Social Composers: SCOREcast part 2

Last week Marie-Anne Fischer told us about the fascinating story of SCOREcast. Today she will finish the story. Moreover, I will ask her to tell us a bit more of what SCOREcast is today, its mission, its value and its members.

Please Marie-Anne, continue the story from where we left it last week.

SCOREcast London, a quick timeline

2010

In December 2010, SCOREcast on Line and the Composium group merged and SCOREcast London local chapter was born with James Semple heading the new community.

2011

In November 2011, James was appointed the role as Director of Global Community by Deane Ogden and I moved into the role as Director of SCOREcast London. Deane Ogden, Guy Rowland, David Saunders, Oliver von Landsberg, Tristan Noon and Nikola Nikita Jeremić were also part of the admin team.

2012

In August 2012 James stepped down as both Worldwide Director of Community and as an admin in the group. David Saunders became the new leader for SCOREcast’s Global Community development program in November 2012.

2017

In 2017, I handed over my role to Chris Nicolaides who is the current Director of SCOREcast London Chapter and I took over from David as Director of Global Community.

In each of my roles, I have given 110% of energy, countless hours of time and a lot of problem solving behind the scenes. Looking at SCOREcast London today, if I had to do it all over again, I would do so in a heartbeat!

Could you share with us a few of your favourite moments in your story with SCOREcast?

There are thousands of favourite moments. My personal favourite moments are the satisfaction I get when I see new composers join the group, meet each other for the first time at one of the Composiums, end up working together and then go on to achieve great things together. This includes composers benefiting from opportunities created by other composer-producers in the group.

I am grateful to have had the chance to meet so many wonderful people and have made friends for life.

I recall one moment of community support, with advice and guidance given when my computer broke down in the middle of a project and I urgently needed to resolve the issue. One composer even drove to my house with a sound card. How can one account for such generosity, sense of community and overall good will?

Perhaps another high point was when I had the opportunity to meet-up with other amazing members from SCOREcast Hollywood at their meet-up, whilst attending the NAMM show and then meeting other creatives and developers at the show.

SCOREcast today

Could you give us an idea of the scope and shape of SCOREcast today?

SCOREcast London, under the leadership of Chris Nicolaides and the devoted admin team, has continued to grow to 1700 members and remains extremely successful. It is certainly the most active chapter in the SCOREcast family. I feel these successes are partly due to the solid foundations and ethos established in the early years, but mainly due to the tremendous contributions, the collaborations, support, meet-ups and sense of community that every member has brought and still brings to the group.

Chris organises as many as four meet-ups per year, a time where we all get together and socialise face-to-face and away from social media. Every Composium has had a different mix of attendees, from new composers who only just joined to the regular folks. We have composers join meet-ups from as far as Spain, Sweden, Belgium, USA, Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Romania and Greece.

Another key success factor is the generous work and dedication of the admin teams throughout the years. Especially at the beginning, a great deal of personal time was spent by everyone to find exactly the right recipe to make the group run in a such way that every member, new or experienced, felt comfortable, treated equally and respected. It took many hours of volunteering, communications, trouble shooting and meetings to come up with a set of basic rules that ensured the smooth running of the group:
“The only hard rules are to not post your music and not to use the forum to promote yourself above the aims of the group. The group was formed with the express aim of avoiding competition amongst members, encouraging collaborative discussions and arranging social gatherings. Please treat everyone here with respect and you’ll find this place to be extremely warm and friendly.”

The other key factor is the number of potential beneficiaries to any post. The more people that could potentially benefit from a post, the more we encourage it. Posts that are only about personal news or work are not encouraged.

What about the other chapters?

Besides SCOREcast London and the Hollywood Chapter other chapters communities were created on Facebook to bring together composers in their local areas. The Toronto Chapter, the Amsterdam Chapter, the Japan Chapter, and the German Chapter.

My role is to oversee all the Chapter Communities and to help out when needed. The groups are extremely self-sufficient and don’t need much intervention from moderators.

The future of the SCOREcast chapters is to continue upholding the ethos of the groups. It was created by composers for composers and continues to grow, provide networking opportunities, forge friendships, share enormous amounts of wisdom. We share business skills, benefit of experience, lend support, instil confidence, engage in stimulating debates – all the while – keeping it professional.

Before we say good bye, can you share the best tip you have read on the group/forum so far?

You put your heart and soul into your music, don’t work for free, you are worth more than that.

Thank you so much Marie-Anne, for all you have done with SCOREcast, and for sharing its amazing story with us!