Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford
Songwriter, Composer, Producer
Project Brief/Overview:​
The group were tasked with planning, organising, and running a music-based fundraiser event to benefit the local charity River Garden. An organisation that offers a residential programme for people in the early stages of recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction. The charity provides residents the time to reflect, grow, and flourish through the communal support of their peers and their participation in on-site social enterprises.
Collaborating with the same group of MA Music students from the previous Dream Machine project; we organised and ran an event called “Gig in The Garden” on the 11th of December at the Bothy Café located in River Garden, Auchencruive. The evening featured music from the talented Ayrshire artist Brownbear with support from the talented Lou Mclean. All proceeds went directly to River Garden; ticket cost £20. The target was to sell 70 tickets and raise £1000.
I considered the feedback received from the previous assessment on relating the job role to the wider context of community music and applied it to this brief.
River Garden is a charity that offers a residential programme for people in the early stages of recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction. The charity provides residents the time to reflect, grow, and flourish through the communal support of their peers and their participation in on-site social enterprises.
Event Poster.
Roles & Responsibilities:
My role for this project was to manage social media & promotion for the event. In this job role I was tasked with creating promotional material, promoting the event on social media, and contacting local press to promote the event.
When undertaking the job role, it was important to consider power dynamics within community music. Relating community group power dynamics to “Gig in the Garden”; our group were acting as facilitators working with River Garden to organise the fundraising music event. Therefore, it was vital that our group maintained a good level of communication with River Garden and for each party in the work dynamic to be respectful and professional to everyone involved (Rolvsjord, 2006).
Role of social media & promotion in Community Music:
Relating my role and responsibilities to the wider field of community music practice; promotion and networking form a key aspect in the role of community music practitioners. Firstly, Splice (2023) note that networking is a crucial way of engaging with music communities as it provides opportunities for new work and collaborations in the future.
Secondly, De Rengervé (2023) notes that promotional skills are vital for all musicians, particularly those in grassroots and DIY.
This brief provided a valuable networking and collaboration experience that provides the opportunity for future community music-based collaborations with different organisations and charities in the future (Passman, 2014).
Project Development:
Process:
Eventgroove (2023) notes that a using a combination of promotion techniques including contacting press, social media promotion, and printing posters and flyers are key to successfully promoting an event. Therefore, it was vital that myself and fellow group members made use of a variety of promotional techniques to increase attendance and boost ticket sales for the event. My main task was to create promotional emails that were sent to local press outlets (see Appendix 1 for email screenshot). The email provided all the key information regarding the event including the event poster, artist bios, and a short statement about River Garden and the work they do.
This email was sent out to a variety of local musicians and press outlets including the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, Scott Nicol (musician), Murray Baxter (musician and co-founder of Sun Turtle Records) and Ayrshire Daily News. The event received an impressive and detailed write up from Ayrshire Daily News which was posted onto their social media pages (see appendix 2 for post). This was positive and a great opportunity for the event to be promoted and reach a new audience which could help boost ticket sales.
Group Collaboration:
Our group used a WhatsApp group chat to maintain regular communication. Providing updates to each other on our progress with our respective job roles. Atlassian (2023) supports this method highlighting that keeping communication in one place ensures effective levels of communication and collaboration.
Alongside regular discussions on WhatsApp, our group had several meetings as part of the module lectures. In these meetings we were given the key details and expectations of the brief and assigned our designated job roles for the collaboration. These meetings were constructive and provided us the opportunity to reflect on individual progressions and sort out any issues there and then.
The rest of the group had several visits to River Garden, Auchencruive to learn about the charity’s ethos, what they do and then visited some of the facilities. This allowed the group to get an insight and develop a better understanding of the work that the charity do. In addition, the group got to have a look around the event space to plan a layout and stage design for the event.
Day Of Event:
I was not able to attend the event in person or join online which meant I was unfortunately unable to watch the event which was disheartening. However, it was positive and encouraging knowing that it was an effective collaboration process, and the rest of the group successfully managed the event.
Obstacles:
During the preparations for the event, myself and fellow group members faced several issues that had to be overcome to ensure the success of the event.
Firstly, I was unwell for two weeks and another group member was unwell during the organising of this event. This limited my contribution to the group work and another group member had to step up to the role of group leader as well as her own role. This was challenging, stressful and impacted on me fully achieving my role in the collaboration at this time. However, to prevent delays or issues for the rest of the group and the event itself, I sent a message into the WhatsApp chat explaining my situation to the rest of the group. In response some of the group members kindly picked up some of my duties promoting the event until I was feeling better and back working on the project. This evidence of effective communication all in the one place is an influencing factor on the success of a collaboration project (Atlassian, 2023). Specific roles were initially assigned, however, job roles adapted to address the challenges faced during the collaboration process. This is a key requirement for effective teamwork. (Indeed, 2023).
In addition, there was a problem with slow ticket sales. Tickets were selling at a slower rate than we initially planned. To counter this problem our group decided to lower the target sales limit from 70 tickets down to 50. This would ensure that we still managed to achieve a good level of attendance for the event and fundraising for River Garden.
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Final Reflections:
Overall, feedback from the group informed that the event ran smoothly and without any issues and staff from the River Garden thanked the group for “a job well done”. Also, we received positive feedback from attendees including one of trustees from the River Garden charity. In reflection the success of the event and the collaboration process has provided opportunity to widen my music network and increase my chances of securing future work opportunities. Passman (2014) notes that effective and successful collaborations can provide opportunities for future work and collaborations. Furthermore, the event raised a total of £1430 by selling 53 tickets. I would suggest that the fundraising event was a success. Despite the tight timeframe to organise the event we managed to provide an evening of great music whilst raising money for a good cause. Therefore, this has been an exciting, challenging, but highly beneficial experience that I am glad I was able to be involved in.
This experience has been beneficial to my on-going development as musician working towards and developing a portfolio career in the music industry. This will be added to my online portfolio to demonstrate practical collaboration experience, work experience, and applying academic skills and knowledge. Reddington (2016) states that a combination of all three improves job prospects, opportunities for commissions, or future collaborations.
Group Photo After The Event.
Appendix 1: Promotional Email to Press Outlets.
Appendix 2: Ayrshire Daily News post promoting the event.
References:
Atlassian (2023), How to build a culture of collaborative communication inside your team
De Rengervé, G (2023), 11 Key Strategies On How To Promote Your Music Successfully, Groover
Dumbreck, A, McPherson, G (2016), Entrepreneurship and Music Technology Practitioners, Reddington, H. Music Entrepreneurship, Bloomsbury (Ch. 6. P141-162)
Eventgroove (2021), How to Organise a Charity Concert
Available at: https://products.eventgroove.co.uk/blog/articles/organise-charity-concert/
Indeed (2023), What are adaptability skills and how can they benefit you?
Available at: https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/adaptability-skills
Passman, D (2014), All You Need To Know About The Music Business, Penguin
Rolsvjord, R (2006), Whose Power of Music? A Discussion on Music and Power-Relations in Music Therapy, ResearchGate
Splice (2023), Networking for musicians: Why it’s vital and how to network like a pro
Available at: https://splice.com/blog/networking-for-musicians/#WhyImportant https://splice.com/blog/networking-for-musicians/#WhyImportant