst themselves getting fat and lazy on the proceeds of their misdeeds.

They have knowingly confused and conflated in the minds of both Artists and the public the seperate and distinct notions of price and value, such that as music’s money price grows its true value declines.

They have, and continue to, put stars in the eyes of our young, fostered their belief in a perverted cause which fetishises money and fame, and then cast them aside empty and desolate whilst continuing to profit from their demise even after death.

They have taken Music, which should be freely shared amongst people to grant them understanding, beauty and truth, and chained it to their own financial destinies constraining the evolution of Music and denying to the people what was freely given.

They make profane, what is sacred.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. An Institution whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of Music.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to the music business. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legal teams to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement in cyberland. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united independent music artists, in General Cyberspace, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of Music, solemnly publish and declare, That we are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Artists; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the RIAA, and that all political connection between them and the Old Music Industry, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Artists, they have full Power to write Songs, play Music, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Artists may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Please express your support for the Declaration by releasing your music so it can be freely shared.

read the rest here: http://jonone100.blogspot.com/2009/01/manifesto-of-independence.html

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