What is EMI?
Launched 2 years ago, the European Music Incubator (EMI) is a musical career accelerator acting at a European level. This experimental project is co-financed by “Creative Europe Program” of the European Union and coordinated by Trempolino. It aims to support emerging musicians to become entrepreneurs of their musical projects. Indeed, because of the disk crisis and digitalisation, earning a living exclusively by selling, streaming and through live music turns out to be more and more difficult. Once we’ve established that, what can we do? Optimize digital visibility, diversify sources of incomes, transform projects into a brand: there are many paths to explore.
How does it work?
Partners, musicians and mentors
5 European cities are invested into that project: Nantes, Tallinn, Genoa, Liverpool and Zagreb. Each city has its own theme: “Music and brands” for Nantes, “Soundtracks for movies and videogames” for Genoa, “Cultural tourism” for Zagreb, “Digital teaching” for Tallinn and “Digital services” for Liverpool. In each city there is a partner. Each city has to find mentors that will supervise the musicians on practical subjects throughout the duration of the project as well as organise a workshop in their city for all EMI musicians.
After a long phase of applications and selections, 7 musicians have been chosen to join the EMI.
And what about Mooders?
Music and brands
We were asked by Chloé NATAF from Trempolino, to be part of EMI as a mentor. There we found the possibility to share our ten-year experience spent composing and producing music for brands through our society Mooders. We were immediately seduced by the project: its international perspective, the original approach of sharing our profession, the opportunity of new encounters… When we first started, benefits from such support would have probably been helpful to make less mistakes and to learn our job faster, so we thought “why not help others?”
In order for this accompaniment to be efficient and gainful for the two selected candidates with the theme “Music and brands” (Natalie McCool and Sara Renar) , we have decided to approach it from an angle as wide as possible. Once completed the support phase, it will help them be independent. Indeed, there is a big difference between developing our own musical project and composing music for brands. We have started this project by acknowledging the different uses of music that involve brands by sharing successful achievements that we considered relevant and by exchanging these realisations with the candidates. Then we have drawn up an inventory of features related to the ecosystem in which we are evolving: “who is in charge of what?”, (in order to target our potential prospects). We have taught Sara and Natalie how to approach the creation phase: request a complete brief, identify the potential pitfalls, learn to listen and understand different interlocutors, to be surrounded by great work partners and to adopt the right attitude. We have explained how we promote our projects to add value to them and we also have discussed legal issues. The topics are many.
Now it’s time for action!
The pilot project, which is the first practical realisation during mentoring, has been a collective sound creation: the sound identity of the Motion Motion festival.
In addition to intervening with Sara and Natalie, we participated in several trips abroad to meet the partners’ entities, other mentors and musicians. We went to Tallinn to launch the project and in Genoa for the mid-term meeting. This step created the opportunity to appreciate the progress of the artists in their projects and to imagine their next steps. These European meetings have generated some interesting reflections involving many actors from different sectors, interesting meetings including a cohesive team of professional and passionate people who share a common goal: to support and help music and musicians move forward.
Finishing on a high note
As a conclusion of these 2 years, Trempolino organised SLASH. On November 22nd and 23rd in Nantes, artists and cultural experts gathered to question, debate and imagine the artist of tomorrow.
How to better broadcast music on streaming platforms?
What are the opportunities for musicians in the videogame industry?
What is the new musical media? What is an artist’s success story?
What will be the future of a musician in 2030?
In the program: panels, conferences, masterclasses, meetings, workshops…
A trip has been organised to discover the final projects’ public exhibitions of the 7 artists who participated to EMI. To sum it up, these projects are aimed at presenting the experience and knowledge gained during the past 2 years. On our side, we have presented “Winesthesia”, a synesthetic experience mixing tasty flavours and sound creation. We worked with Sara on a Muscadet vintage from an emblematic area of the region, the “Domaine de l’Ecu”. After a tasting and a mutual reflexion, Sara worked on a musical translation of this vintage, while being inspired by the brand, the values, the philosophy, the flavours and the aroma of the “Granite” vintage. She played this live creation during 3 tasting sessions.
