EDUCATION: Nascent online project offers masterclasses.

Music PR Neil Storey seeks funding for major industry educational innovation

By Paul Williams

Seasoned music PR Neil Storey is behind an ambitious new project to allow music business students to learn directly from the experiences of Chris Blackwell and others at the touch of a button.

AlphaBetaMusica (ABM) (www.alphabetamusica.com) is intended to act as an online global educational resource, made up of a unique digital library containing contributions from potentially thousands of players from across the industry.

They will share their wisdom and experiences from working in the business, in what could become an essential tool for schools and colleges around the world offering popular music studies.

Storey, who was at EMI in the early Seventies before joining Island Records to work alongside its then head of press Rob Partridge, acknowledges the project is still at the very early stages, with funding still to be secured and a launch unlikely for another 18 months to two years.

But he says the idea has won universal support from those he has discussed it with around the industry. These include IFPI chairman and CEO John Kennedy, who endorses the project on its website