More Music and Cardinal Newman College brought the music industry to Preston on Tuesday 25 June 2024 for their first collaborative ‘Meet the Industry’ event, which took place at the college.

The event was developed following a consultation with the music students from Cardinal Newman College and other young people from across Lancashire hosted by Amplify, Lancashire Music Hub’s Youth Board. It was attended by 40 students from Cardinal Newman College and brought together professionals from across the North West to talk about careers, opportunities and pathways in to the music industry.

Guest speakers were:
• Karen Boardman, Director of Crisis Music Management and Music Relationship Manager for Arts Council England,
• Abbi Phillips – drummer for punk band Loose Articles who are fresh off the back of supporting Foo Fighters for 2 nights in Manchester,
• James Gelson, touring sound engineer;
• Tom O’Boyle, music journalist who writes for Metal Hammer as well as leading the BA screen writing course at UCLan
• Lily Carassik, trumpet player and composer who has played with artists Soul II Soul, George Ezra, Brian May and Arlo Parks and performed at major festivals including Glastonbury.

Young people identified that though they were aware of many careers in the music industry, often the pathways to get there were unclear. Alongside that, misconceptions about the reality of jobs in the industry and the priority given to other subjects over music and the arts led students to conclude that the best way to tackle these barriers was to bring music industry professionals into colleges and schools to learn from their real-life experiences.

Students had the opportunity to ask industry professionals questions like what does a typical day or week look like for you? How did you get to where you are now?  What are the current trends of industry and what are the challenges of working in the industry.

Rachel Parsons, youth programmes manager at More Music said:

“The event was a brilliant opportunity for the students to gain an insight into what life is really like working in the music industry. Our panel of guests were able to smash many of the misconceptions commonly held about careers in the industry, demonstrating the many pathways and routes they had all taken. Despite working in different areas of the industry, from management and journalism to sound engineering and performance, the panel shared some common top tips for the students including the importance of being organised, prepared and on time; being good at what you do, working hard, taking opportunities, feeling the fear and doing it anyway and being kind and friendly!”

“These industry events are vital for young people as they future of the music. Being able to meet and get some practical advice from people working in the industry and who from the North West makes the possibility of pursuing a career in music so much more tangible.”

James Cruickshanks, Head of Music Technology at Cardinal Newman College, said:

“We had a great day. The panel of guests were amazing and the students loved it. We’ve had some great feedback from them. It’s so hard for them to get real advice and contact with industry professionals so having them all in the room to share their stories was so beneficial.”

Feedback from young people who took part in the event:

– I enjoyed the variety of expertise and advice we got due to the diversity between all the different panel members.

– The highlight of my day was when we went off into our individual groups as we could talk over more personal issues without the pressure.

– I liked how we got to see many job roles in the music industry and how they got into that job this was interesting as it opened my eyes to different jobs in the music industry for example the music journalist.

– The highlight of the day was having a one to one talk with one of the panel members as we were able to ask questions more freely and also find out a lot more about them. This was the highlight as it made the whole experience feel very personal.

– I enjoyed listening to the different perspectives of people from different roles in the industry. I also enjoyed hearing about the different ways they each got int the industry and how they progressed.

– I found it interesting how everybody got into their careers and found it inspiring how much hard work paid off.

– Getting to find out about what different careers in music look like

The music industry day was funded by Cardinal Newman College, Youth Music and Lancashire Music Hub.