CENTRO MUSICA is one of the most important Italian centres for music promotion and production. It was founded as a pilot project by the Municipality of Modena in collaboration with Emilia Romagna local government and private operators of the music sector. It is located in the heart of Emilia Romagna, which is one of the most prominent areas as far as music production is concerned, considering both the great number of young bands and the thriving music industry.
The large number of musicians and unsigned bands of this region has grown within a fabric of live clubs, low budget recording studios, festivals and musical contests, shows and fanzines. On a different level the music industry includes all the operators who are involved in producing recorded and live music, i.e. professional musicians, professional recording studios, managers, promoters, press agencies and so on.

Considering both the underground set and the music industry, the mission of Centro Musica is to develop both by activities like:
- vocational training to increase professional skills,
- information desk to provide help to access to the market,
- support to young musicians to promote their participation in public events,
- directing public financing to meet the needs of the Young as far as music is concerned.

Two main reasons are at the ground of Centro Musica's policy:
firstly we know that all successful musicians result from their cultural and music background and of course the wider and the richer is the music culture, the more fertile is the basis for the development of talented artists;
secondly from a social and cultural point of view underground music is considered to be of value because the people who play an instrument or are members of a band, even a shatty garage one, face problems concerned with cultural projects and become active and critical culture consumers.

An effective policy for the development of the music industry achieves both economic and cultural goals.
From an economic point of view the development of the music industry, a labour intensive sector with a great value added, produces benefits in terms of wealth, employment and culture.
Centro Musica forged intervention policies for cultural development on the basis of industrial policies for small and medium enterprises that have been accomplished successfully in Emilia Romagna.

Centro Musica operates according to the following issues:
1. information on music production and underground music (unsigned bands, music contests, Web sites for regional bands)
2. music education and information and vocational training about the music industry
3. we organise shows and create opportunities for unsigned bands to perform.
4. Support and advice the organisations and associations that set up festivals, shows, and musical events as far as logistics, permissions and copyrights are concerned.

Centro Musica has created a data base for
•Rock and jazz clubs
•Recording studios
•Rehearsal rooms
•Music schools
•Music contests
•Copyright, contracts and collecting agencies

The data base is constantly upgraded and so is the archive of unsigned bands and musicians from Emilia Romagna.

Centro Musica supports projects on behalf of unsigned bands from the region and takes part in national fairs for music ( Music fairs in Turin and Rimini, Meetings of Indies) and in national cultural events (Arezzo Wave, Enzimi) which introduce unsigned bands into the music market.
Centro Musica organises concerts and initiatives for underground music and supports non profit- making associations, schools and local governments at organising activities on behalf of young musicians.
Together with the most important and representative organisations of the Italian music scenario, Centro Musica takes part in the Italian Coordination for Fête de la Musique promoted by ARCI Nuova Associazione to co-ordinate music activities nation-wide.

MR.MUZIK
Reharsal rooms for every need.

EDUCATION and VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Centro Musica provides education opportunities both for musicians and for operators in the music sector.

•ROCKIMPRESA
In 1998 Centro Musica launched a pilot project, ROCKimpresa, aimed at training and support young people who intend to start and develop entrepreneurial activities in the music business. The high rate of employment record (80% of the participants) made possible through the project and the great interest that the action raised among the operators of the music business, encouraged Centro Musica to repeat the project: ROCKimpresa was implemented also in the Southern regions in co-operation with the city of Napoli in 1999. The fourth edition of the project is on in Modena at present; it is going to be organised also in Sardegna and in Ravenna.

•BOOSTER - IMPRESE PER LA MUSICA
The course is addressed to young entrepreneurs who have started a professional activity in the music business. The participants develop project making and project evaluation skills in order to be able to build a business plan and assess the feasibility of their projects.

•ALPHABETISING COURSE IN MUSIC COMPUTER SCIENCE
upgrading courses about computer science for music addressed to teachers of the secondary school; the courses are organised in co-operation with the local education superintendence

•FRONTE DEL PALCO - TRAINING FOR MUSICIANS
Artists and unsigned bands can profit of a special programme of workshops on how writing, arranging and recording a piece of music under the guidance of a more experienced, already established musician. Other workshops are addressed to bands that want to improve the impact of their concerts, the quality of their sound, their charisma on stage. The programme includes a short tour for every band.
At the end of the programme the participants record a CD assisted by a well known producer or make a tour in important venues. The project is financed by European Social Fund through the regional Government of Emilia Romagna. The second edition of the project is on at present.

•DJ STYLE
A formation course aimed to DJ wannabes.
Dj Style, promoted by Centro Musica, is aimed to explain the rules of a coveted job, through a series of technical lessons covering various styles and mixing methods, choice among decks, needles, earphones and all of the equipment needed to turn a dj in a music producer.
Students will be cross this course with tips and tricks by the top italian Djs, who agreed upon joining this project and tell, by full-immersion labs, their professional course.

•PROGETTO TOYS
master classes in composition of contemporary music outlined by Maestro Franco Donatoni. The classes are addressed to young composers and musicians who want to study the composing techniques of the XX century form SchÖnberg to Strawinsky.

•SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS FOR SPECIFIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Music enterprises by young people in Mostar (Bosnia Herzegovina) - 1999/2001
It is a project financed by Emilia Romagna and Marche regional Council departments for Social Affairs.
The project originated when in 1998 four young people from Mostar took part in an educational programme for training in different areas of the music industry (management, recording industry, media) at Centro Musica. They attended classes, workshops in Italy and profited with apprenticeship in music companies.
In 1999 Centro Musica provided them with tutorship and assistance at the implementation of their own project in Mostar, that is a musical festival for local bands and the production of a CD to be recorded at Pavarotti Music Centre. Two local NGOs (Srcem from West Mostar and Apeiron de Art from East Mostar) co-operated in the action.

Emilia Celtica - 1999
Emilia Celtica is an Italian-Irish project aimed at rural development. It was funded under Leader II programme sub action C, "Transnational actions". The project's main idea is to use the lively cultural heritage of Celtic areas like Ireland or Scotland to rejuvenate the tradition of Emilia Romagna that still contains evident celtic elements. The policy instruments that seem to fit best such a scenario are entertainment and "cultural animation" in the Emilian Appenines (that makes use of Irish traditional artists) and the Antrim Glens (with the contribution of Emilian artists and groups); the transmission of "heritage maintenance" skills (through workshops, in which traditional artists of the two countries work together to explore the similarities and differences of the two Celtic musical traditions); promotion and "credibility building", in which some of the key world music media are brought to discover the musical tradition of Emilia Romagna as a living, although minor, part, of the European Celtic koinè. The project is expected to foster a variety of activities like CD recording, traditional music and dance classes, musical festivals.

Moliere - 2002 - 2004
Distance learning pilot project for sound and light engineers financed by the European Commission under Leonardo programme. Centro Musica is in charge of making a survey of professional qualifications concerning the field of sound and light engineering , of developing contents for distance learning and organising an international class to test the outputs of the project.