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Pathways Into Music research guide launched at The Great Escape
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 16 May 2022
CMU’s Pathways Into Music Foundation last week used the MUSIC + EDUCATION sessions at The Great Escape to continue its research work which aims to build bridges between music education and the music industry, so to better support aspiring music-makers. Along the way some existing research was presented, some new research was launched, and some further research even happened live on stage.
The Pathways Into Music Foundation has been mapping music industries, music careers and the music-maker community in recent years, looking at how hobbyist artists now routinely monetise their music online, and at the journey DIY phase artists go on as they seek to pursue a career around their music-making. Some of those music-makers will ultimately engage the conventional music industry – locally and nationally – but there is work to be done before that’s going to happen.
For music-makers in the DIY phase, Pathways Into Music has developed an ‘artist circle’, helping them to navigate the process frontline artists go through in growing an audience and building a business around their songs and recordings. The circle is split into four quarters: creative, fanbase, promotion and finance.
The foundation then recruited twelve music industry experts to put together ten key pieces of knowledge and information that we should be getting out to music-makers for each quarter of the circle, with 40 top tips in total. Those experts then took to the stage at TGE last week to talk through their tips in more detail. The plan is to make that knowledge and information available to DIY phase artists via music educators and talent development organisations.
“Music educators and talent development organisations are often the first point of contact aspiring music-makers have with the wider music industry”, says Pathways Into Music director Phil Nelson. “Those educators and organisations are often more focused on the art of music-making, but being a music-maker today – even as a hobbyist – also often involves releasing music and connecting with an audience. Which means there’s some extra knowledge and information that we really need to get to early career artists and songwriters”.
“Educators and talent development teams are best positioned to provide that knowledge and information”, he goes on. “Part of our mission is to provide those educators and teams with the knowledge and information they should be passing on – in a simple, concise and easy-to-digest way. The artist circle – and the 40 tips our music industry experts put together – can really help with that process”.
We’ll be publishing each set of ten tips in the CMU Daily over this week. But there is also a new guide summarising all of Pathways Into Music’s recent research work – including the artist circle – which was made possible by the support of BIMM and CD Baby. Launched at TGE last week, you can now download a PDF copy of the guide here.
The new phase of Pathways Into Music research that was launched at TGE last Wednesday is another round of mapping, this time mapping music education in all its many forms. As a starting point, anyone involved in music education in anyway is encouraged to put themselves on the foundation’s radar by filling out this short form here.
