Portsmouth Based Tech Start-Up encourages local business to benefit from Kickstart, as December 17 deadline looms.

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Portsmouth Based Tech Start-Up encourages local business to benefit from Kickstart, as December 17 deadline looms.

Local companies are up against the clock if they want to benefit from Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s generosity. The deadline to register for the Government Kickstart scheme, which pays for hand-picked new recruits to boost businesses, is Friday 17th December, so time is of the essence.

Local entrepreneur Dr Shena Mitchell is founder of Jeeni, the ethical music streaming service with an audience outreach of over 3 million music lovers, and she is full of praise for Kickstart. “I have been hugely impressed by the quality of the applications, all our new recruits have been brilliant and they are a great asset to my team. So far we have recruited Marketing Executives, Sales Executives, Technical Developers, a Partnership Coordinator, as well as a Human Resource Manager to handle all these new recruits for us. In fact, we’ve been so impressed with the quality of our new applicants, that we’ve applied for another six recruits.”

Her company has been working with their specialist partners Gradfuel, who are consultants for the Department of Work and Pensions, which is where the Kickstart grant funding comes from. “It’s a great opportunity for companies like ours to bring keen young graduates on board for a minimum of six months, and scale up our business. We not only do the right thing by helping new talent, but the cream of the crop could stay with us for years to come. Best of all, there’s no financial risk, with over £8,000 worth of grant money to support each young person taken on board.”

The Kickstarter benefits are remarkably generous, and with only days left to register, Shena is offering to help local businesses take advantage. Benefits include £1,500 upfront grant funding from the UK Government, for each young person they enrol, in addition to their salary. 100% of their salary covered for up to 6 months and up to 100 hours a month.

“Our partners Gradfuel are the experts in the market, and have raised £18.7m in Kickstart grant funding so far. We’ve had a 99.5% success rate in our applications, against the market average of 22%, supporting over 1,400 companies to process their Kickstart applications.”

Full information and a direct link to registering for Kickstart applications is available on https://jeeni.com/kickstart/

shena@jenni.com

07703567196

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12
Mar

Reading and Leeds Festival is On!

Huzzah - Reading and Leeds Festival is on! Festival organisers confirmed today, the event will go ahead as planned, after the Prime Minister set out his plans for the the easing of the Lockdown. The expectation is for England to be free from all restrictions by the end of June. Posting on social media Reading and Leeds organisers shared footage from classic performances at previous festivals, as well as telling fans, “Reading and Leeds 2021. Following the government’s recent announcement, we can’t wait to get back to the fields this summer. LET’S GO,” they wrote in a tweet. https://twitter.com/OfficialRandL/status/1364526936660336643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1364526936660336643%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nme.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D2887744action%3Dedit Reading and Leeds Festival Announcement on Twitter The festival in in the diary for August Bank Holiday, which this year is falls on the weekend of 27-29 August. Headline performances will come from the likes of Liam Gallagher, Stormzy, Post Malone, Catfish & The Bottlemen and Queens of The Stone Age. However, given the events that have already cancelled, could there be other names appearing in the line-up? Announcing his excitement with his usual style, Liam Gallagher rallied his fans.......! https://twitter.com/liamgallagher/status/1364569671182262277 Liam Gallager's Reaction on Twitter This year’s festival will also see Reading & Leeds featuring six headliners and, for the first time, two main stages. The newly introduced West Main Stage will take in headline performances from the likes of Catfish & The Bottlemen, Disclosure and Queens Of The Stone Age. It comes after the government confirmed that they will “aim to remove all legal limits on social contact” by June 21. Before that, outdoor hospitality, such as pubs and outdoor dining, could reopen on April 12, with indoor hospitality following on May 17. The latter date is also the first point where live events could return, however, limited capacities and social distancing may still be required. After June 21, all other restrictions should be removed – however, the roadmap is contingent on vaccinations going to plan, COVID-19 variants not causing new problems, and the infection rate lowering. The main stage at Leeds Festival 2019. (Photo by Katja Ogrin/Redferns) Earlier this year, Reading & Leeds boss Melvin Benn told NME he was “super confident” about the event taking place. “If everyone over the age of 60, or definitely the age of 50, is vaccinated by the end of May, then Jesus – there should be no stopping us,” Benn told NME. “Imagine what fun it’s going to be. It’s going to be bloody awesome, isn’t it? Rain or shine, being out in that field with thousands of people, wherever it is, watching any band or your favourite band, I just can’t wait. It’s mouth-watering just to think about.” www.jeeni.com www.readingfestival.com

19
Jan

Respite, 'Vol. 1' EP Review

Respite’s ‘Vol. 1’ EP is nothing short of a masterclass in modern alt-rock and the best thing about it is that its title implies that there’s much more to come. Since re-emerging as Respite, this is the first project from the pop-punk outfit, once known as ‘Finding Argyle’. Respite have been a part of Jeeni’s rock representation for a while now. It’s been an honour for Jeeni to follow and promote the revival of their brutal modern rock sound and the appreciation goes both ways according to their feedback; “Respite are proud to be a Jeeni Artist. Having a platform that supports and actively promotes upcoming artists is truly invaluable.” This five-track project is a triumphant and proud announcement of a new advancement in their style, synergy and musicianship. Although the group has access to a rich and varied reservoir of influences such as ‘Finding Malory’ and ‘A Day to Remember’, they certainly pave their own path within this rock sub-genre. The EP’s only single, ‘Chemical Sleep’ was a great choice for a teaser track. Rapid double kick drums and squealing guitars lay down the foundation on which Sam’s anthemic vocals glide. The pre-chorus production choice of layering spirited, but distant vocals over a casually recorded, radio-affected reversed harmony of the same line is a blissful respite before the thrashing resumes for the choruses. The production value on ‘Vol. 1’ is out of this world. The secret behind their clean and cohesive thrashing rock tone is group guitarist, Andrew Vaughan. Vaughan is Respite’s in-house producer, mastering engineer and manages the recording processes. However, without the impassioned performances in this project, Andrew’s job would be a lot harder. From Reiss Mcleod’s robust drumming, Ross Crawford’s commanding bass, Euan Macqueen’s essential guitar work and Sam Nicholson’s singable vocal melodies, Andrew was spoilt with the sheer talent held in this band. ‘Sincerely, Maybe’ and ‘Change My Mind’ certainly embrace a stronger pop/punk tone and the EP benefits well from its inclusion. Synthesis and brighter instrumentation is used for the lighter and accessible melodies on these tracks. A deliberate embrace of two slight deviations to their sound creates a balance in a natural and impressive way. ‘The Little Things’ and ‘Chemical Sleep’ are the slightly darker and tonally more serious cuts and instead of any kind of clash, the two variations of modern rock subtly contextualises the other and broadens the EP’s sound and style. The lyrical themes of romance and mental health develops deeper substance to the project instead of surface-level rock music. Something that cannot be faked is how emotion is embedded into the performances, and not just in Sam’s vocals, but in each member’s recordings; it elevates an already excellent project to numerous levels. If you want to learn more about Respite, check out our Artist Focus blog on them here: https://jeeni.com/blog/artist-focus-respite/ How can Jeeni support artists like Respite JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience. • We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make. • We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way. • We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect. • Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team. Check out Respite’s Jeeni showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/respite-band/

06
Jun

Huawei to Hell

Today, Jeeni returns to Crowdcube to raise more funds for helping new talent. Jeeni founding director Mel Croucher says, “We’re ahead of our original schedule, but there’s still so much more to do. We need to scale our online platform globally now and build our mass artist showcases to hit all our targets, and give our new artists the recognition they deserve.” If you want to see our pitch click HERE. Mel has been writing the best-loved column in top-selling tech magazines for over 30 years. Now he’s agreed to share his work with our members. He’s a video games pioneer and musician, and to to find out more about Mel check out his Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Croucher. Here’s Mel’s latest! Trade wars are dangerous. When tariffs are imposed, and when sanctions get slapped on, and when one nation ceases to trade with another nation, then a trade war has a funny habit of turning into a real war. And here we all are, slap bang in the middle of a lulu of a trade war between the world’s two most powerful states. This is a trade war that’s not based on essentials like oil, or wheat, or toilet paper, but a trade war based on the pixies and fairy-dust of software algorithms. One day a peace treaty is waved, next day missiles are launched. Here is what happened in the future. The proxy war between the Donald Trump and Boris Johnson axis against Xi Jinping didn’t affect me much, seeing as I had never owned a Huawei handset. I admit that I did find some comfort in the fact that cellphone zombies became totally bereft at the prospect of not being able to view TikTok on their little Chinese screens. All I could say to those morons was - suck it up guys, you had it coming! In the first few hours of the Huawei denial of service attacks, the bewilderment and confusion of being unable to access social media apps soon turned to anger. This was triggered by the fact that the masses were unable to access social media apps to tell one another that they could not access social media apps. They soon realised they couldn’t remember any contact details of any of their virtual friends, or why they were virtual friends in the first place. Neither could they remember where they were, or where anything else was, or how to find their way around the real world at all. And without the Uber app they found themselves physically marooned within the perimeters of their ignorance. Deliveroo failed to respond the following day, so to avoid starvation, people who had a strong sense of smell managed to find their way to MacDonalds. But the computers were down and riots began when the Cola ran out, as slow-motion customers blamed Covid19 for the fact that China and the USA were having a software spat. That night, the younger, more active elements of society went on the rampage and looted Tescos for pot noodles, which was a total waste of effort because the electric kettles no longer worked, thanks to smart-meter reliance on dodgy apps. Tuesday evening, after martial law and compulsory prayers, the county lines failed to supply recreational drugs to their app-driven client base, and hospitals were targeted to fill the gap in the market. Amusing video clips of the descent into chaos were not shared, not because of any sense of social responsibility but because Instagram was kaput. This added to the howling rage of the mob more than somewhat. Then, not long after the dogs began to disappear, the hunting of the weak began, and there was the smell of woodsmoke and bacon in the air. On a more positive note, a lot of overweight people slimmed down fast and learned new skills like shadow puppetry and crossbow production. And so it was that all those predictions how civilisation would end as the result of electro-magnetic-pulse attacks turned out to be wrong. There was no need to launch missiles, zap communications or fry every electronic circuit in the land. All it took was an old man with an orange face to start a pissing contest. The irony that the old man’s preferred means of communication was Twitter is not lost on me, but then I don’t need Google Maps to tell me that we’re all up shit creek without a paddle. And that, dear reader, is how come we all ended up on the Huawei to Hell.

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