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Chants - in tune with the community

Chants Enterprise.....

• Taken seriously by the music industry as a business.
• Engaging with young people and improving job prospects.
• Changing young people’s attitudes towards music and each other.

When Reading-based music producer Anthony Charles set up Chants Enterprise in 2006, he hadn’t really heard of the term “social enterprise.” He wanted to establish a music business with a positive impact on young people – particularly those who aren’t in employment, education or training. Some timely advice from The Princes Trust and Social Enterprise Berkshire helped him develop Chants Enterprise as a Community Interest Company.

The company is run by a Board of young people who have worked with Chants which means, says Anthony, “all decisions are made by the group of people we work with. What we do is a direct product of what young people want. This way we can stay as close to the street as possible.”

“We went down the Community Interest Company route because this seemed to be the best way to benefit the community.” At the same time perceptions are important. The organisation is regarded as serious business by the commercial world and employees feel they have a “proper waged job”. However, being a CIC has closed off certain opportunities to get grant funding to support their work.

Anthony says: “The work that we do is almost equal to the work of a community-based charity, but we don’t have access to the same amount of funding. All of our work is funded from our profits or is done voluntarily. It would be good if local authorities and trusts widened the criteria of organisations that they are prepared to fund.”

Although Chants Enterprise doesn’t receive funding from the local authority, it advises clients on where they can get funding from to pay for their services. In the case of schools, this might mean getting support from the local education authority to buy in a series of music production workshops. Part of the enterprise’s income comes from its recording studio, and some comes from ticket sales for special showcase events that feature a real diversity of music genres – from rap to opera. Initial funding came from the Berkshire Community Foundation when Chants Enterprise was working primarily with youngsters from Black and minority ethnic groups. As the organisation has become more self-sufficient the constituency of young people has grown.

Anthony Charles was a music producer and promoter on the club scene, mainly in urban dance music, rap and R&B. Rather than bringing in highly paid DJs from outside Reading, he thought it would be a good idea to “grow” them locally. This notion expanded into a music business idea – running a community recording studio, offering music production and marketing workshops, and equipping young people with life skills as well as music industry know-how.

Anthony says: “Our organisation offers young people new skills, giving them music as a platform through which to express themselves. It’s a very positive message about constructive ways to use their time. We help them climb the ladder and have really boosted their job prospects.”

Some of the young people have helped produce music for Sky television documentaries. They’ve also been requested to produce music for the Taylor Goodman group’s answer phone machines.

“At the moment work is almost exceeding our manpower,” says Anthony. “It’s always a balancing act to train the young people and then let them go on to other things, whilst doing the work we’ve been commissioned to do, and bringing young people all the benefits of being involved in a creative industry.”

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