YouTube launches campaign on the opportunities in the creative industries

Discover! Creative Careers, an England wide industry-led programme, has partnered with YouTube to launch a campaign to excite and energise 11-18 year olds about opportunities in the creative industries.

The exclusive screening and launch of the programme’s first film created for its young audience was made by art rock collective Dilettante from the North of England and will be uploaded to a new dedicated YouTube channel. The film itself spotlights the range of professionals that bring live music to life, highlighting how many individuals behind the scenes are needed for musical performers to put on a gig.

Students from TMP College, an independent specialist college in Wigan, hosted the unveiling of the film at their newly expanded campus.

After the screening of the film the young people had a Q&A with Francesca Pidgeon, the multi-instrumentalist and composer behind Dilettante and her manager, and she performed a selection of her tracks. The students also had the opportunity to question an industry panel which included representatives from YouTube, UK Music, Kycker and Discover Creative Careers and respond to a filming and photography brief from the Discover! team. Students from a range of courses on offer at the college also had the opportunity to share some of their work.

Dilettante’s brief was to create a short film to feature the collaboration and hard work that goes into a live music gig. The film features some of the people who pulled it all together.

Samuel Nicholls ‘Whiskas’, Director, Music Local who manage Dilettante said: “Through our talent development program Launchpad, we are able to support artists from first releases through to full scale album releases and with Dilettante we have seen her grow her fanbase, play headline shows, major festivals and national airplay. We hope this film can give some insight to the work that goes into being a touring artist, all the associated roles that go into building a successful artist and demonstrate the pathways that young people can get involved into build a creative career themselves.”

Alison Lomax, Managing Director, YouTube UK & Ireland: The UK’s creative sector is one of our greatest global exports, contributing over £125bn to our economy every year. However, career pathways aren’t always clear, and the industry continues to face challenges around accessibility, opportunities, and funding.

That’s why we were thrilled to partner with Discover! Creative Careers to spotlight the diverse range of jobs available in the sector – from technicians to producers and promoters – by hosting a special film screening and panel for students in Wigan. Ensuring young people from all backgrounds see the industry as a viable and exciting career option is crucial for its growth – at YouTube we’re committed to playing our part in making this happen and empowering future creatives everywhere.”

Discover! Creative Careers steering group member UK Music worked with its members and a range of talent development partners, to identify suitable candidates for the opportunity. They had an excellent short-list of strong candidates before bringing in Dilettante as the best match for the project. In addition they worked with Little Dot Studios, who supported ScreenSkills and Dilettante with production of the film, and advised on YouTube best practice, creative and post production.

Dr Oliver Morris, Director of Education and Skills, UK Music: “We were really happy to help pull this exciting film together showing the range of roles involved in supporting an artist putting on a live event. It shows the power of music as an artform that engages and excites but also really proves that you don’t have to be ‘creating the art’ to be part of the creative industries. We were also really excited to be able to offer paid work experience to students from our Music Academic Partnership (MAP) member the University of Hertfordshire who helped capture footage from Dilettante’s gig for use in the final film. To get to the final piece of music played at a gig like this, there are a huge range of people involved from the artist themselves to others like managers, promoters, and technicians. A lot of these roles can be ‘creative’ but are more focussed on supporting the artist’s work – often with amazing problem-solving, people, and planning skills.

Our report This is Music 2024 released on 20th November showed that in 2023 music contributed £7.6billion to the UK economy and supported 216,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Excellent news and a timely reminder during Discover! Creative Careers Week that there are many opportunities to pursue a successful career in music!”

www.discovercreative.careers

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