PALM BAY MUSIC LAUNCHES SONG-WRITING CAMPS FOR THE UNDERREPRESENTED
Attendees to receive fee to attend and participate
Kimberly Anne - Managing Director Palm Bay Music
Boutique Music Publisher Palm Bay Music has announced the launch of four new, ground-breaking songwriting camps in partnership with Focusrite. The first of which is taking place on 14th-18th June 2021, with others scheduled for September, December and March 2022.
The writer development programme will pay young writers, producers and artists aged 18-25 a fee to write, be mentored, network and receive feedback from established industry professionals.
The programme funded by Youth Music’s Incubator Fund, will particularly focus on supporting those who are LGBTQIA+, non-binary, Women, non-graduates, from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds and of diverse ethnic heritage.
They will nurture, elevate and – crucially - financially support young people who are currently underrepresented to become the UK’s music leaders of tomorrow.
People can apply to attend via an application form on the Palm Bay Music website. Applications open on the 8th February and there will be four people at each camp, three young people and one industry professional. Each young person will receive travel and accommodation expenses and £440 a week (£88p/d) fee for participating in the writing camps.
Each Junior A&R in charge of setting up the writing camp will be paid £1,980 for 22.5 days of work.
On top of the societal inequality, songwriters are often expected to work on an unpaid basis, only getting paid when they secure a cut on a song that is commercially released.
The slice of the income pie that songwriters receive has fallen dangerously low as streaming services and labels dominate the majority share of income generated through these platforms.
The Ivors Songwriting Academy states that: “Only 15% going to the copyright owners of the song doesn’t seem right. The owner of the copyright in the recording, usually the label, receives in the region of 55%.”
Programme participants will:
- Get paid to create or A&R the curation of the writing camps
- Grow their Industry networks
- Explore diverse career paths in the music industry i.e A&R, Management, Marketing, Publishing, Synchronisation
- Develop their songwriting, music production, engineering and vocal techniques
- Be affiliated with a professional Publishing company
- Build a new creative body of work and writing credits
- Share work with Record Label/Publishing A&R’s, Managers, Music Supervisors
- Build relationships with high profile creative collaborators opening doors to future opportunities
- Set career milestones to develop skills with an assigned mentor.
- Receive a £300 bursary for equipment, training, PRS registration to help increase their ability to generate future income
- Increase their awareness of good mental health to stand in good stead for pursuing a career in music.
“Palm Bay Music believes in a future that is enriched by diverse voices and leaders”.
As a majority female led company with LGBTQIA+ and diverse ethnic heritage founding Managing Directors, Palm Bay understands the difficulties of navigating the music industry if you belong to a minority group. They believe in a future that is enriched by diverse voices and leaders and aim to empower those who often feel powerless.
Kimberly Anne, Managing Director Palm Bay Music, says: "This is a real opportunity to contribute towards changing the future landscape of the music industry by making it more accessible to diverse creators and decision makers. Palm Bay Music is committed to empowering underrepresented voices and progressing towards a more balanced industry. The support we have received from established writer-producers wanting to mentor our developing young writers is unreal, we can't wait to hear the amazing music that will emerge from this project."
Rhiannon Mair - Managing Director Palm Bay Music
Rhiannon Mair, Managing Director Palm Bay Music, says: "It feels really great to be involved in a project that will help develop and encourage young people to thrive in our music industry. There are still not enough equal opportunities that financially support those who are at the start of their music career and I believe that this program will not only support those involved but help raise awareness of that too."
Jess Sharman - A&R of Palm Bay Music
Jess Sharman, A&R of Palm Bay Music, says: "I'm so excited to be part of a project that's creating such an amazing opportunity for talented young people. I wish there had been something like this around when I was starting out, so it feels extra special to be able to support the next generation of writers, artists, producers and A&Rs so early on in their careers."
The programme takes inspiration from the Brill Building, a place which was home to award-winning songwriters, producers and publishing companies in early 1960s New York, leaving a legacy of hits.
The Brill Building created a production line for making and selling music, as everything was quite literally “in house”: writers like Carole King and Gerry Goffin would work 9-5pm, five days a week to write songs and be paid a wage for it. They would then take them to other floors in the building to get an arrangement, book the studio to make the demo, have musicians play on it before taking it to the publishers office to get it cut by an artist. In the Brill Building the creative and business worlds of the music industry collided and Palm Bay Music wants to re-create that spirit of collaboration.
About Palm Bay Music
Palm Bay Music is an innovative Publishing company run by writers for writers, their experienced team have worked within the music industry as artists, writers, engineers and producers. This has given them a fresh perspective and inspired Palm Bay Music to do things in a new way. Palm Bay Music believes in a transparent and fairer industry where the creators of music are valued, inspired and empowered.
Rhiannon Mair - Managing Director
Rhiannon Mair is a producer, engineer and songwriter championed by Music Tech Magazine as one of the ‘UK’s rising stars of production’. She has worked with artists including Martha Hill, Charlotte Clark, Laura Marling, Bryde, Emma McGrath and LUNA with her work receiving national radio playlisting on BBC Radio 1, 6 Music and multiple Spotify New Music Friday placements.
Following her nominations for Breakthrough Engineer and Breakthrough Producer of the year at the 2019 MPG Awards, Rhiannon was voted onto the Board of Directors for the Music Producers Guild and currently stands as an Executive director.
Kimberly Anne - Managing Director
Kimberly Anne has achieved substantial success as a gold selling writer and platinum selling artist. To date her current releases and co-writes have amassed over 300 million streams on Spotify alone and have secured synchronisation placements with Netflix, Love Island UK, Made In Chelsea and global Spotify New Music Friday playlists.
Jessica Sharman - A&R
Jessica Sharman is a number 1 selling songwriter, topliner and producer. Her songs have had over 24 million streams worldwide and have spent consecutive weeks on BBC Radio 2's A, B & C lists, as well as multiple plays on Radio 1 and Radio X.
Alongside co-writing two UK top ten albums (including the #1 Ward Thomas record Cartwheels ) Jessica has hits on both sides of the Atlantic with Hannah Grace, Belle Mt, Blanche and Bre Kennedy. She also works with Sigala, Gabrielle Aplin, Hunter Hayes, Dan Croll, Jack Cullen, Gretta Ray and Eric Paslay.
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