Nick Roth, Steve Lindsey, Frances Mitchell and Laoise O’Brien to present live as part of its online professional development course

Music Network presents Taking Charge of your Performance Career 2020, a free online professional development course for musicians delivered by four leading industry experts. The special series of live online training sessions aims to help musicians from all genres to develop the skills necessary to respond to the music industry’s shifting demands. Streamed Live on Facebook, the presentations will take place every Tuesday and Thursday at 3pm from 28 April - 21 May, delivered by Nick Roth, Steve Lindsey, Frances Mitchell and Laoise O’Brien.

The course will offer relevant and up-to-date advice in the areas of sharing music in a digital environment, navigating the music publishing industry, self-management for artists and preparing for an audio recording.

Commenting on the announcement, Music Network’s CEO Sharon Rollston said: “We are very pleased to launch this exciting new online support which aims to help professional musicians to adapt and excel, both during the current period and into the future. In a matter of weeks, the music industry has changed radically and Music Network has been adapting likewise, to continue to support musicians. This course is free and available to musicians working in any genre and we hope many will benefit from the presentations.”

Musician and producer Nick Roth will present two sessions addressing the current restructuring of how music is being made and shared (28 & 30 April), while Steve Lindsey, musician and publisher, will cover essential areas of music publishing, including details on copyright ownership, song splits, registrations, Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), income streams, contracts and music usages (5 & 7 May).

Innovation and artist management expert Frances Mitchell will speak about how musicians can manage their careers, focusing both on personal presentation skills and on getting the most out of the digital tools available (12 & 14 May) and musician and producer Laoise O’Brien will present on the subject of planning and preparing for a recording, from concept to finished product (19 & 21 May).

Viewers are encouraged to post questions for the experts via the live feed on Music Network’s Facebook Page, which will be answered during a 15-minute session at the end of each presentation. The recorded presentations will also be available to view afterwards on Music Network’s YouTube channel. This is just one of a number of ways in which Music Network will support musicians during the current period.

For more details please visit: musicnetwork.ie, or see:
YouTube: Music Network Ireland
Facebook: @musicnetworkireland

Music Network is funded by the Arts Council. Music Network is a national music touring and development organisation whose mission is to make high quality live music available and accessible to people throughout Ireland and to help musicians develop fulfilling careers.

For further media information please contact:
Muireann Sheahan | 087 265 3293 | communications@musicnetwork.ie
Or
Holly Ní Ghráda | 087 4198653 | publicity@musicnetwork.ie
COURSE OUTLINE:

Tuesday 28th April and Thursday 30th April, 3pm
Music in the Digital Environment by Nick Roth
Musician and producer Nick Roth will present two sessions addressing the current restructuring of how music is being made and shared.

Questioning how digital media platforms with their potential for radically transformed content could impact the sector, Nick’s first session, ‘Making Music’, will explore the fundamentals of how and why we make music during a period of systematic flux. Nick’s second session, ‘Sharing Music’, will touch on how technology can enable artists to reach wider audiences, and how artists can use data to optimise their practise. It will explore where new trends are leading the music industry, highlighting elements of musical life that remain constant in the face of change.
Nick Roth is artistic director of the Yurodny Ensemble, a founding member of the Water Project, and a partner at Diatribe Records. Since 2015, he has served as artist-in-residence at the European Space Agency, dlr LexIcon, the California Academy of Sciences, the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. His work is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre and the Association of Irish Composers. Nick’s music seeks the liberation of improvisation from composition, the poetic syntax of philosophical enquiry, and the function of music as translative epistemology. His compositions interrogate the inherence of meaning in form, whilst simultaneously subsumed by an insatiable appetite for literature.

Tuesday 5^th May and Thursday 7^th May, 3pm
Publishing: The Fuel that Powers the Music Industry by Steve Lindsey
Musician and publisher Steve Lindsey will cover essential areas of music publishing, including details on copyright ownership, song splits, registrations, Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), income streams, contracts and music usages.

Steve’s first session, ‘Something Out of Nothing’, will follow the early stages of a song’s life: protecting it, legitimising it, nurturing it and helping it enter the world at large.  His second session, ‘Reaping the Rewards’, will consider how to get the best out of a song, explaining the music publishing industry’s role in nurturing creativity, safeguarding copyright, enhancing the value of compositions, and policing earnings.

Steve Lindsey entered the music industry as writer and bassist with the band Deaf School. He went on to record three albums for Warner Bros Records with Deaf School, followed by two albums with The Planets. Steve began his music publishing career at Chappell Music, Go! Discs Music, and Island Music. In 1997 he established independent publishing company Monument Music and later set up Melankolic Songs in conjunction with Massive Attack. In 2001, Steve founded Elevate Music as a stand-alone Irish publishing company. In addition to his work as a publisher, Steve sits on the boards of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS Ireland) and the Music Publishers Association of Ireland (MPAI).

Tuesday 12^th May and Thursday 14^th May, 3pm
Managing Yourself and Managing Your Workflow by Frances Mitchell

Innovation and artist management expert Frances Mitchell will speak about how musicians can manage their careers, focusing both on personal presentation skills and on getting the most out of the digital tools available.

Frances’s first session, ‘It’s All About People’, will focus on the importance of networking, offering tips on how musicians can network and boost their presentation skills in order to pitch themselves effectively, with a specific emphasis on communicating effectively remotely rather than in face-to-face situations. Particularly relevant to musicians at this time, Frances’s second session, ‘What Tools Can Help Me?’ will consider the different digital options available for self-management and why we should use them.

Frances Mitchell is currently the Director of Business Development for Dolmen, Ireland’s leading product design and innovation consultancy, where she is responsible for sales, marketing, PR, HR and strategic development. She has previously been the Head of Programme Development for the Innovation Academy in UCD, the Director of her own artists agency, Invented, CEO of Crash Ensemble, and a Production Engineer/Line Manager for Procter and Gamble in France. Frances holds a BE in Mechanical Engineering, an MPhil in Music and Media Technologies, an MBA, and a Professional Certificate in University Teaching. She also recently completed the Trinity International Growth Programme and is a longstanding board member of Crash Ensemble.

Tuesday 19th May and Thursday 21st May, 3pm
Preparing for an Audio Recording by Laoise O’Brien
Musician and producer Laoise O’Brien will present on the subject of planning and preparing for a recording, from concept to finished product.

Laoise’s first session, ‘Advance Preparation’, will address the general principles of recording, and explore the initial artistic and practical questions facing a prospective recording artist. Key areas of consideration will include costs, venues and personal preparation. Her second session, ‘During and After a Recording’, will offer information on the recording process itself, including an overview of mixing and mastering, and will conclude with tips on post-recording matters such as reproduction and graphic design. Laoise will also offer pointers on managing online content, including using video, marrying audio to video, and identifying useful platforms.

Laoise O’Brien is a producer and co-founder of Jiggery Pokery Productions which to date has produced over twenty-five albums to critical acclaim, as well as video, radio content, and music for live productions. A practising musician, her production skill-set includes project management, studio supervision, score reading, music editing, and artwork management. She works with a number of graphic designers, photo and videographers, technicians, and post-production professionals, and enjoys a successful collaboration with recording engineer, Ben Rawlins.