Musicians — and engineers for that matter — are up against the wall in a number of ways. For example, there's the remarkable rapidity with which music is removed from the hands of those who create it. Very often the whole thing is taken over the moment you get your demo accepted by a record company; immediately the pressures of budgets, contracts et al are dropped on you from a great height. By the time they actually let you into the studio or out on the road to help pay off the advance, the music has become pretty unimportant because you're forced to go in the direction that they want. There are ways round this, including the alternative production approach through organisations like Rock In Opposition and the JCOA, and we'll be looking at the possibilities of producing it yourself next month. But a lot can be done within existing frameworks. With good communication before you actually get to meet a strange engineer, producer or concert venue, the art of performing music can be made a lot smoother, without creative loss. Technology sometimes mitigates against this, but by taking the knowledge into our own hands, and exchanging ideas within the business, we can take hold of at least some of the power. And that's why SI is here.