'music Industry' IDIOTS, 'ARTIST DEVELOPMENT'

A while ago I received an email. Wait no, I should start at the beginning. 

My name is fairly irrelevant, I am a Singer, I trained at the Oldest Performing Arts School in the World. I have a First Class BA honours in Performing arts. I have a few years experience in the live music scene, where I have been writing and performing my own music. I was even lucky enough to get one of my songs on BBC Introducing. As I was eager to understand as much about this industry as possible, I took on an intern role at one of the top Music PR companies in London, who specialise in breaking new artists. I have also submerged myself in crowds of fellow musicians and their stories, learning and absorbing as much information as possible. Researching anything I was unsure of in whatever way I could.  Now, I have not got to where I would like to be on the ladder yet, but I am working at it. 

But, this blog is not about me, (it was just important you understand that I may be just like you, and what I have to say may just save you a couple of grand!! ££ !)

So back to my original statement... Today I received an email, out of the blue that went like this:

Dear -----,

Would you be interested to meet with our Artist Development Manager in Sheffield on Friday 10th April? We have 5 free slots available for artists who are interested in taking their music to the next level.

If you’re an act who is interested in making new recordings, promoting your music or raising funds for your artistic development, this is a fantastic opportunity. There will also be the chance for you to gain advice from top music industry professionals 

The hour-long sessions are being offered out on a first-come-first-served basis. Take a look at resoundmedia.co.uk to find out more about who we are and what we do. 

Please advise which sessions you could attend - 9:30 / 11:00 / 13:00 / 14:30 / 16:00 via email. 


Thanks, 
Jessica

Now, firstly, I am quite frankly insulted by this comment, 'slots available for artists who are interested in taking their music to the next level.' anyone who has studied English, communications or psychology, can instantly see what they've done there.. very clever.. So if I do not want this slot, I am not interested in taking my music to the next level, and therefore by proxy , not 'serious' about my career. This company is well aware that I am trying to make it as a musician, else they would not be emailing me. 

Secondly, the more disturbing part is that I did NOT contact them first, therefore we can only assume that it is someone's job to trawl the internet looking for young, impressionable musicians who look like they may be an easy target. I may be small, and blonde, and young looking, but that is hair dye and luck! I am actually not as young as the doormen on most bars think!

Anyway, I have had dealings with companies like this before (I'll get to that later) so I decided to cut right to the chase and replied with:

Hi Jessica,

Thankyou for your email. Can you please just let me know if at any point (should I be successful) you would require any money to change hands between myself and the company?

Kind regards

Needless to say I had not researched this company at this point, but could only assume that they wanted money. 

After receiving no immediate reply, and writing a quite long rant-y email in response on my phone, it turns out I replied again.. granted by accident, I had planned to spell check it first on my laptop.  Never the less, my follow up email went like this: (and this is the good bit)

Dear Jessica, 

Awaiting your reply, I took the liberty of checking out the resoundmedia.co.uk website at your suggestion and have come to he following conclusion.

I am concerned to see more companies such as yours popping up to deal in things like this. You are not the only company to approach me, essentially preying on the young, naive and fame desperate. It upsets me that companies, such as yours, exist.

I am in contact with songwriters who have written for the likes Leanne Rhymes, Leona Lewis, Rihanna and Littlemix. I am also in contact with managers of certain top ten artists, who shall remain nameless.  I am aware how PR companies work, as I used to work for one breaking new artists, and also know when they are required to be of any use. I have enough live experience to know how promoters work and how to get on tours with bigger artists. I am aware how it all works and also that I am not currently in a position where any legitimate label or managing company would touch me. 

It saddens me that companies such as yourselves (Resoundmedia.co.uk) , 'Downtown Artists', Soho and, I'm sure many more, prey on artists such as myself- People who you deem may be silly enough to have you 'develop' them for a fee, when in actual fact no one should be paying for a development deal with a manager or label. (If anything, advances come in the way of the artist not the other way around!)

I feel that when I was a naive 16year old, I may have been more likely prey to your company and an easier target, which in itself leads me to believe that everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of young musicians. You should NOT be selling them advice that, in reality, they could find out on google and packaging it as a legitimate 'development' deal. Which we all know, it is not. 

A particular highlight of this for me, is you're 'Invitation' to little me, to go all the way up to Sheffield for your consideration. This tactic probably does make some feel 'special' or 'chosen' but again, I can assure you, all legit and good labels and management companies, have people banging down their doors to get them to even listen to a track, (unless the artist has been lucky enough to have been spotted by an A&R rep of course),  but again, if that was the case here- you would have seen my low number of Youtube subscribers and twitter followers and probably then reconsidered. 

I will pursue my career. I will have to spend money to do it, but I can assure you, the money I spend will be paying directly for services that I simply need and cannot do myself, such as recording/ studio time, mastering and use of reputable PR companies when I am ready. Not for a ridiculous middle man.

I shall however, spread the word for you and make sure everyone knows exactly what you are all about. 

Thanks ever-so for your consideration, and I eagerly await your response.

Kind regards,

Musician spending her money on real things rather than advice from people who don't know anything.

A little about http://resoundmedia.co.uk/  they are, from what I can gather, an 'Artist development company'. Their website offers a number of 'packages' under the bracket 'Sound consultancy'. Do check the website out for yourself for clarification, but it seems to me they offer a number of 'Services' (and I use that term loosely) ranging from £66 to £1,111.09. 

I went to meet with 'Downtown artists' when I was 16. I 'auditioned' for them, and needless to say the chap was surprised when I could actually sing.. this was the first warning light. (this isn't x-factor, legit studios and labels don't waste their time listening to bad singers on the day to day.) And surprise surprise, I was 'successful'. LUCKY ME! I got offered the chance to pay the company thousands and thousands of pounds to do a list of things that I could do myself, such as 'get gigs at London venues', 'record in studios'... :/ luckily for me I realised pretty sharpish that this was a load of rubbish and stepped very far away from the situation. Sadly for a younger girl I knew, her parents had been dubbed by this, and she had been put on their books as it were. She told me they didn't even provide the services that they offer. She told me they had got her maybe one or two gigs in the same dingy venue and that was it.

I have recently received an email from yet another company, who I can only assume are in the same business as these con artists.

Hi -----

I source talent for develop in association with ------------ on a
commercial basis and as the ------------- team have recommended you as
emerging talent and I have now listened to your music perhaps we can
arrange a date to meet when I'm next in ----------.

I work closely with established named producers in the UK and US and like
to work with real people who want to achieve success and  open up their
music to a global platform and we are very lucky to have a team of people
who are familiar with that global platform and can support you in making it
happen.

It is rather hectic for me now until August 14th as I'm travelling however
I will be back in ------- at the end of that week therefore perhaps we can
meet in -------- then.

In the meantime perhaps you would like to outline what you want to happen
with your music over the next 6-12 months and if would have 2-3 tracks
ready for development.

Look forward to meeting soon.

Best wishes

(I have removed names and places as they are irrelevant. I couldn't help myself but to highlight a few key points here. 

bulls*** 1- established named producers    last I checked everyone has a name, and established just means working, so at this point I was being offered to work with a person with a name!! wow.  It's all very vague, and bearing in mind you can find 'established named producers on websites such as miloco, who will charge around 3-4grand in total per track, because they are great, I don't see how they can be offering this any cheaper, these top producer dudes don't do deals, because they don't have to. They have quite enough business and grammy's to just not, quite frankly. 

bulls*** 2- real people   AI hasn't reached the point that we mistake robots for humans yet so.... I mean.. what is a non 'real' person.. 

bulls*** 3- who want to achieve success gahhh this is that thing I mentioned before, the kind of language that makes you think, if you dont reply to the email then you CLEARLY don't want success... 

bulls*** 4- global platform umm the INTERNET???!!!??? 

bulls*** 5- 2-3 tracks ready for development. A song becomes a track once it's recorded, so assuming you are also a songwriter, and have recorded your songs, they want to develop them? - one can only assume she has used the wrong terminology here or wants to help plug your tracks. (the job of a dedicated plugger or PR company) Or if she meant songs to develop, I'd be concerned straight off with this mistake, and then wonder what a team of brilliant songwriters are doing working on songs with unknowns for some measly fee. It just doesn't work like that.

So heres the response:

Hi Catherine, 

Thank you for your email. I cant seem to find a website for your company and I just wondered if you could summarise what exactly it is that you would be offering? Obviously depending on the outcome of the meeting.  For example, do you offer management services or are you a company who artists pay for your 'help' as it were. 

Kind regards,

--------------

Pretty clear question from me here. And watch how she dodges it:

​Hi -------

We are in the process of creating a new website as the business model has expanded in the last year. We offer the following services :

• Management(Initial 3 month contracts)
• Development Programmes - access to established producers/PR/Plunger's/image/Branding/Personal Development/Voice Coaching
• Talent Development Programmes in association with Named Producers(Bespoke)
• Agency- studios uk and US/Venues
• Collaborations with DJ's/mixers
• Music Videos and support with Crowd Funding promos. 

Perhaps you would like to call me and discuss what you're looking for and what the bigger picture looks like later tonight. I will be on calls for most of the evening however 7.45 looks good. My number is 07787 015 0XX.I usually drop in on the -------- to have the opportunity to hear and meet the artist however missed your slot so ----- suggested I get in touch.! Your ratings are looking great.

Speak soon.

Catherine

mmmm, I didn't get my answer, so I thought I'd go in head on:

And sorry, do you charge for these services?

Thanks, 

-----

As you can imagine, sales folk never want to answer that question, and even though Catherine's previous reply came back as soon as I had sent the email, this time I received no answer. 


CONCLUSION!----

The main reason I wrote this is because I am fed to F*** up of people pretending they know about the industry and can offer some 'inside scoop', some quick, easy way to start on the ladder half way up. Sadly if that's what your looking for, it just doesn't exist. If your lucky enough to get a legit top contract with a label, that could be gone over night. The market is weird and ever changing. But the last thing we need is a bunch of money grabbing amateurs, who may have some tiny mild link with someone remotely good in the industry, pretending they can do all this for you so long as you pay them a bunch of money.

If you are a musician with no money or a load of money, assess where you are at realistically and spend it on what you need most and I promise you, It will never (in my opinion) be the services from any of these companies.

you need songs?- get writing or co writing
your need recordings?- get in touch with some studios big or small, whichever suits you best
you need PR?- Go to a PR company!! :O yes, it really is that simple
you need gigs? - try a gig promoter, or a venue!
you want a plugger- find a plugger

all these things cost money, how much is up to you, but you never need to pay some one to find these thing for you. PLEASE BE WEARY.

If someone approaches you, great, if they want no money from you ever Perfect. If they do.. Then I would think very carefully about what they can do that you can't do yourself.

Basically any company that calls themselves an 'ARTIST DEVELOPMENT' company. Real development deals from labels are rare these days, I believe they were big in the 90's (??) but now they are extremely rare, but you do not pay for them. I don't know how to make it any clearer.

Don't be fooled by the language tricks they use, or the non-names they drop. I know a few multimillion selling song writers, and they cant get me in any more than some random off the street could. Be smart, be direct find out always, what they get out of the deal. If it is just your money.. then I'd run a mile!
Oh and a great question for them, and a fair one, 'Who have you broken?' If they are so good at their job, surely they must have one success in their history of the company? 





These are my personal opinions, and conclusions drawn from my dealings with these companies, but of course you are free to make your own judgements. 

Final Artefact

Hey guys! Today saw the final parts of the course get finished! Presentation done! So thought I'd upload my final artefact for anyone who missed it. Hope you enjoy!

Happy new year and good bye coursework!

A couple of hours ago I sent my final artefact and my giant piece of writing off into the world, and I am terrified, I couldn't have done any more than I did, I know that, so I mean what ever happens happens, but at the same time if it doesn't work out as I hope it will...of course I'll be kicking myself wishing I'd done something else, something more to it, to make it better. Arghhhh anyway, there's nothing I can do now except get ready for this year and get cracking with it. I cant sit still and just wait for results. They are so many months away.  :S New year, new everything. Lets do it guys!!

Christmas Cover

Hey guys,  I made this video as a Christmas card to a couple of very close friends of mine, I thought I's share it with you. I recorded the song for the advent calendar I've been part of this year. Hope you enjoy it :)

Ave maria.

hi guys this is my christmas cover of ave maria... for you. Theres a 2 min linking story at the beginning but its the right video. xx check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeaLRjPNmQQ

UHOH! It's December!! CAMPUS SESSION NOV 21ST

I've seen a couple of blogs saying how quick time is going, I COMPLETELY AGREE. One of my songs has the lyrics "Time goes slow when you don't want it that way, time goes fast when you need it to stay", and I really believe it! When you're bored with nothing to do, don't you find yourself wishing the day away, but when its all happening and you need all the time you can get its practically gone in the time it takes for you to blink.

Last week I headed over to Hendon to drop off my library books and attend the campus session. Alan and paula were present, and we were looking at defining what is meant by the word support and success. What does it mean to support the arts? Does is mean providing finacial support or just going to see free shows when you can. In a way is support simply engagement. Supporting by just keeping it going.

Nice to see my friend Chiara has joined the course. As a fellow Conti girl I wish you all the best of luck with the course! :)

We then talked about the literature we read. When you read an article you need to check who wrote it because they can easily be written from biased opinions or be funded by a company with an agenda.

When you take a question and go through a process with it, you have to look at it from different angles in order to sort of break it down and find lots of different in depth meanings and answers. Perhaps a better way of phrasing that is just don't the question or its answer at face value.

It was suggested that you do not need to be academic to be a good dancer. Why is it that our professional vocational diploma courses are not enough?
Its true not all good dancers are good teachers but its also true that some of the dance teachers in schools are not good dancers. So why is it it enough that the bad dancer with the teaching qualification can teach in schools, but a good dancer, who went to a professional dance school, and has their ISTD teaching qualifications, would then also need to go back and get some sort of degree before they could teach.
My question, if we don’t need to be ‘academic’ to be good dancers, why do we not just train and then do teacher training why do we need to have the degree top up, is our vocational training just not seen as worthy?

The aim of the BAPP course is to try to get you to think through things more and to open your mind up to possibility. We were all given a list of words and asked to choose a few in groups and come up with a definition. 

We chose Rehearsal, Deconstruction, Argument and Communication. On the bits of paper we have brainstormed what words came to mind when trying to define it and then a short definition at the bottom of the page.

I thought breaking these words down was pretty interesting as I realised that we use these words everyday without having a clear definition of what each one means.

If we were to apply the same process to questions given to us on a regular basis we'd find that the possible answers are much greater.

I've added some pictures, so If you missed the campus session you can have a look at what we were doing. We also filmed our definitions and there's a link for that below :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWrJiNV7aMs

Adesola mentioned she'd like to see what I do, so I got a couple of clips recorded for you all :)

Lil cheeky video from my set the other night

Quick blog

Just a quick one to say I've started pulling together bits of video footage from this summer to chop into the final artefact. I think I've settled on the Idea of making a music video...displaying everything I've been doing, toying with the idea of putting little sentences across it ? almost like little bullet point tips. what do you think? though I do want to end up with a usable video, I want to make sure that its useful and helpful to others at the same time.  Anyway where is everyone else at?x

Group Skype

Yesterday morning, myself, Adesola, and Natalie and Kim from module 2 all got together on skype to have a bit of a brainstorm and a chat about what we're all up to. Well for the most part we just explained to each other where we were up to and what we were each looking at. I think the skype session was quite helpful for Kim and Natalie as it gave them a chance to talk to someone on the next module. I think because the readers are so dense and very wordy, its easy in module 2 to get bogged down in that and try and make sure you're looking at all the case studies but actually I remember getting to the case studies and even trying to finish reading them was hard enough. I pointed out that the readers are there mostly just to get you thinking, make your mind a bit more active and consider other points of view and that you should just take what you can from them. You don't have to apply every single one to your situation or come up with the answer. It's more to get you asking the questions. The ladies were also struggling with some of the research in module two, and panicking about not getting responses, but I think hearing from Adesola and myself that actually module two isn't so much about gathering your research, its more about considering the different methods and working out which ones will be best for you to use in module three.
For me, I would have liked some input from someone else in module three, purely so I could check that I'm on the right track. But talking to people in module two reminded me about ethics and Adesola's advise about that to them was actually very applicable to myself. I kind of skimmed over the ethics section in module two. Not because was being lazy, but more because my inquiry is based 96% on pre-existing data. So I didn't really feel that the inquiry taking place was going to effect too many people in that way. It certainly wouldn't effect work or the artists. Speaking about ethics with the group reminded me that there is more to it. Ethics is not about right or wrong but about how you are experienced. So in a way my whole inquiry relates to ethics because it s about how I am experienced as an artist when I try out these methods. So I can take from this skype chat that I need to go back to module two and just have another look at the ethics section and try and rethink it a bit.
It was also suggested that though I've been writing about what I've been doing, perhaps it might be nice to hear what I've been getting up to. So I'm gonna whack a couple of my songs that I've written and recorded onto hear for you :)

https://soundcloud.com/georgiebirdmusic/easy-to-go

https://soundcloud.com/georgiebirdmusic/cabin-fever

https://soundcloud.com/georgiebirdmusic/tula-rae

https://soundcloud.com/georgiebirdmusic/then-theres-you

https://soundcloud.com/georgiebirdmusic/saw-it-coming

those will take you to soundcloud, please have a listen and hit follow :) and I will follow you back :)
you can also find me here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Georgie-Bird/416931698408343

and it'd be really lovely if you would hit 'Like' on that x

Bit more from those events

Watch the Bucks TV interview and clips from Hobble on the Cobbles, here:

http://www.buckstv.co.uk/buckstv/music/hobble_on_the_cobbles/hobble_on_the_cobbles_2013/little_bird.html

See the photos from Hobble on the Cobbles, here:

http://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/more-news/in-pictures-hobbles-on-the-cobbles-revisited-1-5431130

Watch the Pilot episode of 'The GSpot' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huPLDk2xIjs

Some summer photos to accompany the 'Summer Summary' blog

Hobble on the Cobble's

Open Mic night, Playing guitar with Sinfiction's Dave

Performing with Paul and Mick, as trio 'Roadkill' in Wendova

Singing in Tetsworth, supporting sinfiction

Photo still from Bucks TV video of Hobble on the Cobbles

Tetsworth gig, promotional Flyer

Tetsworth, Little Bird collaborating with Sinfiction

November 16th Set, Chesham

The Bedford at Balham, March 3rd 2014

Shoot pool

Photo Shoot for the website

Photo shoot for the website

Solo Debut at Shoot Pool

Photo Shoot for Website

Shoot Pool Debut

Stone Beer Festival Programme

Performing originals with Kristian

The Gspot Music interview show

Little Bird Promotional Photo

Performing one of Steve's Originals

The diary summary of summer!

At the beginning of term I had this list which was continuously growing of stuff i'd done and achieved over the summer, I thought  I'd wait a bit and get my head around what I was doing before I wrote it up. I'm going to try and keep it fairly to the point. I will backtrack a little to get my bearings.

May-

• In May, if you remember, i decided to go back to Disney for a month, and while I was there I finished of module two and made some contacts back in Aylesbury so I had something to do when I got back.
• So when I got back from France, I joined 'Dreamchaser'. Within a couple of weeks I was helping them set up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and singing at the open mic night weekly, covers with my new musical partner, Paul. *our duo title: Little Bird*

June-

• At the beginning of June, I started co-hosting the Jam Jar at Shoot Pool with Paul, and started helping Steve in the studio while he recorded music for other artists and sometimes recording bits of my music I had written at Disney. Here I started learning about the equipment set up and how to record. I then started going to Pinewood studios with DreamChaser to help them as they network and set up the artists (they take a different one each month). I started having guitar lessons once a week with Seb, a fantastic local musician. I started co-hosting the music nights on Friday and Saturday nights at shoot pool.

• In mid June I visited Stoke Mandeville hospital radio fairly regularly to promote the shoot pool events and Paul and I sang live on the show.
• Kept working in the studio with Paul and Steve and helping them record Kristian, the soundtechy and new artist.

July-

• At the beginning of July I started writing with Kristian. At this point I was working with Paul and Kristian, they both have very different styles of guitar. I found myself to be a bit of a top line writer, as in - I was given the guitar music and I would write the melody and lyrics. I was getting very different results from working with them both. We started put a half and half set together where I would swap guitarists half way through a set to perform both styles of music. I was asked to sing at a wedding in Bicester. I performed a couple of slower songs with Steve on the piano and then Paul and I performed covers for the rest of the evening. I performed with Paul and Mick Davenport in Wendover for a private party.

August-

• Performed with Paul at a wedding in Aylesbury. We then did a 3 hour set at the Green Man in Aylesbury.
• Still hosting and setting up at shoot pool for Thursday Friday and Saturday nights.
• We trialled 'The G Spot', an internet interview show, for local original musicians
• Every week we were writing and performing the originals.
• Helped co write some lyrics for one of Steve's originals
• Sang at open mic night at Starz bar in Aylesbury
• Played again at Stoke Mandeville radio, was interviewed about pending hobble on the cobbles gig and the hobble off the cobbles gig later at shoot pool.
• Paul and I supported SinFiction in Tetsworth
• Paul and I played as original and covers duo- 'Little Bird' at Aylesbury's biggest music festival, 'Hobble on the cobbles' in the town centre. We later hosted and performed at 'Hobble off the cobbles' which went on til 3am at shoot pool aylesbury.
• Interviewed by Bucks TV after Hobble on the Cobbles
• I I'd been learning how to work the sound deck and hear what was right and wrong with the sound techies at Dreamchaser, I then worked the sound for Sinfiction's gig at the Dashwood Arms in Piddignton. 

September-

• Seb had been flown to florida previously for cancer treatment, he was out there for 2 and bit months. To help keep Seb and his mum going, Kristian (who is also Seb's brother as well as a soundtechie) and I decided to go over to Florida to visit them for a week. Whilst in Jacksonville, we spent a lot of time in the massive music shops and I bought 'Luna'. My beautiful new guitar. I was only right that Luna performed her debut in Florida, and because it would be a great experience for me and Kristian, we decided to get up and play a few of our original tracks at an open mic night in Jacksonville. We were really well received. Buying my new guitar, which has such a nice sound revitalised my love of playing (though I was still a beginner) and a began writing on my own, guitar and topline.

• When we got back to England, I started a full time job, after a month of working there (over the course of which I had started writing with the lead guitarist of Sinfiction, and my work with DreamChaser was coming to a inevitable break due to my change in musical approach,) I decided that the job just wasn't worth the paycheque. It made me lifeless and dull, I had no get up and go left. As soon as I quit the job, I was back to my old self.
• I decided to leave DreamChaser as the double act 'Little Bird' was getting fairly well known, and I decided that it would be best for me to start a fresh on my own now before it got to big.

October-

• After practising and practising on Luna, I'd started writing a lot, and before I knew it, within a couple of weeks I had three original tracks ready to go. 
• By this point, Dave from Sinfiction had become somewhat of a mentor to me. Giving me tips on how to promote myself and when I had doubts, reassuring me. I think he's had a huge impact on my progress over the last months or so.  As Seb has been very busy with his band and recovering from his treatment, Dave has also started giving me the odd tips on the guitar.
• I got into the studio with Steve one evening and left with 3 recordings of original tracks. These were by no means perfect but they are good enough for content on the website and for use on soundcloud.
• Dave set me up on soundcloud and helped me set up my own website. I set up a new facebook page to redirect fans away from the Little Bird site and we then linked twitter up with the account.
• I needed content for the website, so I arranged a photo shoot with a local connection, photographer Alex Chadwick.

November-

• Me and Paul played a covers and originals set at Stone Beer festival, as this was already booked for us as a duo.
• November so far has been a big mush of uni and tweaking of my performance. I started the month eager but nervous about doing a full set on my own. (Previously I had always been accompanied by a guitarist). By this point my guitar ability is just about good enough to get by, and I performed my first fully solo set at Shoot Pool on Saturday Night.
• Now I know I'm ready and the only way to get better is to keep putting myself out there, I have arranged to play sets at The Drawing Room, Chesham, on november 16th and at the prestigious, 'Bedford' at Balham in March 2014. (home to performance from the likes of Ed Sheeran, Gabriella Cilmi and The Feeling. 
• Paul and I were booked in September to play at the Ambie awards coming up at the end of this month
• And tonight I will be recording my new track in steves studio, (potentially the one to be used for the final artefact) and hopefully I can upload that onto soundcloud, my website and facebook tomorrow.
• I also have a short set and interview with Carol Jenkins in the new Oakhouse Bar, Aylesbury on November 25th.

final artefact ideas

I've been thinking about my final artefact for a long time now and I actually thought I'd decided and that it wasn't an issue.
As my Inquiry is into the most employed methods for entering the recorded music industry as a singer, I need to create an artefact that really captures that and not just a leaflet with a couple of tips on it. After speaking with Adesola, she came up with some really helpful ideas and suggestions, like writing a song about getting into the industry and perhaps performing it as my final artefact. Before this I'd intended previously on recording a track onto a CD and filming it so I could show a digital copy and a hard copy and showing what could be done with that some how... I don't know this thought process is confused and not getting any clearer.

Now I'm brainstorming ideas in regards to writing a song loosely around the process of what I'm trying to achieve, but also perhaps create a rough music video showing me putting all the main found themes and ideas into practice and maybe also put together a physical press kit to show... saying that I may not have enough things to put in the press kit yet. Anyway Im toying with the idea. I think if I end up making a video, the actual song content isn't vital to be about the topic. I could use a song I have written over this month.

hmm,, any thoughts?

chances...?

As you'll all have seen I'm trying to grasp whether this creating a business plan is relevant all over a wide variety of professions. I think my lack of motivation is down to a number of factors, but then I thought about it from a different perspective. When your on a treadmill and it starts getting that little bit too difficult and your legs go a bit wobbly and you think mehhh enough... but you know you havent quite run as far as you would have liked... what do you do? Well for me, I switch it to a screen where I can see my distance or my time and I think to myself *Just get to this point* whether its 5km or 30mins, and I noticed I tend to get a mini kick, its that little bit of hope that says your a little closer to your goal, sometimes i'd do that a couple of time and before I now it I've been on there for an extra mile. Well what if I applied the same target setting to my career, and like I create a fitness plan a few months before a half marathon, I write up a business plan. I could write he plan of everything I want to achieve overall, then break it down into how I would go about achieving those things, and then put little time brackets in for when I would like to have achieved these things by. And sure, you never know what life is going to throw at you, and things maybe go a little faster or slower than planned, but then at least I can track this and keep note of why and how to remedy it in the future. Like we were advised for this module to plan out our study for the summer and new term months, I know I felt a lot more productive when I realised I could tick a lot of those things off.

Over the summer I've been trying out a lot of different things, such as, one reoccurring theme was lots of open mic nights and getting involved wherever I can, so I have run an open mic night at a local venue, joined a local original music promotion company, joined other acts in their gigs, gigged as a covers duo , gigged as an originals duo, performed backing vocals,  and helped recording.

Another theme was learn to play and write your own music, so I bought a guitar, started having lessons, started co writing with other musicians and now write solo.

Another theme was publicise yourself,  since learning a bit more about the ways in which I could exploit the internet for personal gain, I have now got my own website under construction http://www.georgiebird.co.uk/ (again its under construction so please dont judge it too harshly)  a thriving musician page on facebook, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Georgie-Bird/416931698408343 one (now retired but previously thriving) music page on facebook https://www.facebook.com/littlebirdandfriends, a soundcloud page with recordings https://soundcloud.com/georgiebirdmusic#, professional photographs, a twitter account linked to my facebook page, a professional email account set up to my website,  I'm also set up on radio airplay and Bandcamp. (however these are still being worked on). Though I have a few more sites to tackle, this is massive progress to what I hadat the beginning of the year.

So the next theme is creating a plan... I've come to the conclusion that this is important. I have found a musician that I really look up to. Dave is in a band called sinfiction, http://www.sinfiction.co.uk/ he has become both a friend and a mentor to me. He has everything planned. Not in the sense that he knows where he will be in a years time, because who knows what doors might open, but in the sense that he knows exactly what he needs to do to keep progressing at a good rate and get to where he would to be in a years time. He advised that he splits the year up in to quarters and at the same time as gigging and rehearsing weekly, each quarter is dedicated to a different area of promoting the band. For example this quarter is dedicated to getting radio airplay and air time. So his advice to me was work out steps you need to take, and then work out how you can do them, and get doing it. Book things in, because then you know you have a date to work to.

The autobiographies and biographies didn't mention any of these singers having a plan, but most of them clearly had luck on their side as each one kind of had fame fall into their laps one day when they were out playing a small time gig. BUT sitting and waiting for something to happen doesnt make it happen. So all these 'how to guides' are telling me to make a plan and go out there and make it happen, as no one else is going to do it for me and now its not all about just bagging a record deal. Would you really be willing to leave your entire career up to pure chance? Or do you think planning and achieving is the way forward?

Skype

I had a chat with Adesola last week when I was freaking out that I'd got stuck and couldn't really go any further as I thought I'd fallen at the first hurdle of writing a literature review. I had a lot on with work and though I'd done a lot of my research over the summer, somehow, when October hit, I panicked, had a new job, (which I've now quit as it was making me miserable and taking up allllll my time) and I didn't really Know what to do about finding theorists views on my topic.
Turns out there's not that many technical theories about starting a singing career, but there are lots of books. I've been  researching all different types of music books, such as music management books, independent music careers books, and recording industry statistics books. Some of which were more helpful with others. Luckily, like Anastasias pieces of paper - in her blog where she writes about achieving steps towards her career, I found by summarising to Adesola what I had actually done over the summer about progressing through the module, that I had actually done a lot more than I realised and I just needed to compile it all and get cracking with my giant inquiry essay. So yes I am trying to catch up on my blogging and put all these themes that I've found into practice as well as trying to get on top of that essay.

I do have a question for anyone reading this though.

Assuming:

You have chosen what career path you wish to take...
you have completed the relevant training or education requirements...
you are now in a position to start your career.......

WHAT IS YOUR FIRST 3 MOVES..IN ORDER OF HOW YOU WOULD PERFORM THEM.

WHAT ARE THE FIRST THREE THINGS YOU WOULD DO TO START YOUR CAREER. ???

or IF YOU ARE ALREADY ESTABLISHED IN YOUR CAREER... WHAT DID YOU DO FIRST??

please do get back to me, i'd be very intrigued to hear your answers...

Walts words

I took this rhyme from 'This Game of Hip hop artist management', it's about what I said in my previous blog about fears only being as real as you let them. What has this got to do with my inquiry topic i hear your cry?...

basically I've found a number of things that keep popping up in each book about 'starting your music career'. One of which is to realise that you are the product and you are a business.  However, before you can even start to make your business plan, you have to realise who you are and where you fit it. I've really found this book interesting because it has identified my problem with fear whether that be a fear of success or a fear of failure. At present, my business plan starts with ICE-ing THOSE FEARS!

Anybody got anything they wanna add to this subject because it'd be nice to know i'm not the only one who's had to broach this!

'The Success attitude'

My inquiry is based largely on pre existing data, in other words, i've spent my summer, watching and reading interviews, reading autobiographies and biographies and articles about what people have already done to kickstart their careers. I think at times finding motivation for our careers (that do at times seem to be going no where..) can be difficult but actually I think at that point, taking a step back and rearranging my point of view really helps. I read a book recently that i'd just like to share a bit with you because i found it to be realy useful.
'This Game of hip hop artist management, the success attitude' by Walt F.J Goodridge, may seem like an unlikely book to find relevant to us little musical theatre types, but actually as I work my way into a career in music I thought I'd see what Walt had to say about careers in the music industry.

The whole beginning of the book spends time tackling the issue of the self and attitude. He suggests that the key to success is 'The success attitude'. Walt considers that there are 5 success attitudes each with there own key word: page 18
The Negative success attitude- Key word PESSIMISM, I cant succeed.why even try?
The Passive success attitude-LIMITATIONS, I might succeed, if someone helps me...all i need is the right person
The Positive success attitude-POSSIBILITIES, I can succeed, if i work hard towards my goals
The Active success attitude- PLAN, I will succeed, despite obstacles, despite other peoples issues i can succeed.
The creative success attitude- CREATION, because of other's issues and because of setbacks, I will succeed.
I decided after reading this that actualy, perhaps I'm a pessimist and at best perhaps passive. AND THAT IS TERRIBLE. As I touched on in a blog in the last module, the first place to start your career is having self belief. If I don't believe in me what on earth makes me think some one else will.
I really liked Anastasia's blog about motivating herself and her flatmates by publicly updating every day what she's done to pursue her career goals as one of the biggest common themes I've found during my inquiry research is 'have a plan, and have goals'. Updating something like that everyday would keep me up to date on which of my set goals I'm achieving.

The book also suggests the term 'ICE'ing your fears.
I-indentify yours fears
C- confront your fears
E- eliminate your fears

So, like the other interesting tips I've found during my research, I'm trying this out and noting down the outcome! But I thought it might be helpful for some of you with similar issues.

MODULE 3!!!!

Hellooooo !

Hi guys, a hearty welcome back, and lets get cracking, to all! I have lots to fill you in on as soon as I manage to organise my brain which at the moment is allll over the place. I have photos and possibly videos to show you all what I've been upto over the summer. I've got to say, it's had its ups and downs but I think I'm ready to run with this module and start piecing together ideas for my final artefact.
Tonight I'm singing at the green man which you'll all remember is where I met toby (the first guitarist I worked with).  I need to start from the beginning when I have a good amount of thinking time but I also have a couple of people I'd like you to meet.

Right I'm going for a jam so I'll start that update soon x  :D

to the studio!

 

Whilst in france, I began writing some songs, the guys from 'dreamchaser' took me to their studio to show me where I'd be working and we recorded one of my songs. This was just a rough structure recording which we will later be producing properly. :)