‘Beyond Music’: When Music Meets Tech!
Across all borders and boundaries: Beyond Music is the answer to changed conditions in the music world and the platform that artists have been waiting for.
Cancelled concerts, no performances, no income: artists are experiencing difficult times during the coronavirus pandemic – and not only financially. Meeting with band members or musicians from other places, making music together, visiting a recording studio or going on tour are either not possible or only possible with restrictions.
The Swiss non-profit organisation Beyond Music, co-founded by Tina Turner and supported by other music greats such as Herbert Grönemeyer, Brazilian superstar Ivan Lins, jazz legend Billy Childs, Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang and many more, is working with the Serviceplan Group agency Plan.Net Technology and creates musical opportunities beyond the usual channels. The online platform Beyond Music enables musical collaboration across all borders and boundaries and even without any face-to-face meetings – and brings together professional musicians from across the globe. Access is only possible via an official invitation: already more than 1,000 professional musicians, composers, singers and songwriters from 241 countries have joined. At the same time, Beyond Music is far more than an alternative in these times of pandemic. Through cross-cultural collaborations and ever new band groupings, creative pieces of music beyond the mainstream and totally new music genres are created in annual projects.
Network, Chat, Collaborate
Realising the vision of the Beyond Music founder Regula Curti and CEO Konstanze Wiedemann required an innovative technical solution that combined many different functions. Plan.Net Technology created it in an online platform which focused on the needs of its users. From conception to hosting, Plan.Net Technology has overall responsibility for the technical implementation and support of the project. The platform is characterised by a wealth of photographic and video material as well as numerous opportunities to interact which are necessary for musical collaboration.
Via an interactive world map, for instance, artists can search specifically for others and be found themselves. The profile of each Beyond Music member contains tags that, besides their location, also give information about their cultural background, the music genres they are involved in, the instruments and vocal techniques they are proficient in, other musical skills such as producing or arranging, already released singles and albums, and previous musical collaborations at Beyond Music. The profile is also linked to the artist’s social media profiles, websites and music channels.
If a singer is looking for a musical collaboration with a saxophonist, a professional vibraphone player or an arranger, they can filter specifically based on these tags or be inspired by the more than 480 instruments from around the world played by the Beyond Music users. The artists can get in contact with each other via an integrated chat function with data transfer, swap ideas and music files and start a collaboration.
And The Money Goes To…
Beyond Music supports musicians financially and allows them unique opportunities for cooperation. Each year a world-famous producer is appointed to set the community a musical theme. The community joins together in cross-cultural music formations and develops innovative compositions that can be uploaded to the platform and listened to by the public. The best pieces of music are selected and awarded prize money of 80,000 US dollars, produced anew by the producer with the involvement of the winners and form the Beyond Music albums which are publicised across all the popular buying and streaming services in the world. Beyond Music Vol. 1 was produced by 4-times Grammy Award winner Larry Klein from Los Angeles and reached number 1 in the iTunes World Music Album Charts in the USA and Europe. Vol. 2 was shaped by the legendary French drummer and composer Manu Katché, and Vol. 3 is currently being put together by the team of 4-times Grammy Award winners Michael League and Bill Laurance. It will be released this spring.
Beyond Music is the answer to the changed conditions in the music world and the platform that artists have been waiting for. The organisation creates outstanding opportunities for both musicians and music lovers from all over the world, celebrates unity in their cultural diversity and creates the music of tomorrow.
Contact: Stefanie Krebs, Managing Partner Plan.Net Technology