The Webinars

It is with great pleasure that I and CCRSM team have undertaken the task of designing and developing this intellectual output for STAMP project along with the invaluable contribution of distinguished experts proposed by the European Music Council and partner-members of the Consortium.

The STAMP webinar presenters and the Consortium recognize that the success of a professional musician, organization, a music project or venture certainly requires high quality musical technique and imagination. However in contemporary times, artistic and financial survival, carrier success and thriving in the music professional world demand entrepreneurial abilities; emotional and psychological development and personal and artistic branding as well as – surpassing the level of efficiency – creativity, innovation, effecting communication and networking, commitment to fulfilling and rewarding audience engagement and wider musical participation and social inclusion.

Fluency with technological advancements and adaptability with rapid changes are also essential. Such series of webinars aim in offering a wide spectrum of topics, ideas, pieces of knowledge and experiences, stirring up the imagination and energy, motivation and positive emotions of all professionals involved in the music sector and opening up the road to reinvigorate the musical cultures, ideas, past and present musical experiences and activities across Europe.

Main aims (also in accordance with the STAMP proposal)

  • To contribute to open and innovative education and training through technological advancement;
  • To provide a model of efficient training and education for professional musicians;
  • To address the gap of life-long learning in skills such as entrepreneurship, innovation, communication, European policies and politics, capacity building and audience development, community music and social inclusion, intercultural competences, international cooperation for music professionals;
  • To offer structured knowledge for developing musical carriers based on/as a result of the concepts of entrepreneurship and to make the achieved competences from different musical fields transferable to other work fields in the musical professional world;
  • To allow knowledge to pass the narrow geographical boarders and the limitations of traveling and reach audience across European region;
  • To share different practices and approaches in order to facilitate to innovation in the development of effective and sustainable training practices contributing to possibilities of greater employability within the music sector on a Europe-wide scale.

STAMP webinars aim to:
– Explain that Entrepreneurship in music is not only about musical artistic performance, creation, or the relationship between culture and economy but it is also about innovation, being a catalyst for the development of creative industries and creative economy in the music sector. It includes, process, participation in the musical experience and product oriented activities (tangible and non-tangible resources).
– Introduce the participants to the concept of entrepreneurship and its multidimensional character, process and factors that entails in the musical professional world.
– Delineate certain concepts such as the artist-entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship and music, branding, audience development and social inclusion and hospitality in musical participation.
– Explain how personal development, definition and cultivation of authentic personal and professional branding are fundamental for the music professional in the 21st century in Europe and around the globe.
– Emphasize that creativity and innovation are specific tools of entrepreneurship.
– Emphasize that entrepreneurship is about the discovery/creation of new ideas and opportunities for the purpose of creative/added value – economic, musical and social.
– Stress the value and necessity of entrepreneurship in the contemporary music professional world (individual, organizational, collective, regional, international level).
– Demonstrate the differences between the cultural sector and creative domain and provide tools, strategies, ideas and knowledge that enable the musical sector to shift to the creative and innovative identity.
– Assist the learners through the travel from the artistic and the cultural to the creative and the innovative.
– Assist the learners to understand music as social act and inclusion of various participants and audiences.
– Provide tools for benefiting from creative partnerships, attract international audiences, reach out new markets, and increase options for professional development, international networking and collaborations in the world of music.

Music entrepreneurs need to be aware of the entrepreneurial chain process from the encapsulation of the idea to the scaling and establishment of the innovation in order to be able to value each step as a valuable indispensable link in the process, analyze stages between the creative idea and the final use of a cultural product or service. This knowledge will enable them to develop strategic plan, acquire the patience and cultivate motivation and perseverance for accomplishing all stages of the plan (see the diagram below):

The STAMP series of webinars provide the entrepreneur manager and the music leader with tools for musical creativity and innovation in social inclusion, hospitality in musical participation, and music-centered perspective of audience engagement. At the same time it provides the musician with skills and perspectives from the entrepreneurial and managerial world. A fundamental argument is that music and entrepreneurship should serve fundamentally musical goals and social change and that close collaboration and a continuum of creative actions between music and culture and economics, management and markets must be establish in order to bring the greatest success possible in music. In the webinars we address five levels of musical activity and entrepreneurial work: individual, organizational, local and regional, national and international.

Webinars’ learning aims

For each webinar learning aims and added value please refer to each webinar link on the STAMP online platform. In the same platform you can also find the schedule of each webinar broadcasting date and time.

Target – Audience

Whereas all age groups and educational sectors (school, social and youth work, training centres and organisations, universities) will benefit from the webinars, the main target group are music professionals (event and festival managers and staff, directors and staff of music networks and organizations as well as performing and composing musicians in need of self-management training and of improving employability skills and updating their professional path and ventures), who have already started or established their career. As very few organizations exist that are dedicated to VET in the music sector only, it is crucial to target staff of music organizations. These staff members will act as trainers for other employed or independent music professionals. In this way STAMP webinars contribute towards raising employability in the music section.

The STAMP Consortium and webinar series support and promote the 5 Musical Rights as they have been developed and defined by the IMC International Music Council and the EMC European Music Council. These are:

The right for all children and adults
1. To express themselves musically in all freedom
2. To learn musical languages and skills
3. To have access to musical involvement through participation, listening, creation and information

The right for all musical artists
4. To develop their artistry and communicate through all media, with proper facilities at their disposal
5. To obtain just recognition and fair remuneration for their work

Our work in this webinar series is compatible and influenced by the emerging European Agenda for Music (learn more here) of the European Music Council.

Text by Avra Pieridou Skoutella © 2017

The STAMP webinar series “music and entrepreneurship” leader partner:
C.C.R.S.M. Cyprus Centre for the Research and Study of Music www.ccrsm.org.cy

Webinar expert presenters have been selected by the STAMP Consortium Coordinator and Member-organizations and represent the following partner-organizations:
EMC, CCRSM, EMCY, Live-DMA, European Choral Association-Europa Cantat, UNISON, Latvian National Music Council