Health and Safety

DJ and Electronic Music Production

Project management

Simon Adair

Health and Safety.

the following document covers health and safety within the context of my own event/project plan.

Main points to consider;

• planning
• venue
• crowd safety
• electrical and lighting
• noise and amplitude
• toilets
• vibrations from noise
• first aid and medical
• Indoor heat management
• auditory hallucinations
• subliminal messaging.
• Fire safety and exits this can tie-in with site layout

The important question is; ''which of these factors are solely my responsibility and which are the responsibility of the facility/venue?''

The following are most likely to be my own responsibility rather than the facilities:

• Planning
• noise
• vibrations
• Wiring/cabling

The following are more likely to be the venues responsibility;

• first aid
• toilets
• air conditioning
• venue
• fire safety
• electrical
• crowd control/safety

Remember this is event safety from the point of view of someone (i.e. myself) doing an gig at a small venue like a 'hip club' or 'underground' event. Although I could take into consideration the kind of health and safety requirements of a massive venue such as a concert hall, festival or big night club, it would be irrelevant to what I am doing myself, (small venue).

After doing some reading on H+S I have found a segment which cleanly and simply breaks down the principles of H+S preparation that apply to all types and sizes of event-

46 There are five steps which need to be taken to assess the risk associated with staging the event.

Step 1 Identify the hazards associated with activities contributing to the event, where the activities are carried out and how the

activities are to be undertaken

Step 2 Identify those people who may be harmed and how

Step 3 Identify existing precautions, eg venue design, operational procedures or existing ‘safe systems of work’

Step 4 Evaluate the risks

Step 5 Decide what further actions may be required, eg improvement in venue design, safe systems of work, etc

Marketing and post-digital distribution

DJ and Electronic Music Production

Project management

Simon Adair

marketing and post-digital distribution

marketing is an important part of the creative industries infrastructure. Love it or hate it, marketing is essential for giving a product 'face value'. However marketing does carry the stigma of being...marketing. Most find advertising irritating and irresponsible and pushing a product hard can detract from its true value, if it has value.

So how do creative artist working in the music industry get around the general immoral, ham-fisted approach of marketing and make an impression?

Examples and how they work.

• Aphex Twin and his tank driving capabilities
• letting fans decide how much an album should cost
• artistic tie-ins
• gigs
• secret gigs and band press signings
• gimmicks (Aphex Twin's Tank's and Blimps)

The idea in a post-ironic industry is to create an image that is hard to forget yet refrains from traditional saturation and peer pressure techniques used by big companies and marketing firms.

People are generally moving away from 'pushiness' in a product and naturally go towards a more 'quirky' and egalitarian model.

This is true of many artists working within the creative industries but the rules of marketing still apply regardless of how 'quirky' and 'indie'.

An artist still has to advertise gigs, distribute Demo's either through CD's (if you live in the 90's) or using a website/music networking site such as Sound-cloud, Lastfm etc.

The WikiHow- market Yourself as an Artist makes out marketing for an indie musician/producer seem simple and lists everything relevant;

1. write a Bio of yourself
2. make stylish and available pics of yourself
3. create business cards
4. create a website
5. create a youtube account
6. post your events on social networks
7. join artist groups
8. perform lots of gigs and open mic's

This is a good list but seems to avoid high lighting some very important points that I will add and explain myself.

1. Budget. A 'starving' artist may be on a tight budget so business cards and web domains may be out of the question.
2. The problem with joining artist groups or social networking is that your creative output may still get ignored or people simply wont know its there if they can't find your alias
3. You need an Alias more than you need 'sexy' and stylish pics of yourself. And taking 'cool' selfies of yourself for self promotion may attract the wrong crowd or send the wrong message. “Keep it real”.
4. Be Very Very Lucky. Cannot stress this enough because in this kind of society sometimes you just need luck.

Other than those issues the other methods of self marketing as an artist are solid and all artists have to create an online 'digital footprint' through Social networking, gigging and open mic.

An alias(s) is also useful and helps music fans identify you online better. The best alias would be something unique, easy to Google search and memorable.

Although Distribution is considered a physical act of moving promotional goods such as CD's and merchandise, most modern marketing for a small 'up and comer' is done purely digitally. Most distribution is 'metaphysical' in nature and the music industry is generally shifting in that direction-In 2011 there were 3.6bn paid music downloads, up 17% on 2010. Music distribution is relatively well-established online, compared to other entertainment industries, and there are two distinct ways that music is marketed and distributed online.-econsultancy.com.

Like most music content users I'm likely to listen to some of a new artists tracks for free before buying any tracks or albums by that artist. I am able to do this because the market has shifted towards a digital download model similar to the gaming industry i.e.-Steam Client.

So most distribution of music through sales and 'access' to music content is now done through sites such as; iTunes and Spotify.-As the younger generations (who currently use free music access services such as Spotify, YouTube and Pandora) begin to acquire spending power, they are likely to heavily influence the development of paid access-based and subscription services.-econsultancy.com

Although in my personal opinion it may be due to budget. Although buying and owning something physical is still seen as 'better', why would your average 'facebook generation' kid buy a CD for £15 when she has already listened to the album on Band Camp?

Referencing/Reading material:

http://www.wikihow.com/Market-Yourself-As-an-Artist

https://econsultancy.com/blog/10275-the-future-of-digital-music-distribution-and-online-music-marketing/

DJ and Electronic Music Production

personal tech Specification

Simon Adair

Tech Spec.

System 1 Roland Synthesiser. A Dual multi-oscillator Digital synth with Analogue emulation circuitry.
M-Track Audio Interfaces. A dual channel Audio interface.
EIE Pro Akai. A large 4 channel Audio interface.
Novation Launchpad Mini. A USB clip launch control surface built for Ableton Live.
Bass and electric guitars.

This is equipment used by myself (Xenovater) and my collaborator (Passive Fields).

Cabling (4mm audio) may be needed for linking up to PA.

Riders

DJ and Electronic Music Production

Project management

Simon Adair

technical specification and Riders

Musicians.about.com defines Tech-spec as a band or agent providing information to a venue on the artist/bands equipment requirements and what equipment the artist will be bringing. Its all down to audio interfacing.

The tech-spec can also be a listing of the venues in-house equipment and technical capacity.

My personal tech spec for my next gig/open mic event is as follows:

• Audio interface x2
• Bass Guitar/Guitar
• Laptop
• System 1 Plug-out, MIDI and USB Synthesiser
• Launchpad
• Oxygen Keyboard

So this leaves me only needing access to 4.4 audio cabling to a sound system. Other than that my project partner and myself are quiet self sufficient for our live work.

A very good example of a Tech spec for a facility such as a venue or recording studio would be The WEC studio equipment guide. I Have attached an excerpt of this to give a fair idea of the 'load-out' of a audio capable facility.

Riders

Although I have not taken into account riders for my own project, it has been known for artists to apply for extremely unusual or demanding riders just to 'see if they could' get them.

Vice.com created a list of 'ridiculous riders' just to give an idea of how outrageous they can get. However they are usually demanded by well known and established artists who have the reputation and influence to be able to acquire them.

A self start would have to ask for far less in order to be considered sane.

Referencing/reading material:

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/the-most-ridiculous-riders-in-history

http://musicians.about.com/od/qz/g/techspec.htm

Contracts

DJ and Electronic Music Production

Project management

Simon Adair

Contracts

As an eventuality of any mutual project between a partnership to create a music product/event, a contract has to be written up as a recorded agreement between the partners.

But why is a contract necessary even for a small business venture, especially in the music industry?

The answer is that no matter how well you know somebody, debates and arguments will always arise in the future as to the planning and execution of the collective project. A contract puts some constraint on individuals within the project to enable fairness and prevent one-upmanship.

The contract is also a guideline to prevent deviation from the original project by the distributor or label and can be used as a guideline for the misuse of a musical product i.e.- preventing your distributor from putting subliminal ads for Cilit-Bang in your IDM music video.

Last but far from least a contract between artist(s) and label also stipulates how much ownership of the product an artist has and how much in royalties the artist is entitled to.

Product ownership is an interesting one because “100% of nothing is a lot less than 17% of a big company”- FundersandFounders.com- how to fund a start-up.

This statement basically justifies the artist ''selling out' to the ''big label'' out of a desperate need to be famous very quickly.

However in music there is no such thing as short cuts.

So broken down all these uses of a contract between artist and label are as follows;

• Terms of use for materials produced by the artist to prevent 'Product Placement'.
• Royalties based on the legal ownership of the product by the artist, if something is played it must be paid.
• Ownership. Basically how much power does the artist have over they're own product whilst having it distributed by a label.

In my own case I must have a gentleman's agreement with my business partner and draw up a contract that will benefit us both equally and allow for as much creative and independent autonomy as possible. This would then be the contract given over to a distributor for consideration.

If however We go completely 'indie' we will have more creative freedom but possibly less funding and resources and make a written contract redundant.

The negative side of contracts.

Contracts used in the music industry more than any other industry are prone to being unfair, unbalanced and creatively stifling. The worst cases and the worst offenders are the big labels. The more powerful the label and the newer the artist, the more unbalanced the power between the two can become.

In short a contract with a big label is not to mutual benefit and sees to much balanced in the favour of the label. This can happen when the artist is new to the game and wants as much publicity as possible with they're music. So they will jump at a chance at being signed with a big label without reading the small print.

This is where having a lawyer to check over the contract is a necessity as being contracted to a label that 'owns' you is a form of indenture.

Eventually the artist will begin showing signs of resentment and rebellion. Some even go to court with they're own label. A classic example is the conflict between Prince and his label. This lead to his publicity campaign with changing his name to a symbol out of frustration with his label.

In my personal opinion artists getting into conflicts with they're representative labels should have; A. had a better lawyer and B. read the contract properly and demand more autonomy.

Referencing/reading material:

http://contracts.onecle.com/doranetti/doran.svc.2003.09.01.shtml

http://fundersandfounders.com/how-funding-works-splitting-equity/

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep00/articles/music.htm

http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2013/10/03/big-legal-mistakes-made-by-start-ups/

Financial Information

DJ and electronic music production

Project management

Simon Adair

Financial information (actual expenses).

During my research on expenses for my project I was able to come up with a table representing 'Theoretical Expenses for my live project'. The real expenses are actually a lot lower and more cost effective due to certain changes and developments in the project.

In short, the list of things that were cut out were:

• Marketing
• Business cards
• Artwork

These were cut because I actually needed hardware to be able to even play a live gig, so budget went into that. Hardware is money better spent than time (or money) spent struggling to find or hire artists and hiring equipment for a culture 'jamming' project.

Marketing also seemed a waste of time due to the event itself being an open mic venue and actually being the advertising for me as an active artist.

As an open mic venue There will be no need for venue hire. So the biggest expense will be equipment and transport.

No money will be made either, however the publicity will be a benefit for my live work as getting into gigging will be a good exposure and breakout for work.

Electronic Music Production

Yr2 Jan 5^th – may 2015

Project Management

Simon Adair

Log for Project management

Date:	Details:	Outcome and next steps:
5th Jan	Finalised event brief and had a copy sent to my project partner to be verified.	Partner liked the idea and we discussed the idea further online, further developing the idea of Data-bending as a central idea.
12th Jan	Recorded more sampling to be used in project and have started working on an art portfolio
21st Jan	Tried to arrange studio time at the WEC with little success.	Problem was the password access I had a talk with Stuart at the WEC about it and had the problem fixed
27th Jan	Talked with partner about getting studio time. I had been online to book and found very few slots	I had an idea, I usually stick around on Monday evening after my regular Production session so I made arrangements with my partner to meet me up at the WEC and I would 'hold onto' the room I would be using. I had checked the timetable for Monday and only two studios were booked so two would be free. However I am going to try and book time anyway so I don't get kicked out the room.
2nd Feb	Had a session with my colleague at the WEC. We had lots of hardware to work with, mainly analogue synthesis. The main goal was to get some of our own patches recorded and bounced to use as samples.
11th February	Had meeting about venue	We came to the decision that the Loco was our best bet for reasons of budget, crowd and convenience.
19th February	Half term.	I booked studio 2 at the WEC and continued to work on sample pack for live event. Lee wasn't available due to work commitments.
23rd Feb	Work on sampling and Meeting in afternoon to brainstorm budget, music style and venue.	Our best bet for venue is still bar loco. The music style will have to be more 'gentle' to prevent the punters from defecting to the bar. Our budget is roughly £200 for hardware, promotion and transport. Our projected revenue as a first time with this line up will be to break even. Although not having to pay for venue fee and PA will put us a little ahead. We still need to schedule a tech-spec of the venue and build a rapport with the ownership.
2nd march	More work on sampling.	I've got a very comprehensive library now and will be bouncing the entire library to WAV. Lee will get duplicate copies of the WAVs to work with.
9th march	Late session in studio	Some loops have been recorded using the Aira gear. I'm getting worried things aren't getting done quick enough so the pace will have to be picked up. There are lots of photography for project Management but the photos are of poor quality and most of them are for synth patching. However I was pointed in the right direction and have printed off patch sheets for the Pro 1.
13th march	Inventory of Equipment and resources	The Budget has been increased and we have more hardware now. This Includes; Synth, Bass Guitar, Pedal units, Audio interface and many analogue samples.
17th march	Rehearsal	First proper rehearsal with hardware: System 1 and Aira drum machine.
24th march	Rehearsal and recording	Myself and lee need way more practice for rehearsal and I'm becoming concerned because of the Easter holidays approaching. However today's session was extremely productive. I had brought in the System 1 and clocked it to the Aira drum machine and linked up both the MS20 and the Pro 1. We recorded Lizard People for my album.
2th April	Made arrangements with the Loco	I made correspondence with Bar Loco to garner information on the venue and criteria for performing there. I got info on how the open mic works and some info on tech. Although I requested they didn't have a tech-spec although I informed them of what equipment we would be using.
3rd-19th April	Easter period.	Easter has gotten in the way of rehearsal as studios haven't been available and Lee has been bogged down by a large dissertation. I myself have had to concentrate on other modules and especially my album.
20th April	Studio work on album.	I had to do a lot of monitoring today for the tracks on my album. This has been very time consuming as mastering Industrial Power Noise Is a tricky thing to do and takes a degree of concentration. The tracks have to be ready for this Friday. I Had messaged lee that I could do some rehearsing in the afternoon but he was unavailable due to his dissertation.
21st April	Lee granted permission to use Lizard People on my album.	I have had to make some decisions on the actual date of our live performance, regretfully I have had to keep rolling it back due to other commitments, Lee's dissertation (a very large body of research). So now may is looking more likely for any kind of live work. I also really would wish more rehearsal time but this is very hard to come by at the moment

DJ and electronic Music Production

Project management

Simon Adair

Evaluation

this project has lead me in an unusual direction. Last year I never intended to go into Live work or 'Gigging' to supplement any publicity I could garner as an artist. What really made me change my mind is that I had suggested the idea of doing some live work with my friend 'Passive Fields'. We had both worked on Industrial Music a couple of years earlier and really wanted to pick up where we had left off.

Two heads are greater than one. I felt that trying to get into 'gigging' for publicity and doing 'Art music' to a trendy crowd of millennial uncomfortable as a non-exhibitionist person.

One of my main regrets is not starting producing and performing electronic music earlier in my life so I would now be more established and practised.

Preparing a live set independently is one of the best ways to get some publicity for my collaborative work with 'Passive' which I believe is unique and spontaneous and deserves vindication and exposure.

Set-backs

Three things have held back our rehearsals and made planning more difficult.

• Resources and people. Some things have had to be scaled back like doing elaborate video and artwork. Finding other people to collaborate on our unusual brand of music has been difficult to impossible.
• Time. Any rehearsing and recording has been totally dependant on getting rehearsal time at the WEC in a studio large enough to pack in as many synthesisers as possible.
• Budget. I can think of massive things to do with video installations, albums, wine and cheese, riders and access to amassing technical equipment and big venue hire. All have needed scaling back due to my 'student loan' sized budget. Simply put, my imagination is bigger than my wallet.

The Learning Curve

The positive side to the set backs are educational. Even though I'm an older student and relatively wise in my own right. Organising and planning a gig of sorts is actually a new avenue for me.

The most important part of the learning has been able to arrange rehearsals and utilise the facilities at the WEC to the best of my abilities. This has supplemented my knowledge and respect for recording and analogue hardware greatly. It has also allowed me to create and experiment with Audio more in my collaboration with 'Passive fields' instead of turning my project into a crusade of creative vanity.

However there are very few people I could have worked with on a project of this kind as it takes a certain aesthetic and technical understanding of analogue audio.

Another thing that I have grown familiar with is asking around venues for information on live events and I have begun to do this even with gallery spaces as I ultimately want to get into the 'art scene' with my music, especially on my collaborative work.

Project Management Process log

contents:

1. Evaluation
2. Log
3. Financial information
4. Contracts
5. Riders
6. Personal Technical Specification
7. Marketing
8. health and safety