21st Century Musicians… and the Soundwaves project begins!

Tomorrow, the Soundwaves project begins! We are beyond excited in Soundwaves HQ. We want to develop the skills needed to be a 21st century musician in the young talent on the course. We can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with, and of course have lots of fun!
So, what is a 21st century musician? We’ve been talking about it lots at Soundwaves and it’s an interesting one. When digital downloads and online streaming became mainstream, the way musicians get their music heard has changed dramatically. Since then we’ve seen many stories of how the music industry is doomed! No one can earn money in music anymore! The whole industry will go under before we know it!
But of course there are still people in their thousands making music. If there’s one thing we know for certain, that will never stop! And despite the medias dire reports on the industry, there are many musicians succeeding. Connecting with fans in a more immediate way than ever and having a great time. We are seeing more and more musicians who do it all themselves; writing, recording, marketing, building a fan base, all from their laptop at home. How amazing!
Even better – recording your own music is easier and more affordable than ever before, which gives you enormous creative freedom. You can create the song that you want, all the way down to that weird noise you love that you just found on some software like Logic. Bands can write songs in different countries by sending demos back and forth. There are so many types of music now that people are just discovering while messing around on their laptop, which opens up a whole new world of sounds and possibilities. And with the ability to market yourself, you don’t have to conform to what ‘genre’ the industry puts on you as much. You can go straight to the fans.
Some people see this all as a necessary evil, but others, including us at Soundwaves see it as an opportunity. An opportunity to be involved all aspects of your music’s journey. It’s a chance to gain new skills and be creative. Musicians aren’t just musicians anymore. They’re part-time producers, PR workers, managers, graphic designers, all for their own songs. It’s an all encompassing, exciting world to be a 21st century musician where, for the large part, the musicians have the control!
When Soundwaves got together to plan this project, we talked about what skills we wanted to pass on to the next generation of music makers. All of this is so new that nothing is set in stone and we all agreed that the best way to learn is to just go for it. So we wanted to create an opportunity for these young musicians to do it. Write music, record it and market it themselves, under the guise of mentors who are out there already doing it for their own music. 
Keep following to see what comes out of it. It’s certainly going to be an interesting and jam packed couple of weeks. More likely than not the kids will teach us a few things too!