Careers using music

How to make a living in music

• 
  Scott Williams is an accounts payable clerk at Live Nation.

Digital recording studios, online music stores, on-demand streaming and webcasting. New technologies have greatly reduced the cost barriers to the creation, distribution and sale of music. So how do musicians generate income from these opportunities?

Never have the ways musicians earn their living been so diverse. The ratio among different income streams is likely to change as your career progresses, so using what skills, contacts and resources you have is a good start.

Persistence, hard work and the ability to take the odd knock is all part of making money in music.

1) Performance

If you gig regularly, submitting regular returns to the PRS can be quite lucrative.

Most musicians join a band or ensemble to make money from performances. Such performances could be in pubs, concert halls, festivals, weddings and busking.

Some DJs earn huge sums of money from performing in nightclubs. Such work takes place in the evenings, leaving musicians time in the day to work in other areas such as recording or teaching, or to take on non-musical work.

Music venues have a license to play music in a public place, whether that is performed live, by a DJ or on a jukebox. The Performing Rights Societycollects the license fee then distributes that money to its members. Becoming a PRS member is free and submitting regular returns can be quite lucrative if you gig regularly.

For many musicians starting out, touring can be very expensive and should be seen as a way of promoting your music, building contacts and making new fans.

2) Recording contract

Gone are the days of scratching your signature on a record contract pressed against a van bonnet on a wet and windy winter’s night in a pub car park. Larger record companies have begun to offer '360 degree' deals offering an investment across a range of artists’ activities.

However, very few major record companies source and sign new talent, but increasingly support their signed artists with marketing and PR.

Traditionally, record companies can handle publishing advances, mechanical royalties, sheet music sales, and license the underlying composition for synchs, samples or ringtones.

Publishing is all about your songs as opposed to being a performer. So when your song is played, be it on the radio, in public by another artist or as a ringtone, you are entitled to a share of the license fee. Mechanical royalties come about from the reproduction of your songs on CD, mp3s, anything that plays your tunes.

3) Talent competitions

There are a number of schemes to help fund and showcase talented musicians

This route is incredibly competitive. We all know about the X-Factor and the Mercury Music Awards, but there are increasingly a number of schemes to help talented people, particularly young people.

Talent competitions such as In The City and the American SXSW showcase new bands. For talented instrumentalists and singers there are funding awards secured by audition.

Many talent recognition vehicles should be seen as a way to raise your profile with the general public rather than a reliable source of income.

4) Recording

Music technology has come on leaps and bounds over the past few years, so has its quality, affordability and size. Many musicians nowadays own a home recording studio that could fold away in to a broom cupboard capable of creating a DIY hit.

The next step is relatively easy to get your music on iTunes, Spotify and other digital rights management (DRM) music-streaming services. It costs, but at least you’re getting your music out there.

5) Radio

Getting radio airplay can be a small but potentially significant way of earning cash. The BBC Introducing scheme is an excellent way to get your music heard.

Local radio, especially your local BBC station, is a good avenue too. You need to ensure your tracks are registered with a collection body so you collect your mechanical royalties.

Radio airplay can be a small, but potentially significant, way of earning cash.

Specialist genre shows such as BBC 1Xtra and BBC Radio 3 may also offer good opportunities. There are various web-based shows, again these should be seen as a way of profiling your work.

Satellite radio is not that big in the UK, but with further de-regulation of the airwaves on the cards this may be another valuable income source.

6) Teaching

This is money earned from your knowledge of the craft. This includes earnings from teaching in schools and community settings. Many schools take visiting artists and peripatetic music teachers.

There are also music services in most local authority areas in the country that supply music teachers. Commercial colleges such as BIMM, ACM and ICMPare good places for professional performing musicians.

There are also further education colleges and conservatoires offering teaching work.

7) Grants

There are a number of grant-makers interested in supporting musicians. It is likely they will only support professional and very specific activity.

For example, Arts Council England can support touring and the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund those musicians who have fallen on hard times. Be aware that grants nearly always have conditions attached.

8) Commissions and licensing

Composers work on commissions to write pieces for particular ensembles, festivals or orchestras. Licensing can come about through sales of your songs for use in TV, film or adverts.

There are a number of music licensing websites who present your recorded music to media companies, for example, Music Dealers. The Bandit A&R newsletter researches and publishes all sorts of opportunities to get your music heard by music professionals around the world.

But don’t forget, copyright your recorded works.

9) Fan funding

Networking with other musicians and important people can tap you in to other existing networks.

Many musicians and bands promote themselves to the general public and businesses using websites and internet marketing.

Building up and maintaining a network of contacts is crucial in this area. Networking with other musicians and important people can tap you in to other existing networks.

Of course, word-of-mouth is the most effective way to get noticed, so don’t discount Facebook, Twitter and other social media. The key here is to identify those individuals who really like your work and with a little coercion would be happy to promote you to their contacts.

Fan or crowdfunding has become popular and is a good way to connect directly with your fans to fund your new album. Available websites include Kickstarter and Pledge.

10) Music business

Don’t rule out diversifying your skills and potential income streams. Always think about how you can make the most of your resources.

For example, you could promote your own events, hire out your PA system, studio or rehearsal space or use your contacts to manage other act

Organ Scholarship - Oxford

The first ever female Organ scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, talks to School Gate.

Sarah Ebner

March 19 2013

It’s always lovely to hear about “firsts”, so I was delighted to find out that a 17-year-old A level student who has only been playing the organ for three years, has become the first woman to win a prestigious Organ Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford. Anna Lapwood, a student at Oxford High School, is due to start her Music degree at the University this September
“I still can’t really believe it,” Lapwood told me. “Having grown up in an all-girls school, it means a lot to me to represent women in an area of life that is very male dominated. It’s a massive honour.”
Lapwood – who attends Oxford High School – is the first female to be awarded the scholarship in the college’s 558 year history.
“It was really pleasing to make the appointment,” said Daniel Hyde, director of Chapel Music at Magdalen. “Anna was the strongest candidate; the best person at playing and very strong academically. She’s a very rounded musician and has the whole package.”
Lapwood is clearly extremely talented (she is beyond Grade 8 on the piano and harp, and lead harpist for the National National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain). She took up the organ in order to win a scholarship.
But she admitted that there was a downside to her success.
“It’s difficult to concentrate on the actual service when you are playing the organ,” she said. “You have so much responsibility and are always worrying about what’s coming next or if the hymn is in the right key. That makes it hard to listen to the sermon. Religion is very important to me, so that is a bit of a problem.”
She also revealed she was worried she wouldn’t be able to spend much time on the harp, which she has played since the age of eight.
“It will be difficult to keep my other instruments up to the level they are at the moment,” she said. “I have spent a lot of time thinking about this, especially about the harp. But the organ is my favourite instrument because it stretches you in a completely different way to the others – it’s the most demanding in terms of coordination and concentration and also draws on the skills I’ve developed from the piano. It really tests you.”
Magdalen College was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester. The founder’s statutes included provision for a choral foundation of men and boys’, which continues to this day. The college is one of five at Oxbridge (the others are Christ Church and New College at Oxford, and St John’s and King’s at Cambridge) to have choral foundation status. All are known for the strength and prestige of their choirs, and often make recordings.
Organ Scholars provide the accompaniments for the college’s choral series, attend choir rehearsals and tutor the older choristers. Lapwood – who was brought up in a choral environment with a father who was a parish priest and school chaplain – had to audition and take admissions tests before she was interviewed for the award. She told me that she particularly wanted the chance to work with a boys’ choir and to shape their musical development. It’s fortunate that she’s so keen as she’ll have to be at services seven days a week and be available to do broadcasts. She will also have to be choir practice at 7.50am daily (and that’s early for a student).
“An organ scholarship really enhances the degree because you have to do so much more,” she said. “However, I didn’t imagine I would get Magdalen, which is so renowned and I am really surprised because I haven’t playing the organ for very long.”
Lapwood needs to get As in Maths, Music and Religious Education A levels, before following in the footstep of former organ scholars including actor Dudley Moore, Richard Pinel (the Assistant Director of Music of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle) and Matthew Martin, composer and Organist of the London Oratory.
Lapwood started piano lessons aged six, and has since learnt the guitar, recorder, clarinet, percussion, flute, violent, viola, harp and organ.
“Music started out as a competition with my brother, but I would practice more,” she said. “I wanted to take up every single instrument that came my way.”

Source: The School Gate Blog - The Times

Studying Abroad is a smart option

Studying Abroad is a smart option
British students hoping to attend a college overseas - including the Ivy League - should be prepared to work hard
Ben Mallet believes he won a place at Yale over Sunday lunch in Surrey. The meal was the setting for his interview conducted by an elderly Yale graduate in her mansion in Cobham.
“I got the lady on my side: we talked about everything from gardening to politics and back to gardening,” Ben, 20, says.
At the end of lunch the interviewer explained her plan for getting the state-school leaver from Kingston-Upon-Thames a place at one of the top institutions in the Ivy League.
“She said she would e-mail the admissions office every fortnight to ask them about the process of my application and recommend me to the admissions’ committee,” says Ben, who also earned places at Edinburgh, St Andrew’s and Exeter but will start his degree at Yale in a few days time after taking two gap years.
“It’s all about finding your friends and allies. During my application I sent monthly e-mails to the admissions offices and rang them up, telling them what I was doing and proving I was interested.”
The process of applying to the US is very different from the Ucas system. As well as the possibility of unusual interview scenarios, additional tests and an earlier start date, it requires an element of self-promotion that can seem a tad un-British.
“I think people from my position coming from a state school find it quite difficult because it’s not in our cultural make-up to be so salesman-like,” Ben says.
However, more and more British students are choosing US universities and schemes to help state-school students to apply are boosting numbers.
The most recent figures available show that in 2010-11, 4,189 UK students studied at undergraduate level in North America. Combined with those on postgraduate courses it was a record year for British participation.
Harvard reported a 45 per cent increase in British applicants between 2009-10 and 2011-12 and in the six academic years to 2010-11, Yale said its applications from UK students had doubled.
These figures do not include students who applied after the English tuition fee ceiling trebled and made US study more financially equitable. However the cost is still an important consideration when thinking about studying in the US.
Applying alone can be expensive, once study materials, application fees of between 50 and 100 dollars (£32 — £64), examination costs, entrance tests of $80 (£51) and travel to interviews are taken into account. And the cost rises with each application made.
“Spending a week having knowledge hammered into you for the SATs can cost thousands of pounds but I didn’t do that: I bought the books and taught myself,” Ben says.
Most applicants to the US will need to take one of two standard admissions tests — the SAT or ACT. They are equally valid but not all universities accept both so it is important to check with the chosen institutions before taking the exam.
More competitive universities require results of SAT reasoning with two or three SAT subject exams, or the ACT with writing. Students who are strong in science may prefer the ACT but online sample tests can help determine the best fit. These can be found at sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-practice-test and at actstudent.org/sampletest
The Fulbright Commission runs seminars on how to apply and holds the only US university fair in the UK, on September 28 and 29 at Kensington Town Hall, London. Registration is necessary.
This year, the commission also held a summer school in Yale with The Sutton Trust, an education charity, for talented UK teenagers from less well-off backgrounds who want to apply to the US.
Lauren Welch, from the Fulbright Commission, says: “We are helping them find the institutions that offer the most financial assistance on the basis of financial need or academic merit, so the hope is that the cost will be comparable, if not cheaper, than staying in the UK.”
There were more than 700 applications for the scheme and 64 were chosen to go to the free summer school in Yale.
It is recommended that applicants begin to look into the process in the lower sixth to give themselves time to register, practise tests and compose transcripts of results and predicted grades. But applications should be made in the autumn before starting university.
If successful, there is also the cost of visas to consider — approximately £160 — and travel to and from university each term. Some universities will help overseas students with vacation grants. Tuition fees vary but a guideline average in 2011 at public institutions was $20,770 (£13,132) per year, rising to $28,500 (£18,030) per year at private institutions.
However, financial aid based on need, academic performance or certain skills, including sporting ability, is a key feature of the American system. About two thirds of full-time undergraduates receive some type of grant and one third of international undergraduates say that a scholarship is their main source of funding.
Studying in the US
fulbright.org.uk/study-in-the-usa/undergraduate-study; educationusa.info/5_steps_to_study
Admissions tests: collegeboard.org (SAT); actstudent.org (ACT)
Scholarships: fundingusstudy.com
Common application: commonapp.org
University search: bigfuture.collegeboard.org
Visas: london.usembassy.gov

Times Higher Education Survey - UEA top for student experience

University of East Anglia tops class for student experience



The University of East Anglia has been ranked Britain’s best in terms of students’ experience. A survey for Times Higher Education asked more than 12,000 undergraduates to rate their universities according to 21 different measures, from the quality of lectures to social life, clubs, atmosphere, facilities and student accommodation.
Oxford and Cambridge tied for top place in the category for best teaching staff and lectures, followed by St Andrews, the Royal Veterinary College and Sheffield. The Oxbridge universities also tied in another measure for the best teaching in small groups. Oxford topped the category for the most helpful staff, pushing Cambridge into second; but Cambridge beat its ancient rival for the best structured courses.
But the pair were overtaken on other measures and the University of East Anglia, a small campus university in Norwich, scored consistently well to emerge on top overall.
Oxford came second and Cambridge shared the third position with Sheffield University.
The London School of Economics was voted by students to offer the best connections with industry, followed by Bath, Surrey and Imperial College which shared second place.
Sheffield was said to have the best students’ union. Hull and Bangor tied in first place in an ambiguous category chosen by students for the universities allocating the “fairest workload” to undergraduates, followed by Dundee, Chester and Heriot-Watt.
Dundee and Cardiff had the cheapest campus bars and shops, according to students, followed by the universities of East Anglia and Strathclyde.
The survey was carried out for Times Higher Education by a specialist youth market research agency, Youthsight.
Craig Mahoney, chief executive of the Higher Education Academy, said: “Surveys like this are one of the ways that prospective students, parents and sponsors can make informed decisions about where, and what, to study. The range of experiences it covers helps to give a rounded picture of what to expect from different higher education institution.”
John Gill, editor of Times Higher Education, said: “With the government’s higher education reforms ramping up levels of competition in the sector, improving the student experience has never been a greater priority for universities.”

Getting into Medicine and Dentistry - UKCAT

 

About Us

UKCAT is a Charity and not for profit company limited by guarantee. The members of the Charity, who also nominate its board of directors, are the 26 universities that have agreed to adopt the UKCAT as part of their selection process for medicine and dentistry.
The test helps universities to make more informed choices from amongst the many highly-qualified applicants to medical and dental programmes. It helps to ensure that candidates selected have the most appropriate mental abilities, attitudes and professional behaviour required for new doctors and dentists to be successful in their clinical careers.
The UKCAT does not contain any curriculum or science content; nor can it be revised for. It focuses on exploring the cognitive powers of candidates and other attributes considered to be valuable for health care professionals.
The test is run by the UKCAT Consortium in partnership with Pearson VUE, a global leader in computer-based testing and part of Pearson plc. It is delivered on computer worldwide through Pearson VUE's high street centres.
All test questions are written by assessment experts and must pass detailed trials to ensure their validity and reliability. All questions, test duration, sequencing and style are reviewed on an ongoing basis to ensure that the test is culturally fair and bias is minimised. There is a programme of new item development including the testing of new questions as non-scoring components of the test

LNAT Test - getting into Law

 

 

About the Test

LNAT was developed by a consortium of UK universities as a fair way to assess a candidate’s potential to study law at undergraduate level, regardless of their education or personal background.
The LNAT is designed to be a test of aptitude rather than educational achievement. The skills that candidates need to do well in the LNAT are also the skills that they need to do well in legal education.

It is used alongside standard methods of selection such as A Level (or their global equivalent) results, university applications, and admissions interviews, to give a more accurate and rounded impression of the student’s abilities.
The test measures the verbal reasoning skills at the heart of legal education

• comprehension
• interpretation
• analysis
• synthesis
• induction
• deduction

The LNAT cannot be revised for, although those taking it will benefit from familiarising themselves with the style and format of the test. They can do this free of charge on the LNAT website.
Students can sit the computer-based test at a time and test centre convenient to them, choosing from over 500 test centres in 165 countries around the world.
Candidates are required to produce recognised photo-identification (such as a passport) to sit the test.
The LNAT is written and calibrated by Edexcel for Pearson VUE, the world's leading computer-based testing and assessment business.

BMAT Test - getting into Medicine

How do I prepare for the BMAT?

BMAT cannot be 'crammed' for; however, basic familiarity with the test's question and answer style will help you prepare. Everything that you need to prepare for the BMAT is on, or mentioned on, the BMAT website (http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/), and you can practise the test with the specimen papers available for download. Additionally because the test specification very strongly relates to level 3 key skills such as 'handling of number' and 'communication', your best preparation is to work hard on developing your key skills during your sixth-form studies.
Section 2 of the test will always be based around the relevant version of the National Curriculum taken by the majority of the cohort. it would therefore be wise for you to revise some GCSE science and maths.
The one text we recommend when preparing for the test is "Preparing for the BMAT: The official guide to the BioMedical Admissions Test", written by the Admissions Testing Service; this official guide has everything needed to prepare and practice in a single book. It contains plenty of specimen questions and answers, providing confidence and knowledge of what to expect from the BMAT. It is published by Heinemann, and costs £15.99, (ISBN 9780435046873). The book is available for purchase from: Pearson Education website
Companies and individuals offering help with BMAT do not have a special insight into the nature of the test. While an applicant's performance at any test will improve with some familiarisation or practice, anyone thinking of paying for such help should consider very carefully whether they would be wasting their money.