These days, people have access to an incredibly wide range of music, much wider than any point in history. In theory that’s great news for bands and musicians working in so-called ‘beyond mainstream music’ – jazz, folk, electronic for example – but the reality is often a different story.

If artists and promoters are to have viable futures, it’s vital that they attract younger audiences, people in their late teens or early 20s. But with thousands of mainstream bands or gigs also vying for their attention, how can they do that? Is it about younger promoters? Different kinds of gigs? What about the sharing and curating culture that technology encourages? What can they learn or adapt from the mainstream music industry? It’s finding answers to these questions and others like them that we hope will inspire people to apply to Joining the Dots.

Joining the Dots wants to help artists and promoters working in ‘beyond mainstream’ music to test new ways of attracting younger audiences to their gigs. More details on why we think this is important and examples of people already pioneering in this area in this blog.