SOUNDPLANT – CULTURAL SECTOR REGENERATION FUND SUBMISSION 2022

Outputs of change

Emerging musicians in New Zealand struggle with challenges of creating and maintaining a sustainable career in the Arts. Reduced income from streaming services due to increased competition for ever-reducing margins, lack of proper touring opportunities and a diminishing sense of community during the pandemic, have all contributed, to a poorer environment for nourishing musical talent in Aotearoa.

Access to resources, improved engagement and developing community are the best means of facilitating long term sustainable success in any music environment. Consistent feedback from known and valued sources (eg. The Student Radio Network (SRN) or industry peers) is also a key resource which needs to be developed for emerging musicians in order for them to iteratively improve the quality of their output. 

This project proposes to address this imbalance and supply support from any location in New Zealand, by connecting musicians to advice that might keep them on-the-rails and moving forward with their work.

View the Outputs of change here

 

Model concept

With any complex problem there is no single “silver bullet” solution which solves all of the varying challenges faced by the diverse set of New Zealand’s musicians. There are however a number of tangible solutions which we believe can contribute to improved musical career development. These solutions can either aim to reduce the effect of stress factors, improve musician understanding of industry practices or reduce the additional labour required to create and capitalise on their art.

Introducing Soundplant.

At the core, Soundplant is a help-based service which provides access and drives outcomes from four broad and overlapping stages. These stages are: Creation, Production, Promotion and Performance. Once built and mapped, this help-based service will provide simple feedback in the form of links, suggestions and tools. Creating positive guidance for emerging musicians to minimise any risks and build improved sustainability and resilience in their practice.

View the Soundplant Creative Cycle here

 

Methodology

In order to evaluate the hypothesis of the Soundplant model a survey was developed in order to query the musical population of Ōtautahi Christchurch. The survey was implemented using Google Forms, which populated a semi-automated Google Sheet with artist’s responses. The sheet was designed such that each response could be processed in a semi-automated manner, applying a weighted score to each question in the survey.

The survey questions were broken down into the four areas of the model (Creation, Production, Promotion & Performance) as well as a generalised set of questions to capture information on the artists genre and their general attitude towards their musical career and community.

The survey questions were provided in two forms. The quantitative questions were composed of checkbox and multi-choice questions. Since the response for these question types are finite a weighted score is easily fixed for each response option. Qualitative type questions were also included which asked for a written response which were manually evaluated by the Soundplant team.

For each area of the artist’s musical career the weighted scores were summed and turned into a percentage performance indicator. The four areas were then plotted in a radar graph in order to create a visual queue for assessing the artist’s level of performance. The graphic was published to an artist report which contains the relevant information from the response and analysis for documentation. A report was also generated which contained sets of recommendations to the artist in order to prompt action on their part to address any areas where improvements could be made.

 

Our solution

Soundplant is a flexible, content rich web based application. It is focused on delivering highly relevant content and support to a registered community of emerging musicians across NZ via a robust and evolving digital platform. This platform will enable users to access a rich stage-based decision tree of industry information and content to support their current productive stage and overcome any associated needs/hurdles. It will enable direct queries to industry experts/mentors via an enquiry tool and look to facilitate a community via a forum and peer to peer engagement.

Access to the Student Radio Network (SRN) is crucial for emerging artists gaining traction during their musical career. Development will enable the project to connect with the Student Radio Network across Aotearoa, improving functionality for musicians as they interact with the network and their audience.

Developing a streamlined singular point for music submission, would be undertaken by this project in conjunction with stations of the SRN. A submission portal would also allow for information from the SRN station to be fed back to artists to improve their understanding regarding traction of their music on air.

 

You can read more about Te Tahua Whakamarohi i te Rāngai Ahurea Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund HERE

Register your support HERE. We will be seeking support for this submission until 13th November 2022.

And welcome letters of support directly: james@rdu.org.nz


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