CONNECTING MUSIC INDUSTRY + MUSIC EDUCATION
Spring Update 2025
Find out more about our work at the Pathways Into Music Foundation over the last twelve months and how you can get involved in future projects.
SUPPORTING MUSIC EDUCATORS
Our Educator Pathway Programme is a professional development scheme for music educators that provides teachers, tutors and lecturers, and people running education hubs, youth organisations and talent initiatives, with access to the latest insights about music careers and the music business.
Over a weekend event and accompanying webinars, we run through the key knowledge and information young people need to pursue a career in music – as a music-maker or within the industry – and we discuss how educators can communicate that knowledge and information to their students.
We first piloted our Educator Pathway Weekend in Derby in April 2024 with support from Arts Council England, and have since delivered editions in Bristol and Belfast with support from Arts Council England, Belfast City Of Music, BIMM and RSL. We intend to run this programme several times each year, each time focused on a different region.
SUPPORTING MUSIC-MAKERS
Our Artist Pathway Programme is an education and mentoring scheme that supports DIY Phase artists as they progress their careers. It provides practical advice for artists via online and in-person workshops and seminars led by music industry experts.
We deliver this programme in partnership with music industry and talent development organisations, including MOBO Unsung and Help Musicians. We are currently delivering the programme as part of the Help Musicians Electronic Music Award, a one-year accelerator programme for electronic music creators, DJs and producers.
The Artist Pathway Programme is very adaptable and can be delivered in a way that meets each partner’s needs. We are always interested in talking to organisations that want to make this programme available to their networks or as part of their own talent development initiatives.
MIME CONFERENCE
Our Music Industry + Music Education Conference brings together everyone involved in supporting the next generation of music talent – on stage and behind the scenes – from within industry and education.
We’ve run the conference every year since 2018, and presented the 2024 edition in Manchester in partnership with Un-Convention.
We will present the next MIME Conference in autumn 2025. We are also launching a new MIME Monthly livestream and email bulletin to keep the conversation going year-round and to provide a place where participants in all the Pathways programmes can stay up to date on the latest talking points in music education and the music industry.
MAPPING RESEARCH
Over the last five years we have been mapping music-makers, the music industry, music education, music careers and music business resources, with a view to better connecting the different people, companies, institutions, programmes, platforms and guides that support future music talent. You will find a summary of this work on our website.
In the last year our focus has been mapping music resources. We have identified five areas of knowledge and information that we think young people need access to in order to pursue a career in music – knowledge and information about how to create music, build fanbase, release tracks, play live and make money. On the back of this work we are developing our Knowledge Bank.
KNOWLEDGE BANK
The Knowledge Bank is our own online resource that outlines key information in each of our five areas, as well as identifying platforms and resources that provide further knowledge and support.
This is very much a work in progress. We are currently identifying more platforms and resources, including books, guides, blogs, websites, podcasts, as well as digital tools and videos on YouTube and TikTok. Our aim is to both curate and verify this information, so that educators can confidently utilise and sign-post these resources to young people pursuing a career in music.
Where we identify gaps in the resources available, we will work with industry and education partners to create and publish these resources, with the aim of making them available for free to both educators and aspiring music-makers.
WORK WITH US
We deliver each of our Educator Pathway Weekends with regional partners. Together, we secure a venue and funding, plus promote the event to music educators in the local area. Get in touch if you are interested in co-hosting an Educator Pathway Programme in your region.
We deliver our Artist Pathway Programme in partnership with music industry and talent development organisations. The Artist Pathway Programme is very adaptable and can be delivered in the way that meets each partner’s needs. Get in touch to discuss how this works.
We regularly present the outputs of our mapping work at conferences and events. We are also interested in applying our mapping exerptise to local music industries. Get in touch to discuss us presenting about or partnering with you on our mapping work.
SUPPORT OUR WORK
Our work is funded by grants, educational institutions, and industry and education partners. This allows us to make our events and resources available to educators and early-career music-makers at affordable prices, and often free of charge. Get in touch if you’d be interested in financially supporting our work to help us expand what we do and maximise our impact.
There are also a number of affordable and impactful sponsorship opportunities available around our annual MIME Conference and new MIME Monthly livestreams and bulletins. This gets companies and organisations in front of a wide and diverse mix of people working in the music industry, music education and talent development, while also enabling us to deliver the MIME events and content, and supporting the wider work of the Foundation.