You as an artist in the WA
Hip Hop scene know our community is extremely active; our city is filled with
an array of fresh, talented emcee’s and producers. Though sadly this does not
show in annual reports from associations that are setup to support and assist
musicians. By not being a member of associations that are vital to your success
as an artist such as WAM and APRA. You are not only missing out of royalties
and opportunities but it means the states music is being incorrectly
documented. This means less funding for the genre, less attention and overall
miss representation of the music that is being made/performed. There are some
contributing factors that I can put this down to but the person held most
responsible is YOU.
If you are serious about
your music, sustaining and growing our scene there are two vital things you
need to do, sign up to APRA and WAM.
The
Australasian Performing Right
Association (APRA) works to
ensure that composers, songwriters and publishers are rewarded whenever, and
wherever, their musical works are played, performed or reproduced and help
Australian & New Zealand music consumers get access to the world’s musical
repertoire. In other words they collect royalties (money) for all your creative
works. Offering a heap of other free services and resources such as song
writing workshops, mentor programs and funding. Please, please trust me on this
one. It’s free to join here and for more information head to here.
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WAM,
the West Australian Music Industry Association Inc, exists to develop the
contemporary music industry in Western Australia. It’s $40 for an individual annual
membership, which includes benefits from Virgin and Qantas, Disk Bank, Big Sound
Music Conference plus loads more. It offers resources for free such as music
legal advice, funding and creates opportunities for workshops and well payed
performances at events. One of my
fav’s is the Schools Alive program – you can get paid to play in high schools
through out WA! WAM is there to help and assist you, sign up here or click here for more information.
I
wrote this post for three reasons. Firstly it will help you on your journey as
an artist by signing up to both these associations.
Secondly
out of frustration, this is honestly one of the first things you should do if
you are serious about your music. I get musicians asking me all the time for
advice and it shits me to tears when they have not done these two things, I
know I must share this feeling with many that work in the music industry.
Thirdly,
I attended the WAM Annual General Meeting at the beginning of the year and true
to god I was embarrassed. Embarrassed to be part of a community that holds an
exceptional reputation for producing a high standard and quantity of music. I’m
pretty sure I was the only person in the room that is heavily involved in our
hip hop scene, so I sat there quite proudly. But when the hip hop statistics were
read out I was so so disappointed in the results. There was not one hip hop performance in the Schools Alive Program
for 2011, only 6 people attended the Curtis Blow Hip Hop Workshop, only 15
submissions for Urban/Hip Hop Song Of The Year and only 10 hip hop release were
documented for the year. And when they say release they mean ANY single, EP, Album, or Music Video.
Pretty
much, it’s up to you as an artist and a community. Now that I have shed some
light on the situation please do something with the information I have just
shared with you. If you find the forms to hard or you don’t get one of the
questions hit me up and I will help you out.
One last thing, if you don't mind can you please like my FB (Facebook page not Finger Banging) page here!
All
my love
Evie
x
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