By Maureen McTaggart
At 14, Alice Goss is probably the youngest boss of a music promotion company. Meetings, she reveals, can sometimes descend into a ‘chat’: “I have to be firm as well as friendly to bring it back under control.”
She is CEO of Amplified, a company formed by a group of 14- and 15-year-olds within her school’s Blastbeat programme. It teaches young people how to set up music companies as social enterprises. And at the heart of its success is ICT – the internet and social networking sites which, says Alice, the board had to embrace at high speed.
“It's been a particularly quick lesson in video editing and website design as well as leadership, people management and responsibility," she adds. There was a point where I wanted to give up – the point when it was all resting on me – but everyone picked up the flak after a while and it got a lot better.”
The last board meeting, which comes just two days before a company event to find the student music act that will battle against other young Londoners in the Blastbeat finals, is a lively affair. Held in the library of Leytonstone Business and Enterprise Specialist school, teacher Jo Letson and the school librarian look on as ticket sales, posters, backdrops, in fact all the paraphernalia necessary for a successful music gig are discussed and finalised.
“An audience of at least 170 young people from all over London will attend to support their bands, and although they might not look it or say so, they are a bit nervous about ticket sales and organisation,” says drama teacher Jo Letson who is a veteran of three Blastbeat projects at the school.
Each member of Amplified has a different role, including multimedia manager and A&R (artists and repertoire, whose role is to scout for talent). With most company work taking place outside school, having a computer at home was a must for tasks like band scouting and video editing.
Facebook and MySpace were invaluable to Amplified’s A&R supremo Arianne Brooks, aged 15. She relied heavily on their pages to find music acts, and any that caught her ears and eyes were contacted by email and invited to take part in the Amplified talent competition.
“Social networking is a really important factor in getting the bands and getting an audience along," says Arianne. "We set up an Amplified group on Facebook and that promoted our event a lot. Without my home computer I wouldn’t have been able to do that and find the bands.”
But posters, a company website (hosted by Blastbeat at www.blastbeat.co.uk/amplified), and promotional videos needed to be created and there aren’t many homes with access to high-spec photocopiers, printers, digital and video cameras. Thankfully Leytonstone’s teachers are firmly behind Amplified and the Blastbeat initiative. Multimedia manager Max Gerber (15) testifies to their support: “My media teacher gave me a couple of camcorders and I used my computer for editing. I’ve picked up new skills since getting involved such as photography and picture and video editing.
“I couldn’t do that at all before and now I’ve made a half decent video so I am quietly proud and happy with that. The work was done mostly all at home but I didn’t have to buy or own all the equipment.”
'They are interested and therefore they are engaged'
Motivation levels across all subjects have risen in the students involved in the Blastbeat project according to Jo Letson. With this kind of success she is keen to involve some of the school’s less able learners and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“I am aware that this might mean cherry-picking future members of the group and putting them on the board but it’s a positive enrichment for the kids," she says. "It’s about giving them their voice to do something they are really interested in. Ask students to write a business plan for setting up a supermarket and they are so bored, but they don’t mind doing a business plan for this project. This is cool. They want to go and see bands; they are interested and therefore they are engaged”.
A Blastbeat mentor, Dan Morgan, visited Leytonstone once a week for three months to teach the young people about the music industry. He is responsible for about 20 schools in the east London area and his job is also to motivate them towards the summer competition and national finals held this year as part of the celebration of the Transformation Trust’s first birthday party at London’s 02 Arena.
“We have our own fully moderated social networking site where all the bands that compete sign up," says Dan Morgan. "They can stay in touch with us and if they’ve got a problem at any time they can post a message and we can speak to them outside schools hours. It means they can also talk to other kids. For example someone might be struggling with ideas for a video so they could maybe get in touch with somebody they saw last year or at another school this year for support.”
From a business and enterprise perspective learners are being taught how to start up a company, how to be young entrepreneurs and how to express themselves by putting on an event of their choice. Drawing up the business plan was the hardest part for the young learners, says Jo Letson, who confirms the school will definitely be doing it again with another group of students come September.
“It's not a teacher-led event, it's not a school-led event," says Jo Letson. "Of course the school supports it but the learners are leading it. But I expect minutes to be sent to me every week so I know what’s happening – who is doing this, who’s doing that. It teaches them about the music business and the generics of business – how to make a business plan, how to take on different roles – and when they leave school, even if they are not doing music, whatever industry they go into, they are going to have to attend meetings. And it's great getting to the kids who normally wouldn’t mix together.”
Robert Stephenson (left), a former music industry man who set up Blastbeat in 2003, says the programme, now in 60 schools across London, "combines learning the skills of the music business with social entrepreneurship, and taps into teens' passion for music."
“The big dream for me is creating a worldwide network of young creative entrepreneurs who want to bring about change in a positive way. And music is what interests kids – it is a universal language”.
blastbeat.org
