Deadline Extended For Music Industry Scholarship

Deadline Extended For Music Industry Scholarship

Maori record label Mai Music and the world's largest institute for audio engineering, SAE, has extended the application deadline for a new music industry scholarship.

The inaugural He Taonga Waiata Scholarship was won last year by Josh Lloyd, 24, who is currently completing a nine-month full-time audio engineering diploma with the Auckland branch of the SAE Institute.

SAE is the largest audio and multimedia network of institutes in the world with local graduates employed by industry leaders such as Kog Transmissions, York Street Studios, Revolver Studios, College Hill Productions, Lab Studios, Sky TV and TVNZ.

Scholarship details are available from www.sae.net.nz and applications now close on August 31.

Mai Music general manager Victor Stent says the deadline has been extended after a last-minute flood of applications which he attributes to recent Kiwi chart success.

Local musicians took out four of the top five albums in the latest RIANZ Top 50 album sales chart, the first time in history that New Zealand music has held such a position. Indeed, 11 of the top 50 albums were made in New Zealand.

Figures for the second quarter of this year also show an all-time high for New Zealand music on commercial radio. Local music accounted for just over 17 per cent of playlists, a strong indication that the 2003 target of 14.5 per cent will be surpassed.

"It's great to see a broad cross-section of New Zealand artists now consistently succeeding in the NZ charts, but what we now urgently need is further investment in the studio talents which can consistently engineer, mix and produce their music to the standards necessary for sustainable commercial success," Victor Stent says.

"Accordingly, we have partnered with SAE to offer this annual scholarship, in the hope that we can bring on at least one of those people who may have the raw talent, but not the money, to get access to this kind of world-class training ... this is their big chance!"

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