Social Composers: Professional Composers

Welcome to part 5 of the series exploring the best and most useful online groups and forums for composers. Today we dive into the world of Professional Composers, one of the leading composer forums featuring a dedicated platform, a very large community and plenty of extended resources and services.

To talk about it I have invited its creator:

Mikael Baggström

Hi Mikael and welcome to this series, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hello everyone, my name is Mike, and I am a composer, sound designer and educator. My main focus is in online education, both on my website (professionalcomposers.com) and with online courses. I founded the community forum.professionalcomposers.com for composers of all styles and experience levels: to connect, ask questions, share knowledge, give insights and tips, talk about industry news and network on a daily basis in a community without annoying distractions like social media feeds.

Are you member and active on other groups/forums that you’d recommend to your colleagues?

Yes, several. The problem for me personally is that all are on Facebook, and my main reason for starting the professional composers community was that social media lacks in so many ways for a professionally run community/forum. I love good structure, organized in categories, with good formatting, great quality control, and nice features for both admins and users etc. Basically, a community of high quality and focus.

What is your role in Professional Composers?

Haha, my role? Oh I would say roles is a better description. Because basically I am the founder, administrator, moderator, content creator, curator and leader all at once. I am crazy enough to be the only one running everything from the website to the YouTube channel, and the online community. My role is therefore to do a 1000s different things, or at least try to haha.

Professional Composers

Tell us a little bit about the Professional Composers. What are its values/mission?

forum.professionalcomposers.com is an amazing place to connect with fellow professional and aspiring composers. You can discuss, share and learn anything and everything that matters for composers, in a friendly and helpful atmosphere. From the creative side like composition, production and sound design. To tools like studio hardware/gear, plugins and sample libraries. To the business and marketing side like publishers, labels, music libraries, distribution, networking, projects, clients etc.

Why is it unique?

My vision is to make sure the community is very professional, friendly and helpful. A place without trolls, toxic arguments, spam, link-dropping, arrogance, disrespect etc. I created this forum to be like “a fellowship of composers”. =)

Can I join if I am a novice and why should I?

Oh yes, you are very welcome even as an aspiring composer. The “professional” in the name mainly refers to your attitude and your ambition as a composer.

Can I join if I am an experienced composer and why should I?

Absolutely, because you will be able to connect with fellow professional composers and make new friends in the industry.

What should I do to maximise my experience with the group/forum and its members?

Easy, just be engaged, active and genuinely helpful and nice to people. Imo that is what connecting, networking and making friends is all about. =)

What should I never do and why?

The community is based on the value of always being professional and respectful among fellow composers and friends. Treat everyone as they are friends of yours, even if the argue against you. I will always uphold the professional, friendly and helpful atmosphere of this community.

Tell us a little bit about your members. Are there well known professionals among Professional Composers’ ranks and do they participate in discussions?

In my humble opinion it’s almost impossible to become well known as a composer. Except among other composers. We do have several actively working professional composers in the forum and they contribute on a level far above social media groups! =)

Have you ever witnessed new professional relationships born from interactions between members in the forum?

New connections and relationships happen all the time in the forum, as being truly helpful to other people will automatically do that.

Tell us a little bit about the extended services. Are there other services tied to Professional Composers (meetups, blog, vlog, podcast, courses, other groups/forums)?

Yes, I do teach online courses on music composition, production, sound design etc. which you can check out here: https://professionalcomposers.com/courses/

Before we say good bye, can you share the best tip you have read on Professional Composers so far?

1 best tip? Oh there have been so many amazing posts with so much in depth and well-formatted content that my jaw drops in amazement. The professional composers in the forum are so incredibly helpful, and sharing their experience, tips and insights. I can only humbly bow to them and thank them sincerely for their kindness! =)

Thank you so much for participating

It was my pleasure Giovanni, I welcome all aspiring and professional composers to join the community. Looking forward to connecting with you all in there! =)