Congratulations to the founder of this group for welcoming Lientje Elowen into this world! Your pedagogy, patience & thoughtfulness will ensure that this tiny new human will be a wonderful addition to your family & the world!

Hey everyone, If you’re still struggling to find work, to get positive replies from companies and clients, or just to be heard and seen, here’s a little list to run your demo reel through. It’s always WHO, not HOW. Meaning: make yourself visible. Use a profile picture. People don’t like working with invisible ghosts. Showing your face is important—no matter how you think you look, visibility matters. Your demo reel is not only about YOU, it’s about the benefits you bring to the table for your potential customers. Nobody likes an ego bash-fest and nobody cares when you started playing piano or what your first word was. Instead of a bible-long biography, point out exactly how you can help a client reach their goals. If you try to serve everyone, you address no one—it’s that simple. Use ONE demo reel to address ONE target group. You want work in the video games industry? Let ONE reel speak to them directly. You want to work in the trailer and production music industry? Make ONE reel for them. Why should a game audio director be interested in your corporate jingles? Why should a children’s book author care about your horror zombie splatter credits? If you want to work in multiple industries, create separate demo reels for each one. Trying to impress everyone ends up addressing no one directly. More tracks don’t mean more impressive—five well-chosen tracks are plenty. For games, maybe a main theme, two in-game tracks (wandering, dungeon exploring), one battle track, and a boss battle or cutscene cue. For trailers, three epic, polished 2:30 tracks. Make sure every track is fully polished and finalized—never rush, and never include work-in-progress material in your reel. You are not the center of the solar system. If you think it’s impressive to put 5-minute movies or 10-minute medleys in your reel, you’ll lose people fast. No one will dig through unrelated content to find what they want. It’s not just the audio that matters—the visuals count too. Use consistent colors and design elements that feel familiar to your target audience. Pitching to medical science research companies? A quick Google search will show you most of their sites are white with blue text. Match their visual language and you’ll instantly feel more relevant. Adapt and win!

Gathering ideas for strings can sometimes be difficult. There are so many tools out there to give us the ability to capture our ideas quickly. Specifically for string writing, what types of patches get your idea out the fastest? Vote here and let’s talk and share insights. Do you have a different method? Comment and let us know.

Big news for everyone who’s been waiting to start their own Skool community: You can now get started for just $9/month! 🎉 I basically summed up their video content with ChatGPT because it's the best way to show you what's possible and what not. It also takes away the fear a little bit to jump into an investment of $99 to only get the experience and see if it makes sense for you. Here we go: They call it the Hobby Plan, and it gives you access to all the essentials you need to build and grow a thriving group. Here’s what you get for just $9/month: ✅ Unlimited members ✅ Unlimited courses ✅ Native video hosting ✅ Community + classroom in one ✅ Ability to charge money and earn ✅ Basic plugins (like membership questions, chat, and posting controls) Perfect if you’re just getting started or want to build a fun, passion-driven group without a big commitment. 🆚 What’s different from the $99 Pro Plan? The Hobby Plan is incredibly powerful — but there are a few limitations compared to the Pro Plan: 🔸 Admins: Hobby = 1 admin (you) | Pro = Unlimited admins 🔸 Transaction fees: Hobby = 10% | Pro = 2.9% 🔸 URL & Branding: Hobby doesn’t allow a custom URL and shows suggested communities in your sidebar (with a little “powered by Skool” badge). 🔸 Affiliate features: Hobby doesn’t include auto-affiliate attribution (but you can still use your affiliate link). 🔸 Pro Plugins: Some advanced plugins are locked on the Hobby Plan. 🔸 Leaderboard customization: Hobby shows suggested communities instead of a leaderboard. Why did Skool do this? The team’s mission is to help a billion people find community. They realized the $99/month plan was a barrier for many hobbyists and passion projects — so they created the Hobby Plan to lower the entry point without compromising the core experience. You still get all the fundamental tools to create and grow — and you can always upgrade later when you’re ready. What’s next? Skool is already planning even more exciting features — all of which will also be available on the Hobby Plan:

Hey beautiful people! Think you can write a theme that sticks? Your mission: 👓 First of all, read carefully 🧠 Compose an orchestral main theme (can be less but max. 60 sec) that stays in our heads all day long! Style is totally up to you—epic, quirky, emotional, you name it. Just make sure it's unforgettable. 💥 This time, YOU will be the judge. We’ll vote for the most addictive theme together—the entry with the most likes wins! 🏆 Winner gets: - 1 MONTH free access to the Audio Artist Rise Program and all courses - A 90-minute 1:1 personal call with me to dive deep into anything you need—career, music, strategy, mindset, you name it. - If you are a Riser already, we make it two 1:1 calls :) 📅 Deadline: Sunday, 6th of July 📍 Post your entry as a comment TO THIS POST. Do NOT open a new post! ⏱️ After the deadline there will be 3 days of voting time. The track with the most likes on Thursday morning (CET), 10th of July, wins! 📺 After the winner is selected, we’ll host a free Zoom session to review all submitted tracks and discuss what made them work—or not. The replay will be publicly available. Let the hooks begin. Let’s see who creates the melody that haunts us (in the best way).