Blastbeat
Blastbeat Education is an NFP that has developed a fun & exciting Music & Multimedia Business programme offered to teens and schools around the world. Blastbeat utilizes music and multimedia to engage with teens, captivating them in a three-month social entrepreneurship co curricular / after schools programme. Blastbeat leverages their passion for music, multimedia, social media, making friends and some money as they have fun learning and experiencing first hand business, technical, inter-personal, intra-personal, team-work, communication, music, social, media & related skills. Blastbeat also promotes and encourages young original songwriters & musicians, supporting youth communities on a local & global level, empowering teens to create social enterprises creating community and social capital to help bring about change for the good of society. Teenagers organize themselves into Music & Multimedia Companies (MMCs) to compete in the business programme, planning, promoting and hosting a live music event.Within the Blastbeat programme there are two competitions in one that help encourage a true sense of real life, exciting social entrepreneurship and creative skills. A) the social enterprise competition - winners receive mentorship and investment B) the music competition for competing artists – winners get managed and recorded. Each member of the company taking on a different job role which include CEO, Company Secretary and managers in Sales, Marketing, Public Relations, Ecology/CSR, Art & Design, Finance, Event, Talent scouting, Web content creation & Video crew, Photographers, Journalist etc. ultimately producing a Battle of the Bands concert in order to identify the best musical talent in their neighborhoods.
By participating in the Blastbeat Programme, teenagers self-confidence, self-belief, self-esteem, social and life skills are boosted enormously. Blastbeat teaches real life creative and business-skills, where teens are creating, learning, and sharing in a structured online & offline environment that is centered on the music & multimedia business. These empowered teens then donate 25% of their profits from their gig to charity, making them young social entrepreneurs
Blastbeat Education is also looking for partners to provide the programme to young people in care who are not in school.
Blastbeat Education is seeking to bring Blastbeat programme into schools, youth organisations, or youths in care or to at risk youth groups, We wish to particularly help underserved teenagers gain real useful and relevant life experiences to promote their personal, social, educational and vocational development preparing them for their role as autonomous, participative and responsible members of society.
The programme is supported by educators and facilitated by Blastbeat employees and student mentors giving added value to the student’s school experience after school. In the UK Blastbeat is offering the programme FREE to 66 schools in London for the current school year with support from the Dept of Children of School & Families(as part of the city challenge programme).The Final for Blastbeat in Blastbeat is the educational branch of the Blastbeat Network; an online and offline youth community of musicians and music lovers who meet regularly at Blastbeat Live music events and online on the creative and social network www.blastbeat.tv Blastbeat has run in schools in Ireland. Belgium, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Slovakia the United States in New York City,San Jose, San Fran, Los Angeles, Austin and Chicago. Blastbeat has just starting in Japan (www.blastbeat.jp) and is now being franchised out to several companies.
The main challenge for the MMC is to organize & produce their own live music event. They do this by finding the best of original music talent in their local areas and showcasing them. Winning Bands are selected by a panel of industry professionals who volunteer their services. The winning act receives a prize of a development deal offer from Blastbeat Music.
Blastbeat therefore allows young people to help shape the future of their own local music scene and ultimately decide what bands/musicians will be next big thing. As an MMC, students carry out a variety of specific tasks throughout a 3 Month Module and are graded both on a continuous assessment bases and their presentation at the MMC Exhibition on the day of their Regional Final. The Blastbeat programme that began in Ireland in 2003 is a means of nurturing multimedia, musical and business skills among teenagers while encouraging them to work as part of a team and invest in their local community. Since its inception, Blastbeat has enjoyed considerable success in Pilots globally. Blastbeat has staged over 800 alcohol and drug free concerts have been staged by more than 3,500 young bands to audiences of more than 250,000 young people.
The Blastbeat programme is provided to schools, students, & bands free of charge and is financed through a combination of sponsorship income, foundation and government support & grant aid.
Blastbeat aims to run in over 30 countries by 2014.
Read more about this topic: Blastbeat (company)