One of the main objectives of the Pathways Into Music Foundation is to ensure that anyone embarking on a career in music – whether as a music-maker or within the industry – has access to the key knowledge and information they need to succeed.

Part of achieving that objective involves providing music educators and everyone involved in music talent development with a concise summary of what that key knowledge and information is, and helping them to sign-post credible and accessible resources and other support.

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To help simplify the process, we have organised the key information and knowledge into five areas…

CREATE MUSIC  The process of making and creating music. That includes understanding all the different roles involved in creating music, including songwriting, performing and production roles. And also what is involved in composition, performance and production, and the digital tools and platforms that are available to help with the music-making process.

BUILD FANBASE The process of building a fanbase and finding an audience. This is something all frontline artists need to do in order to build a career and a business around their music. Initially artists have to make this happen for themselves, but later the music industry will get involved. Which means there are lots of industry roles that are focused on fanbase building.

RELEASE TRACKS The process of recording and releasing music. This is an important part of the fanbase building process as well as a key revenue stream for artists. Again, early career frontline artists will manage their own release campaigns, utilising DIY distributors and digital marketing tools. But later the industry gets involved, which means there are lots of industry roles around releasing music.

PERFORM LIVE The process of booking and performing shows. Again, an important part of the fanbase building process and an important revenue stream for artists. Early career artists will often stage their own shows, interacting with venues and ticketing companies in the process. Then they’ll start to work with the live music industry, where there are also many different back stage career options.

MAKE MONEY There are lots of different ways frontline artists make money. For each key revenue stream, the artist will work with different business partners. It’s important for aspiring artists to understand how they can generate income from their music. Understanding the different revenue streams will also help young people understand the different strands of the industry and therefore the different industry careers.

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THE DIY SPIRAL
Early-career frontline artists need to start building a fanbase and business around their music themselves – usually by collaborating with other early-career creators – in order to gain some momentum. Once the momentum starts to build, that’s when the music industry will want to get involved.

We call this phase of the artist’s career the DIY Phase – so ‘do it yourself’. Although, those collaborations with other creators are usually key, so maybe DIY should mean ‘direct it yourself’. Or we should instead say DIT, for ‘do it together’.

During the DIY Phase, artists are often working their way around what we call the DIY Circle – creating music, then doing some fanbase building, then releasing tracks, then performing live, then expanding the business side of what they do – and then repeating the process all over again.

Obviously, the aim is that each time an artist completes the circle they are growing their fanbase and frontline artist business, so it might be more useful to think of them actaully moving along a DIY Spiral.

Many frontline artists, therefore, will often need access to the different areas of knowledge more or less in the order outlined above, so knowledge and resources to help them create music, then build fanbase, then release tracks, then perform live and then make money.

Although, of course, every artist and every artist pathway is different – when any one aspiring artist will need the different kinds of knowledge and support will differ too.

For people pursuing an industry career, it possibly makes sense to learn about the different revenue streams – and therefore the different strands of the industry and the different industry career pathways – first, and then delve more into fanbase building, releasing music and staging shows by getting hands-on experience of a those different strands of the business.

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