Gigajam News

Gigajam have been asked to present at Kent Music Professional Development Inset Day. 

Brian Greene, Managing Director, will be leading two sessions at Kent Music HQ in Maidstone between 1pm and 4pm on Fridat 3rd September.

An overview of the session can be found on the Gigajam blog, linked below:

http://briangigajam.blogspot.com/2010/09/gigajam-to-present-at-kent-music-inset.html

For more information please do not hesitate to contact us: brian.greene@gigajam.com

Tel 0800 055 6797/07976 208859

Redfish Online Music School www.redfish-music.co.uk/shop

Music stores, such as Redfish Music of Leighton Buzzard, are adding Gigajam powered Online Music Schools to their online offer to consumers.

Brian Greene, Managing Director of Gigajam said, ” It has long been recognised that music stores are seen as a good place for not only buying instruments, but, for find support and information on music making. The more people who can play, the bigger the market for instruments is.  We see our Online Music School as a great way for stores to make a tuition offer available. Those with established teaching practices can offer an online music school, not just as a supportive resource in between lessons, but also for those customers who cannot come regularly to a face to face lesson.”

John Hillier, Commercial Director added, “We know that we all have to be creative and innovative in business and our Gigajam Partner scheme helps stores address issues such as; physical capacity, lesson cost, accessibility, provision of new services and increasing revenue. We want to partner with more innovators, such as Redfish Music, as we believe our Online Music Schools provide a simple and easy opportunity for stores to grasp. We are delighted with the partners we have signed up in just this first week and already have over 20 new online music school partner sites built. ”

More information on the Gigajam Partner scheme is available online at http://musicschools.gigajam.net and by contacting Gigajam at:

Brian Greene | 0800 055 6797 | 07976 208859 |brian.greene@gigajam.com

John Hillier | 0800 055 6797 | 07956 466440 | john.hillier@gigajam.com

PRESS RELEASE

Gigajam and MIA launch Online Music Schools for Music Retailers

Gigajam and MIA (Music Industries Association) are supporting music retailers with a new tuition opportunity for consumers. This unique B2B offer provides retailers with a FREE own branded Online Music School.

Retail stores’ existing customers, as well as new in-store and online visitors, can subscribe to the Online Music School for just £3 a month. Gigajam will reward MIA members with 33% of the net revenue (20% for non members). The service is designed to; enhance retailers’ web presence, add more value to their service, and generate revenue. There are no costs for the retailer.

Paul McManus CEO of MIA explained, “Bringing new benefits to our members is a key aim of the association and we encourage stores to develop their local market by providing good quality musical education. The Gigajam Partner scheme affords our members the opportunity to offer tuition where perhaps it has not been possible. For stores with an existing in-store tuition programme, it provides both online support, as well as expanding the reach of their tuition to customers online.”

 Gigajam, an MIA member since 2004, is the UK’s leading eLearning music tuition producer and winner of the British Education Teaching with Technology Award (BETT Award).  Gigajam is well respected within UK Education and is Yamaha’s eLearning partner for Schools. They currently have over 1,000 schools as clients and provide access to lessons and software in over 100 Local Authorities.

John Hillier Commercial Director of Gigajam said, “We have a clear strategy for reaching UK consumers and initially this will be through our unique no cost B2B proposition to MI. This will provide Gigajam Partner stores with their own Online Music School. This creates a new, no cost revenue stream.

We have invested well in our technological developments over the last six years enabling us to create new dynamic business models for new markets. We can provide our technology FREE to Gigajam Partners, as the business model is entirely scalable, with set up and maintenance costs covered by subscription revenue received from users of the service.”

For more information about becoming a Gigajam Partner, together with a simple online application, please visit: http://musicschools.gigajam.net

About Gigajam and MIA:

MIA (Music Industries Association)

 http://www.mia.org.uk

The MIA is the UK Trade Association of the musical instrument industry. They represent the full breadth of the music sector including manufacturers, distributors, retailers, publishers and educators.

Their mission is “CREATING AND ENCOURAGING MUSIC MAKING”

What the MIA does:

Promotes – the benefits of music making.
Supports – its members, providing them with business support and access to many benefits.
Champions – the music industry as a whole and represents the industry through advocacy in Whitehall, Westminster and Brussels.

Gigajam (Interactive Music School Limited)

http://www.gigajam.com

Creating Musicians

Gigajam’s vision for schools is to provide the opportunity for every child to learn a musical instrument, free at the point of access, through the provision of a progressive, sustainable, scalable and affordable solution which harnesses technology, provides continual and formative assessment and is accessible anytime, anywhere.

Gigajam continues to develop its products, services and partnerships in line with the aims of the music manifesto, the strategy under-pinning Harnessing Technology, and the opportunities presented in Ofsted’s report, Making More of Music 2005-2008.

Gigajam demonstrates their inclusive principles in the consumer sector by providing high quality interactive music tuition to as many learners, of all ages, as possible. Gigajam utilises its technology to provide scale, reach and genuine affordability.

Gigajam visited Pleckgate High School to see how they are using Gigajam to support greater participation in learning an instrument.

Sean Ashmore Head of Music explained, “ We have 720 pupils in KS3 and we use Gigajam to give each pupil ONE full year of instrumental provision over the course of the Key Stage (at 1 hour per week for one term a year). Gigajam is not a replacement for the peripetetic service, and is a very powerful way to extend instrumental provision to ALL pupils in KS3.”

Brian Greene of Gigajam observed ” They use Gigajam to work in conjunction with the service provided by the peripatetic teachers. The music service are brought in to provide Band Skills sessions, building on the skills Gigajam is providing the students in curriculum time.  The spend with the music service has actually increased, now that more students can play an instrument, and Sean uses his Music Standards Fund to provide maximum impact and participation.

It was great to see the students working so well. It was only their 4th lesson on Gigajam and it made me chuckle watching them walk in, say hello and then just sit down and start work.  Sean roamed around checking on students and used the Live Class Activity screen on the whiteboard brilliantly. Every few moments a new uploaded student performance would come up so you could see the progress the students were making. The students loved seeing their work appearing on screen and there was an impressive amount of work being completed.”

In addition to the curriculum time used for learning an instrument with Gigajam, students have extra opportunities to continue their studies; from home via the VLE, in breakfast clubs, lunch time sessions and extended school and community learning. The community learning sessions are attended by local colleges, parents and a number of local residents who now come to many school events.”

Gigajam is available to all students at Pleckgate, via the VLE, and is used to support students in KS4.

 There is a detailed case study featuring Pleckgate High School online at http://schools.gigajam.com/CaseStudyPleckgate.aspx

Gigajam is a market leader in music eLearning for education and recognises the need for innovation at all times. Managing Director Brian Greene said “Innovation for a company like ours includes quickly responding to the rapidly changing needs of our clients and users and great changes are upon us.  We have therefore created new price points and products which provide clear and simple choices for educational establishments and services wishing to create and sustain more opportunities for students to learn a musical instrument.

We have always been an affordable, efficient and high impact provider of musical instrument tuition, and we must continue to make the business case for harnessing technology in transforming learning. We also wish to expand our work with UK schools and Music Services

Secondary, Middle and Primary Schools Pricing

£1 per pupil, per annum, based on number in Key Stage(s)

Gigajam’s unlimited user licence is now just £1 per pupil, per year, based on the number of students within the Key Stage(s) you wish to have access. Every eligible pupil can learn to play the guitar, bass, keyboard and drums, as well as practice at home with our online lesson content and software.

The minimum order value is £150 + VAT at the standard rate.

Heads of Music Services, Governing Bodies, Headteachers and Parent and Friend Associations 

Your own Online Music School for free. Our Content, your Students, fundraising opportunity.

Where it is not possible for an educational establishment, or service provider, to provide Gigajam free at the point of access, Gigajam can make a custom branded online music school for free. Your students/parents can then elect to subscribe to this added value service for just £3 a month. We will then share 33% of the profit which generates revenue for your establishment/service.

For more information please visit our dedicated website where you can also apply to join and become a Gigajam partner. http://freemusicschool.gigajam.net

Contacts:

Brian Greene Managing Director

brian.greene@gigajam.com

0800 055 6797

07976 208859

You can now follow Gigajam on Facebook. Please keep up to date with events, interact and join in at: http://bit.ly/9WTfmn

Drum 'n' Bass Live in the Gigajam Zone

Gigajam provided three interactive workshops with Devon Schools at this year’s Devon Mix music event at the Westpoint Arena in Exeter. Organised by the highly respected Devon Music Services thousands of school pupils converged on the annual event to watch and take part in an enormous amount of live performances, competitions, workshops and demonstrations.

Gigajam’s Brian Greene, Ian Wright, Head of Music at Tiverton High School and Ben van Wede from DMS ran the Gigajam Learning Zone teaching over 100 pupils to play an instrument in workshops that culminated in a live peformance demonstrating some of the skills learned.

To see Gigajam in action in Devon then please view the case studies online here:

http://schools.gigajam.com/introducinggigajam.aspx

http://schools.gigajam.com/CaseStudyTiverton.aspx

Research has demonstrated that learning to play an instrument has huge musical and educational benefits for students, although providing every child with the opportunity to do so is one of the greatest challenges in music education.

As Ofsted reported in 2009:

“The provision for music was good or outstanding in around half the schools visited. However, the quality and range of the provision for music varied too much. While many pupils were benefiting considerably, others were missing out.”

This is one of the key findings in Ofsted’s Making More of Music report. Gigajam can help you make more of music by addressing this and other challenges in the report, for only £1 per pupil per annum.

Gigajam and Yamaha launched their eLearning response to Ofsted’s report at the  Federation of Music Services Annual Conference in Belfast last week (June18th-19th 2010).  The Making More of Music website details how Gigajam can help music providers address many of the key challenges:

• Assessment
• Progress
• Quality
• Underuse of ICT
• Lasting impact
• Key Stage 4 uptake

For more information on Gigajam&Yamaha and their eLearning solutions for education, please visit the Music Classroom for the Future site at: http://schools.gigajam.com/future

Always a popular and fun stand to visit.

Gigajam will be presenting workshops, seminars and exhibiting at the following events in June and July 2010.

It would be great to meet with any delegate interested in exploring Gigajam. We will be on hand  to demonstrate our hosted VLE service http://gigajamvle.com, as well as present the Music Classroom for the Future solution brought together by Yamaha, Gigajam & Steinberg. http://schools.gigajam.com/future

Brian Greene welcomes Simon Finch to the Gigajam stand

Please feel free to visit us on stand at:

Federation Music Services Annual Conference,

 The Hilton Hotel, Belfast Thursday 17th and Friday 18th June

Devon Schools Mix,

Westpoint Arena, Devon Wednesday 23rd June

East of England Broadband Network E2BN Annual Conference,

Wyboston Conference Centre  Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th June

South West Grid for Learning Annual Confernce

University of West of England, Bristol Wednesday 7th July 2010

NEN guests get the Gigajam welcome

Gigajam have today launched their Gigajam Partner programme aimed at schools, music retailers, and instrumental music providers.

Brian Greene, managing director, said, “We are very excited at the response to our latest innovation, which provides an opportunity for us to reach more pupils through partnerships. We provide a highly incentivsed offer to schools and we wanted to make a new and distinctive offer direct to private pupils and, their parents, which was affordable and available through a local partner that they recognised and valued.

By sharing our technology with music retailers, local teaching practices and even schools, we can provide a private instrumental tuition offer that benefits and rewards the partner provider.

In an ideal world we would like to see all schools utilise our £1 per pupil, per year licence, however, we  accept that schools have many priorities to manage. Where Gigajam is not available freely through school, we would like parents and pupils to be able to purchase this service locally. 

We are inviting organisations to partner us, so we can provide Gigajam Online branded as a partner’s own product. The service can then be offered to customers, users, parents and pupils at just £3.00 per month, or £30 per year. Although, this is a small fee,  for instrumental tuition, the subscription not only pays for the cost of the service, but provides a new revenue stream to partners, which is profit for business partners, such as retailers, and valuable additional funding for partner schools.  

1. Proposition — Branded Gigajam Music Schools

Gigajam has developed web technologies that enable it to provide a Branded Gigajam Online Music School to a variety of music channel Partners. This will afford Partners the opportunity to have their own Online Music School.

Gigajam can provide this technology at no cost to Partners, as the business model is entirely scalable with set up and maintenance costs covered by subscription revenue received from users of the service.

In return for the opportunity for Gigajam to expand its services to Partner customers Gigajam will incentivise the Partner with 33% of net revenue received through the sale of subscriptions collected via a Partner’s Branded Gigajam Online Music School.

2. Benefits to Gigajam

• Expansion of channels to consumers and end users.
• Increase in awareness of Gigajam products and services.
• Greater use of Gigajam products and services.
• Increase in revenue opportunity through the exploitation of a scalable technology delivery mechanism.

3. Benefits to Partner

• The provision of a Branded Online Music School, powered by Gigajam’s core content.
• Free — No costs. No set up or maintenance costs.
• Added and expanded value to existing customers and users.
• New product offer for new customers and users.
• New revenue stream.  

For more details please visit the Partner site at http://musicschools.gigajam.net . Please feel free to contact our directors if you have any questions: