Creative Digital Live Music Music

Momentum Music Fund – deadline for applications 29th May

karen
10/05/2018
0

Momentum Music Fund

PRS Foundation, the UK’s leading charitable funder of new music and talent development has announced a new partnership with Creative Scotland to support its Momentum Music Fund.  Previously only artists based in England were eligible for funding, but now, Scottish artists can apply for funding to support activities such as recording, touring and marketing.  The new partnership will enable artists to apply for career-boosting grants of between £5,000-£15,000 – artists must be at a tipping point in their careers, showing current progression and growth with significant potential to continue developing.

The next deadline is Tuesday 29th May 2018 at 6pm.

For more information please visit: prsfoundation.com

Creative Digital Live Music Music

WOMEX 2017 was great!

karen
01/11/2017
0

WOMEX 2017 was great!

We’re back from WOMEX 2017 in Katowice, Poland and what a great experience it was. Four days of meetings, networking and watching! A truly multi-cultural, diverse feast of music and cultures – we loved every minute of it.

Our stand was visited by a huge range of artists, radio presenters, festival organisers, agents, and promoters from across the world including Canada, Morocco, USA, Switzerland, Hungary, Colombia, Germany, Poland, Armenia, Mozambique, Latvia, Chile, Sweden, Belgium and many more.

 

Our promotional CD Northern Lights was included in each of the delegate bags along with a copy of the WOMEX edition of fROOTS, which featured a 2-page advert, an editorial and an album download. We sent out regular tweets with some of them reaching the huge screens at the back of the WOMEX hall. For more information on the artists please visit birnamcd.com/northernlights.

 

 

We’ve already had notification from a radio station in Australia that they have played a track from the fROOTS download, which is part of the digital fROOTS edition, sent out just before WOMEX.

We had lots of discussions with radio presenters looking for music from across the world and were particularly interested in the range of music and artists we were promoting here in Scotland. We’ve now linked with a folk, blues and world music internet radio station which streams 24 hours a day from Vienna, connected with radio presenters from Germany and Hungary and set up links with a network of 45 radio presenters who all feed into the World Music Charts, as featured in fROOTS.

We held very positive discussions with a wide range of WOMEX delegates covering many different aspects of the music industry. Like us, many delegates were looking to establish positive partnerships which would support increased awareness and opportunities for artists and music in general.  We will be working on a few exciting developments over the coming months.

We had the pleasure of the company of TALISK who were there to do one of the showcase performances – a hugely significant accomplishment given that there were around 1350 applications for around 60 available slots. Their gig went extremely well, lots of very positive feedback and a queue of delegates looking to book them. They’re lovely folk and we wish them even more success in the months and years ahead.

 

 

We also had the pleasure of meeting a great bunch of folk from Catalonia – we’ve been thinking of them since we returned, and we wish them well for the future.

Just to finish, we’ll leave you with another two photographs. The first one is the indoor beach with hammocks and deckchairs. This area proved very popular later in the day when folk were getting weary.

The second photograph is our PARKING TICKET – all the way from Scotland to Poland and we managed to get a parking ticket on the last night!

            

Well, we didn’t have time to do any shopping, so it’s nice to have a souvenir…..

WOMEX 2017 was a hugely enjoyable experience and we’re looking forward to WOMEX 2018.

 

 

Creative Digital Music

WOMEX 2017 – Stand number 5

karen
23/10/2017
0

Birnam International Music Promotion – We’re packed and ready to go – 2 of our team are off to WOMEX!

WOMEX is THE international networking platform for the World Music industry. This year’s event is in Katowice, Poland from October 25th – 29th and, as ever, a huge number of key industry personnel from around the world will gather together, seeking new music to distribute and new artists to introduce to audiences via festivals, concert tours, television, film, radio, press and digital platforms worldwide. Approximately 2,900 delegates attend WOMEX each year and for networking and exposure opportunities, WOMEX is one of the best.

We have the privilege of working with a huge range of extremely talented musicians, many of whom are independent. A few years ago, following requests from a couple of artists, we launched our Birnam PR service. To date, we have concentrated largely on promotion across the UK & Northern Ireland, with some additional international promotion. However, again, following requests from artists we are launching our international promotional package this year.

We have coordinated, designed and produced a compilation album – ‘Northern Lights’, featuring ten artists who we have had the pleasure of working with and supporting over the years – the album will be included in every WOMEX delegate bag. We’ve designed Northern Lights promotional leaflets and posters for our WOMEX Birnam stand (number 5) and will be giving away further copies of the promotional album.

The October 2107 WOMEX edition of fROOTS magazine has a free download featuring different tracks from each of the artists, a 2-page editorial and a 2 full-page advertisement featuring each of the artists – fRoots magazine is available digitally and hard copies will also be included in each WOMEX delegate bag.

To find out more about each of the artists on the Northern Lights album please visit Northern Lights.

If you’re at WOMEX please come and say hello – you can find us at stand 5.

Creative Digital Live Music Music

Nurturing Talent – Time to Shine Fund

karen
11/07/2017
0

‘Nurturing Talent – Time to Shine Fund’

Young Scot and Creative Scotland’s ‘Nurturing Talent – Time to Shine Fund’

The fund aims to support young people aged 14-20 who are interested in developing skills in one of the following areas:

Drama – Dance – Music – Film – Visual Arts – Literature – Digital Arts

Who can apply – Anyone aged 14-20, living in Scotland. Both individuals and groups can apply for funding ranging from £50- £600.

The deadlines for applications are: 28th August 2017, 9th October 2017

For more information visit young.scot

Creative Design Digital Music Posts

CD Pressing, Design for CD Packaging and Social Media Graphics, Music Promotion, Digital Distribution, Social Media Support and more… Birnam Case Study

karen
01/02/2017
0

CD Pressing, Design for CD Packaging and Social Media Graphics, Music Promotion, Digital Distribution, Social Media Support and more… Birnam Case Study

We’ve been working with independent musicians for over 30 years now and consider ourselves very privileged to be able to continue to work with a huge number of dedicated and talented musicians. We know that sustaining a career in the music industry is not easy and we like to think that we offer a complete service, supporting artists through all the stages of an album release and beyond.

A few folks have said that they thought we only offered CD, DVD and Vinyl pressing (well, we have built a reputation for that over the years). We actually do a whole lot more, so we’re introducing a few case studies to demonstrate and explain about the broad range of services that we offer.

The first case study features Liza Mulholland, an independent musician based north of Inverness. Liza came to us early in 2016 when she was planning her debut solo album. She wanted to have physical CDs in attractive packaging to sell at her gigs but also fancied the idea of the album being available to download and stream. She was keen to achieve widespread radio airplay as well as press and online reviews for her work. We discussed various packaging, design and promotion options and put together a full package covering all of Liza’s requirements.

You can read the case study HERE.

Liza gave us some really nice feedback, here’s a short excerpt:

‘Although technology and the internet have revolutionised the music business, making it much easier for musicians to release their own music, it still involves a lot of work. To be aided throughout the process, and relieved of much of the stress and hassle, has been a huge benefit and one that I would highly recommend. Self-releasing a solo album can feel a wee bit lonesome, with the burden of the whole project on your own shoulders; with Birnam CD at my side I felt like they were taking care of everything for me. Even better than that, I’m now getting nice reviews coming in and plays on radio stations I previously didn’t even know existed!’

Look out for a few further case studies over the coming year. We welcome, listen and pay attention to all feedback and we’re constantly striving for ways to build on and improve our services. In 2016 we revamped our website to make it more ‘user friendly’ and easier to navigate. We’ll be continuing to streamline and build on our range of services in the coming year and beyond, so please drop us an email with any suggestions or comments.

Creative Digital Live Music Music Posts

Looking Ahead in 2017

karen
09/01/2017
0

And we’re back!

After a very relaxing festive period, all of us here at Birnam CD are primed, ready and looking forward to 2017.

The year just gone was our 30th year as a business, and also our most successful year to date. To flag up just a few of last year’s milestones, we produced and delivered a record amount of CDs, DVDs and vinyl, made more tracks and albums for more artists than ever before available for downloads and streaming, launched a host of new services, overhauled our website and saw our (now expanded) promotional packages have their most popular year to date. Now we are looking ahead to further progress in 2017.

An awful lot of the artists we have worked with have already confirmed that 2017 is going to be a very busy year. Here are just a few events we are currently eyeing up…..

Just round the corner is the world-renowned Celtic Connections festival. Last year, we delivered 16,000 CDs to a range of artists in time for their album launches at the festival. This year, the number of CDs being delivered is already up there (and we aren’t done yet). As always, we are looking forward to heading to Glasgow to attend a number of album launches, events and concerts throughout the festival. The full list of Birnam clients performing is – as in previous years – too huge to fit into a humble blog post, but we will be providing extensive coverage of what they are all up to at the festival through our social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.

Further down the line, the Scottish music scene in 2017 remains as rich and far-reaching as ever. TradFest returns to Edinburgh at the end of April and spills over into early May, providing some fantastic concerts and great networking opportunities. In May, the Orkney Folk Festival celebrates their 35th year, with Eddi Reader and Flook amongst the acts already confirmed. June sees Skerryvore’s “Oban Live” return for its second (well, technically third, but who’s counting?) year, with one of Scotland’s most renowned bands again joined by We Banjo 3 and Skipinnish, with many more acts yet to be announced. Out on the beautiful Isle of Lewis, HebCelt will be back in July, and already have Dougie Maclean, Skerryvore and Peatbog Faeries confirmed to appear. August brings two of Scotland’s most popular events with Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, and the incomparable (and often inexplicable) Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Of course, all of these events are just a drop in the ocean when stacked up against the full wealth of Scotland’s music scene. Be sure you get out there and enjoy what Scotland has to offer in 2017.

As for Birnam CD, we have no intention of slowing down. We are working on several exciting new projects and services to roll out over this coming year. Unfortunately, we’ll have to keep tight lips for now, but expect to see some big announcements from us in 2017. Or, better still, sign up to our newsletter here and have news of new developments delivered straight to your inbox.