Introduction
In this episode, I’m talking with Paul McManus, CEO of the Music Industries Association (MIA), the UK trade body for the musical instrument industry. The MIA works in a number of ways to support music education for all ages. Recently in October 2019, it held the first of what will now become an annual conference focused on music education and the music industry working together. The MIA also has a charitable arm called Music for All, which runs initiatives like the Learn to Play day and Make Music Day UK, and gives grants to encourage more people to make music.
You can listen now below, or on Spotify (search for the name) and iTunes. The transcript is available below.
Listen to the podcast
What’s in this episode?
What’s in this episode?
We talk about:
- What the MIA does, who its members are, and how music education organisations including hubs could connect with MIA members at a local level
- Who the Music for all charity helps and who can apply for funding
- MIA’s many partnerships and working relationships including with the NAMM Foundation in the USA, and in the UK the Music Education Council, Musician’s Union, ISM, as well as funded organisations including Drake Music and the OHMI Trust
- The themes emerging from the MIA music education conference – including how people are engaging with music currently, and may do in the future; the growth of private companies providing innovative ways to help people learn music; the importance of the music industry working with music education
- The potential of adult music education and the opportunity to promote all-ages music education through Learn to Play Day and Make Music Day
- We answer a question from Martin Fautley of Birmingham City University about how the music industry is adapting to the needs of all learners including disabled young people who can’t access traditional instruments. We discuss a pilot with Creative United and the OHMI Trust
- And we answer a question from Jimmy Rotheram about whether the decline in young people studying GCSE and A-level music has affected the musical instrument industry.
Links for this episode
Listen to talks from the MIA music education conference on their new podcast, Behind the Beat
Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, Kilburn
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