Success Beyond The Score

The following group of episodes of the podcast Success Beyond the Score are all about how to market yourself. While the event discussed in episode 14 has long since past, the process described is a good example of what to expect when trying to get that sort of gigs. From episode 15 onwards, Millicent will talk you through the design of your Music Press Kit.

Have a listen:

14. How to perform in the Commonwealth Games 2022

Would you like to perform in the Commonwealth Games in 2022, which are being held in the city of Birmingham and the West Midlands region, United Kingdom? In today's episode, Millicent explains how to get yourself in.

15. What should you have in your Music Press Kit?

What is a Music Press Kit? Is it different from an Electronic Press Kit? What should be in it? Whether you are in the early stages of your music or performing regularly, a Press Kit is a must.

16. How to write an artist bio

What should you put in your music bio? How should it be written? What sho

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Performance art demands the better and the most from creatives. Our physical and mental capabilities are always being tested. We engage our memory to learn the parts of our act and be able to perform them on stage from beginning to end, and we need endurance to withstand it without losing our energy and presence. We require quick problem-solving skills to react accordingly if something goes wrong (and how many things can and will go wrong!), along with good stress and anxiety management. Our craft has an impact in different parts of our body: tendons and joints for dancers, vocal cords and respiratory system for singers, etc. For all of this, a health service specialised in the needs of performing artists is essential for the survival of our industry.

This is where BAPAM, the British Association of Performance Arts Medicine, comes into play. Established in 1984, it is now the largest provider of clinical services to the UK's performing arts sector, supporting everybody from students t...

In order to improve and diversify the offer for you in Success Beyond The Score, during autumn we conducted a survey about your preferences regarding short courses and coaching sessions. Your answers helped us understand what format, duration and prices are best for you. Now, we are developing our offer to welcome 2026 with new material to boost your career.

Your input is very valuable to us. Thank you for giving us the chance to tailor our products to your needs. Now, while we get ready to launch our new offers, let us remind you of the resources currently available on our website:

• Podcast: Three seasons packed with information about the music industry by Millicent and other professionals with decades of experience.
• Freebies: Get valuable insights on the music industry at no cost.
• E-learning opportunities: From stage craft to backing tracks production, these paid courses will equip you with everything you need to develop as a gigging musician or singer.
• Time For My Music: an on
...

Large Language Models (LLMs) have experienced a massive boom in the last couple of years. Their use has spread across all industries, creating a surge of multimedia content generated through Artificial Intelligence (genAI). After the initial wave of excitement, more and more institutions and organisations have come forward to denounce the negative impact of this technology in multiple aspects.

One of them has to do with creative ownership. In order to function, LLMs must be fed gigantic amounts of data. So far, there has not been adequate regulation about the origin of said data, nor how the human creators of it should be recognised and compensated. In the case of music, this has resulted in the work of hundreds of thousands of composers and recording artists being fed to LLMs without consent. To aggravate things, the musical output generated by LLMs is fast to produce and cheap to sell, which has degraded or outright eliminated jobs for musicians.

Updating the existing legislation o...

In the first article of this series, we thought about what we want to achieve. Then, in the second entry, we reflected a little deeper to understand why we want what we want. So far, the most practical part of this exercise has been to write ideas down, you haven't had to stand up from the couch just yet.

Now, however, we have arrived to the point where the vast majority of people get stuck: the how. How can we get to where we want to get? What do we need? Where and how to start? The questions and the uncertainty can easily overwhelm you.

The first thing that we need to do is to step back, breathe, and focus on the elements of our vision. What is there that you need to acquire? What do you need to do in order to acquire those things? You'll be surprised by how frequently a daunting task becomes simple and easy just by paying no mind to anxiety, considering instead the logical steps needed to execute it.

Let's say that your goal is to play at open mics in the next year. What do you n...

The podcast Success Beyond The Score was one of the foundational initiatives of the website full of resources that you know today. While the first season is already a few years old, it contains valuable information and perspectives that are still helpful. If you got a moment, why not revisit some of the episodes? Perhaps something in there will be relevant to where you currently are in your music journey.

For your consideration, here are the three first episodes of season 1:

1. Introduction

The what, why and by whom of the podcast Success Beyond The Score.

2. Is age a number?

Is your age important to what you do? Does it elevate or decimate your music? 

3. Who's going to make your music happen?

Who do you need to contact to make your music career happen, get you gigs and help you move forward?

If you have any comments, questions or observations about the content of these chapters, we would love to know!

Here is the transcription of episode 10 of season 3 of the podcast "Success Beyond The Score". Happy reading!

- Watch the video of the episode here: YouTube

- Listen to the audio of the episode here: Kajabi

INTRO:

Hi! I hope you are well. Let me just do my little buttons here, and hopefully you can hear me. If you can, please put a message in the chat. That would be really, really good. Oh dear. Okay, so I'm going to crack on as I wait for those replies. Hi Gary! Good to see you. Lovely to see you there.

Today, I've got a topic about putting on your own show. Actually, before I dive in, let me do a proper welcome. This is my 10th episode live. If you've been with me from the first one, I said that I'm here for 11 days on YouTube, and my 11th is going to be [on] Monday. It's just great. It's just gone really, really quickly. But I want to thank you so much for showing up, for liking, subscribing and sharing and just commenting. Thank you. Thank you so much. It means a lot that ...

Labour Day is an opportunity for workers across the globe to pause. Whether you use the day to rest and recover, to reconnect with others, or to think about ways to improve the conditions of your trade, the day is about having a breath and look at the reality of labour without the rush of the race for success (or survival).

In a landscape where 71% of music makers and professionals are freelance, however, the date can easily be dismissed and pass unnoticed. This is highly detrimental, given that freelancing is a particularly hostile and challenging model of work. The specificities of freelancing make plenty of room for abuse, exploitation and intimidation. It's vital that we push together for increased standards of protection for freelancers all across our sector, and for that, we need information and perspective.

Last year, Black Lives in Music worked to inform the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) report on Misogyny in Music, which found wide-scale issues that pointed to an ‘end...

Nominations for the Musicians' Union Executive and Regional committees 2024-2025 are open until midday of Wednesday 27th September, 2023.

The Executive committee is the governing body of the union and it's in charge of taking major decisions that affect the working conditions of musicians across the country. The Regional committees are in charge of day-to-day management and perception of local concerns. If you, or someone you know, have a passion for social work and political change, consider submitting your or their name for a nomination. You could make a big difference! 

Click here to read all the information on what the positions entail and what are the requisites to apply. If you have specific questions about the role you'd have in a committee, you can contact our director Millicent Stephenson at [email protected] and ask about her experience. She was part of the Executive Committee for a few years, and she's currently part of the Regional Committee for the Midlands.

Here is the transcription of episode 5 of season 3 of the podcast "Success Beyond The Score". Happy reading!

- Watch the video of the episode here: YouTube

- Listen to the audio of the episode here: Kajabi

PODCAST INTRO:

I'm going to be diving into the three reasons why you should be charging for your music starting today! It's really, really warm weather and in fact, I've got a gig later on as well, but I thought I'd come on and speak with you and share some nuggets. And I would love to hear from you too. If you've got a story to tell about getting paid, put that in the comments; I'd love to read it out, give you some tips on that. And if you've got any questions, please do that.

Getting paid is a real vital thing for musicians. I said in episode one, on Monday, that I believe every musician should be paid their worth. I a 100% believe it, believe it, believe it. Of course, it's a journey, and for some of you, you're probably not charging at all —that's why you're here today....