music every week
About
MEW is a community of music-makers! I've been facilitating it since November 2019. These are the rules:
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you gotta make a song every week or you're out!
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when you submit a song, you can hear everyone else's songs
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there will be some optional theme prompts, but it's very open ended: above all else you just have to keep making things
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it's open to new musicmakers in January 2023
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there is also 4-week, submission-optional mini-session in December called Music (Maybe) Every Week
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u are invited!
FAQ
How does it work?
You make a song, and submit it before the deadline each week. If you miss the deadline, you're kicked out! Every week I make a secret playlist and share it with the group. You can listen to everyone’s wigglin-fresh creations on your own, or tune into a Twitch stream (put together by our fellow member Jon Timm) to listen and chat live. Sometimes we’ll do shows (streamed for now) or compilations for public release! Like this one, and this one.
What counts as music?
Literally anything. It can have words or not, lots of instruments or just one, acoustic and/or electronic components, or you can bang on pots and pans and make a legitimately sick track. You don't have to have access to fancy recording equipment either: It works best when you give it a good go, but as for genre and content? Entirely up to you!
Does it cost money?
No! We are very anti-capitalist here at MEW Inc. (aka me- it’s just me and some helpful friends making it happen). Music Every Week is about doing the thing you love every week and making cool stuff and being a part of a community while everything (especially the music landscape) is upside down. There are hosting costs that I pay, and the prep every week takes a fair amount of time on top of my day job and my own music-making practice, so at the behest of some members there will be a brand new *totally optional* Patreon to help support the project. Both members and non-members can contribute if they’re stoked about MEW, or want some element of financial accountability. Otherwise you can participate for free, and will always be able to! Access to the project is based on participation only, not on any cold hard cash.
How did it all start?
A friend of a friend was putting on this thing called Song a Week with the basic rules listed above, and I lasted for about eight weeks before flunking out. It was an incredible accountability system, and the music I was hearing from the other folks was so good and pushed me to really come up with something I was excited about each week. I reached out again the following year to see if it was happening, and he said “no, but you should run one!”
So the idea itself isn’t new: there are a lot of chapters across the country and internationally that are doing similar things. Some of them are affiliated with magazines or are pay-to-play. This one is just a group of friends and peers who reached out to friends and peers, who have now reached you!
I don't think I can make a whole song every week.
That's what they all say. I've heard that from at least five of the people who are still doing it two years after we kicked off. Also, not a question. The question is "could I make a whole song every week?" The answer is ABSOLUTELY YES YOU CAN.