DIY Artist Scenarios

It is useful to test the DIY musicology model against the fifteen respondents by describing some of their problems related to ‘real world’ scenarios from within local music scenes. Some of these descriptions validate how the model could potentially help the DIY artist; whereas, others explain how an experience would be translated through the model, as follows:

• Earn Royalties for Song Writing

Lion are students who write their own songs and play in bands around the Manchester local music scenes. They identified financial restrictions as a reason for their creative project not reaching its full potential. However, they were not aware of the PRS and the roles that collection societies play in supporting the DIY artist get royalties for performance of original music. Therefore, the model can help to guide them towards information on how to register and get royalties from the PRS; thus making them more self-sustainable.

Jonny Turpentine is a singer songwriter originally from Durham, now playing around the Northwest of England. He has recently finished his demo and wants to protect the copyright of his music as well as get royalties back from live performances, because he has written dozens of songs, but is not sure what the process requires. Therefore, through the model he can attain more information about how to register with PRS and get royalties (Figure 13). Also, registering with the MU could help to guide him through the copyright process of his music.

Figure 13 Earn royalties for song writing

• Putting on a Gig

Big Dig was trying to get her local bands showcase event running when she had problems finding someone to collaborate with as well as share the organisation of tasks. Through a contact recommended by a local music consultant a like-minded DJ who was willing to his put his time and energy to collaborate with her on this creative project was found. Therefore, this experience could be applied to the model through the use of consultancy information leading to collaboration.

Smear Campaign is a solo artist, plays in bands and promotes around the Liverpool and Manchester areas. A unique DIY work ethic is displayed within the local music scenes in that a “no guarantees” policy is offered to the bands that are selected to perform. No matter how well established the artist; they are not guaranteed payment of a set amount of money for their performance. This is because within local music scenes there is no management structure between promoters and so this can cause problems with regards to payment. Therefore, through knowledge and experience he knows he must identify the information that he needs in order to manage his finances on a low budget. This verifies that the model can utilise many of the elements

simultaneously (Figure 14) as the DIY artist has the option of cherry-picking the tools at-hand relevant to the creative activities.

Figure 14 Putting on a gig

• Finding Session Musicians

AC is a commercial singer songwriter rooted in the dance music genre. He identified a lack of contact with session musicians as a weakness because he is unable to record real-time instruments in his songs, instead having to settle for synthesised sounds in recordings. On the other hand, highly skilled musicians come out of further and higher education with the technical abilities to become professional musicians; however, they do not necessarily have the original compositions or business acumen to be self-sufficient. Therefore, the model can help to match commercial singers with available session musicians (Figure 15) in order to collaborate and so provide them with the opportunities to become consultants.

Figure 15 Finding session musicians

• Recording Project

Warm Widow plays in bands within the Manchester local music scenes and runs a DIY label. He identifies that his ability to complete small-scale creative projects has helped him continue to self-release through his own label. For example, he participated in a recording project in New York where they hired a studio and recorded several songs to be self-released. Therefore, it would be useful if the DIY artist had access to case studies that document these types of experiences. Through the model the DIY artist can identify a creative activity and use case studies from experienced DIY artists as templates (Figure 16) in order to gain knowledge and experience in the process without wasting money.

• Building Personal Communities

Caster Sugar Disco is a DIY promoter based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She dedicates much of her energy into putting on events and facilitating people within local music scenes. However, one problem that she has is the amount of time wasted in community meetings talking about trivial issues that do not affect her. Therefore, the model can help direct communication of specific matters to the relevant people through a community-based website or user-generated sites.

Your Orange Coat is a singer songwriter and plays in bands around the Manchester local music scenes. Her DIY ethic and strong identity helps her address feminist issues within local music scenes, such as inequality. This has led to her getting involved with events like Ladyfest. She was able to do this by building up her own personal community of like-minded people. Therefore, the model can represent this process through contact on Ladyfest’s community-based website (Figure 17) helping her to network with people who have the same beliefs.

• DIY Consultancy

Laura Victoria is a singer songwriter and cellist, originally from Northumberland, now performing solo around London. She has been building up a portfolio of original songs for several years and she wanted to record an album independently. However, Laura is a specialist in composition and performance but not in recording. Therefore, consultancy with an experienced creative producer has helped her progress closer towards her goal of recording an album by mixing some of her songs.

Hotpants Romance has played in various DIY bands around the Manchester local music scenes. She talks about an unpleasant experience whilst organising a tour with US band Cars Can Be Blue who were deported from Manchester Airport for not having a working Visa. Despite being unfairly treated by customs, this experience could have been avoided if the correct consultancy advice had been available to the artists. Therefore, the model can help the artists to attain information from consultancy of a solicitor (Figure 18) in order to avoid such legal problems in the future.

5.3 Evaluation of the Creative Activities, Information Tools and the