Success Beyond The Score

Contracts, regulations, taxes, liabilities, trademarks and copyright. There is a big legal side to working as a musician. Not all of us, particularly those who are just starting, can afford hiring a professional to take care of that. Even if you have the resources, you still need to know your way around legislation to better communicate with your advisors, protect yourself and your audience.

With all this in mind, on Wednesday 22 April 2026, Millicent will be teaching a FREE webinar via Zoom about legal know-hows for gigging musicians. It is open to everybody who has access to the internet and wants to learn! All you need to do is sign-up following this link.

If you would like to have an idea of how the sessions go, here we have a couple of examples.

• Click here to watch a segment of the session about how to promote your music.
• Click here to watch the answer to a question submitted by a participant to that same session.

Please, share this event with everybody who could be inter...

"What we play is life."
—Louis Armstrong, in His Own Words: Selected Writings

When I came across this quote, it prompted a lot of thoughts and ideas. I am interested in knowing what it brings to your mind. Try listening to some of the timeless songs of Louis Armstrong, which are his thoughts put into practice, to reflect.

What does "what we play is life" mean to you, as a musician? You can tell me here.

So far, this year we have offered two free webinars for emerging musicians: ‘How to stream your live music performance’, and ‘15 ways to promote your music online and offline’. They were successful and enriching experiences that gathered testimonials like this:

I found [‘15 ways to promote your music online and offline’] really interesting and informative. There were so many fundamental and incredibly useful tips that had somehow passed me by, e.g., adding information about yourself in the signature of your email – genius! I absolutely agree with the “concentrate on one social media platform at a time” approach. It will make my life a lot easier.

We are very happy with these results, and we are going to bring you more of these opportunities throughout the year. Here is a basic outline of what is to come:

• April: Free webinar about the legal framework for musicians and copyright.
• May: Exclusive events for Time For My Music members.
• June: Short paid course about how to get book
...

On this Easter Sunday, let's continue revisiting season 2 of the podcast Success Beyond The Score, introducing the next guest: Louise Dengate.

Louise is an exceptional vocalist and coach. After finishing her music degree, she first became a receptionist, but realised that it was not for her, and set out to grow her music into a full time career. She now has a Gospel choir, does teaching, coaching and has a music agency. During the pandemic, she navigated by developing her passion about psychology and the stage, and worked together with her husband, who is also a full-time musician, to continue their careers while also growing their family.

Here is the first part of the interview:

And here is the second part, where Louise talks about her career highs and lows, the challenges of being a female director, how to make music your career, and some truths about reality TV competitions and their influence on success:

We hope you enjoy hearing Millicent and Louise's conversation again....

On May 7, Wales will vote to elect the 96 new members of the Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament). In preparation, the Musicians Union has written a manifesto that describes actions to improve conditions for music, culture and the arts.

Election time is one of the best to make your needs known to leaders and politicians. If you are unsure of how to proceed, the MU has outlined some actions and provided templates in their website.

Don't sit back and wait for others to decide how your community is going to be managed. If you work in the arts and culture sector, it is vital that you make your experience and struggles part of the discussion for a better government. Let's pave the way to make Welsh music and culture shine brighter than ever!

Once done with our revisit of season 1 of the podcast Success Beyond The Score, today we want to direct your attention to season 2.

First aired in 2021, and produced under the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, this season introduced two big changes: the presence of guests, and the video call format. The episodes, available now on YouTube on top of all the usual podcast streaming platforms, started with a brief intro:

The first guest of the season was Tony Bean, the CEO and founder of 5AM Records. He is an international artiste developer, songwriter and record producer who has worked with major record labels such as Polydor, Motown and Warner Brothers. Tony has worked with Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child, Usher, Christina Aguilera, Lemar, Beverley Knight, Kenny Thomas, Tyrese, Alexandra Burke, Freddie Kofi, Nu Life, Monique Thomas and Eternal, to name a few.

The first part of the interview, which constitutes episode 2, starts with Tony talking about what it is like being a se...

The demonstration against the rising threat of the far right is this Saturday, 28 March 2026! An initiative of Together Alliance, which is a country-wide coalition of civil society organisations working for inclusion, equity and justice, this demonstration is set to start at noon in Central London.

If you can attend, please do so. Every voice is important in the effort to stop fascism from controlling or destroying the arts, and society at large, in its pursue of dominance. If you cannot attend, spread the word, and bring the sentiments of empathy, respect and equality to your daily life. As this piece of art in the remnants of the Berlin wall puts it: 

Many small people who in many small places do many small things can alter the face of the world.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us.”
—Henry S. Haskins in “Meditations in Wall Street.” (William Morrow & Co.)

We tend to remain occupied with what has happened in our past and what may happen in the future, instead of looking at what we have to contribute to the world with our music in the present.

Instead of worrying about the mistakes of our last performance, and getting anxious about the mistakes we could make in the future, we should be focusing in what we can do right now to practice and improve, and what we can deliver to the audience when we are with them.

Any thoughts? Share them with us.

On International Women's Day, we want to highlight the effort and achievements of our community for emerging female musicians, Time For My Music.

As the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world into lock-down, our creative director, Millicent Stephenson, moved her projects to support women in music to the digital space. Time For My Music was thus born as an online community, where women could network, learn about the music industry, and build a path towards their goals.

As a group, Time For My Music has put together two online concerts and one live performance in the city of Birmingham. You can watch them on YouTube:

• Highlights of first online concert
• Second online concert
• Live concert, part 1
• Live concert, part 2

They also got a photographic exhibition:

Individual members have gone to become part of bands, get booked for private gigs, perform in front of bigger audiences and grown their social media following.

Women are underrepresented in the music industry, particularly as...

It has been some time since we updated and refreshed the website. Whilst it accommodates our needs, we think we can make it clearer and easier to navigate. There are also some resources and pages that we would like to highlight better, so you can get all the benefits of being part of this community.

For this reason, we will be overhauling our page in the upcoming months. If, while using the site, you have thought about something you would like to see adjusted, added or removed, now is the perfect time to let us know. We are also all ears in regard to the kind of content you would like us to provide in addition to what we already have. 

We will seek to address all concerns and ideas forwarded our way. To communicate with us, please send an e-mail to info@millicentstephenson.com.

Thank you, and we hope that you are looking forward to seeing the new look and functionality of Success Beyond The Score!