Inwards, Upwards, and Forwards: Youth Voice and Participation

An introduction to our Youth Voice and Participation programme

Wired4Music is central to Sound Connections’ Youth Voice and Participation work. Our priority is working directly with young people, and putting into practice the strategies and beliefs which Sound Connections consults and promotes through its wider work as a charity. 

Wired4Music Live Jam at Rich Mix, February 2023

What is Wired4Music? We are a network of Londoners aged 16-25, all interested in music. From music makers and radio producers to techies and budding A&Rs, Wired4Music connects young people from every corner of the capital, placing members of our network (which is free to join) at the centre of decision making, and co-creating opportunities that amplify young people’s voices, to challenge the culture of London. 

We offer funding opportunities to our members, through our investment programme ‘Generate’ which runs twice per year, enabling young producers, artists, and creatives to fund and start their own music projects. We also offer 1:1 mentorship meetings; produce seasonal events and workshops made for and by our young community; and we share a wide range of creative, equitable opportunities from our partners and peers across the wider music and creative sectors in the UK.

Who is involved and who does the programme impact?

The Wired4Music team consists of; Tee Peters, who leads the programme as Programme Producer; Jasmine Padda who runs the Marketing & Communications; the young people signed up to our network, who frequently get involved in and support us with various projects and work; and most recently, Wizdom Layne – the new Deputy Director of Sound Connections!

Wired4Music Artist Residency, 2022

The work we do focuses on supporting young musicians aged 16-25 across all of London’s 32 boroughs. We aim to offer our members opportunities to work in, learn about, and create music, also signposting them to relevant opportunities from other music organisations where appropriate.

Our programme is directly shaped by the feedback and ideas of our Wired4Music community, in terms of how and where we deliver our work, and who facilitates the sessions. For example, our members told us that they would like more opportunities to work directly within the Wired4Music team. As a result, we put together a six-month internship programme, offering our members the opportunity to help us produce the programme whilst gaining experience, and getting paid. We have recently welcomed our third assistant producer, Mazvita Zhou, to the team, who is working with us until September!

Wired4Music event, The Royal Albert Hall.

With the help of our entire team, we work to help develop our music community. We believe wholeheartedly in inclusion and diversity, and as we curate the programme, we are thinking about the fact that most of our membership (91.9% in 2022) live in economically deprived areas of London, and so we aim to make sure that there is always an equal opportunity to get involved with us and what we do. For example, we offered free tickets to our recent Open Mic event on July 17^th, to any young people for whom cost was a barrier to attending – this is something we promote widely and regularly across our entire programme.

“Best. Open. Mic. Night. Ever!!! Wayyyy better than the other ones I’ve seen!!! Super talented musicians and clever MCs and lovely singers.”

This series is all about looking inwards, upwards, and forwards…

How are you looking inward right now?

Wired4Music Summer Showcase 2022

We are currently planning and working towards our Autumn live event, for which we will be hiring up to six young people from our Wired4Music community to produce the event within a given budget. This follows on from our recent summer showcase, ‘Wavey Nights’ which you can find out more about here.

We are also thinking about progression routes for young people – after participating and working with us, what can they do next? We’re always trying to find ways to make that happen, and by establishing links with organisations and programmes with mutual values and missions, we aspire to help our young people go further on their paths.

What are you looking upwards at?

One of our main goals is to develop a greater presence within the music sector. There are so many organisations that are championing bringing music to young people, and we feel that developing more partnerships and collaborations with the amazing music communities in London would really help us to provide the best possible programme to our members, while also spreading the word about what we do.

Wired4Music member Milli-Rose, performing at a What Does Not NOISE event, July 2023, @whatdoesnot @jasonfiskphotography

We have recently begun working with What Does Not (WDN), a culture agency and creative incubator, to access high-end venues and make events in these spaces accessible for young people. In July, two artists from our community represented Wired4Music and performed at a WDN event – shout out to Nadia and Milli-Rose!

We are also considering the new National Plan for Music Education, and how this is going to impact and change the landscape that we work within. One of our current challenges is working out how we can best prepare to support the sector through this time of uncertainty and change.

The government has also recently announced a plan to put more funding into the creative industries – we are now thinking about how we can help break into the funding that is out there, and making sure that it actually reaches the people who need it.

In terms of sign posting to organisations and examples of best practice, here are a few that we admire:

• Small Green Shoots – offer an apprenticeship programme providing music and creative career opportunities for NEETs.
• Clock Your Skills – offer an alternative higher education programme for creatives who learn best through real-life experience.
• Tileyard – WeAreImpact – offer a creative work experience programme for young people.
• Youth Music – an established, national charity helping young people to make, learn, and earn through music – they have a great team who find ways to reach individuals directly with relevant opportunities.
• The RoundHouse – offer affordable, low-cost studio time to young people.
• GirlsiRate – push for change and creates opportunities for young women in the music and entertainment industry.

“Really positive. I would love to hear more and be given the opportunity to apply to new performances alongside being able to learn how I can be a more active part in the Wired4music community.”

What are you looking forward to in the upcoming academic year?

‘karmokar’, Wired4Music member and Generate alumni

We are looking forward to seeing what our young people deliver this month, and so should you! We’ve got a series of collaborations with other organisations in the works, as well as some workshops ran by both our own young people and professionals in the music industry. We’ve also got 1:1 sessions happening regularly, for young people to get some free careers advice from our team, not to mention the fact that we’ve just recruited a new Wired4Music Producer to help us deliver our work! What all this means is that we are moving at full speed, visiting schools, attending conferences – we recently sat on a panel about careers in music for the Royal Borough of Greenwich – more of this to come!

In October we will be opening applications for another round of Generate, our investment programme for 16–25-year-olds to realise their creative music projects. If you are a young person based in London, sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with all that we do!

What are you doing this year that is new / different?

Tee Peters, Wired4Music Programme Producer

The most significant change happening right now for Wired4Music is within the team itself. This is Tee’s first year planning the full year’s programme, and with access to the full year’s budget, Tee is beginning to implement his own ideas on how we can support the Wired4Music community. Managing the programme on behalf of our community of over 1,200 members is, however, no easy task, and so one of the ways that we are managing this is by recruiting help from the young people within our network. By creating new training opportunities for our members such as the Event Producer roles, and the Wired4Music Assistant Producer, we are hoping to embed Youth Voice even more strongly into our work, letting young people tell us what they need from Wired4Music.

Wizdom, our new Deputy Director, will be joining us on an official, full-time basis from September, and is bringing with him a wealth of experience across the music industry and music education. Wizdom is shifting from working independently for a very long time, to working within an organisation, and is looking forward to seeing how he can share his knowledge, experience, and resources, to add to the work of Sound Connections and Wired4Music!

How is Sound Connections’ recent NPO status impacting your work?

W4M Artist Residency, Rich Mix, 2022

As a result of our recent NPO status, we now have the opportunity to be further engaged nationally in the conversation about what is happening in the creative industries as a whole and with creative talent moving forward. We are currently considering how we can navigate this new opportunity, including how we can pioneer pathways to industry.

It has also made us more focused – we’ve got more things to report on now, which means our planning needs to be very succinct. When we look at Sound Connections’ plan as a whole, Wired4Music’s plan and direction need to be in line with this.

“[Wired4Music] has helped me with my self-confidence and development in terms of working and networking with other musically minded people like myself. I’ve always felt scared to put myself out there to work with people whether its collaborating music, producing events and more. Wired4Music accepted me for who I am.”

Where should people go to find out more?

• Visit the Wired4Music website for all the latest on what we are up to, and opportunities for young people (aged 16-25 in London) to get involved in!
• Join our Wired4Music community by signing up to our monthly newsletter, which will deliver all the latest updates and opportunities straight to your inbox!
• Be sure to follow us on our socials as well.