Creative Scotland Crowdmatch provided £1,645 of match funding
GLOSS - Year 2 Public Access
Glasgow, Glasgow City, United Kingdom
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Aim
We want to provide public access to GLOSS for a second year - expanding on our first year and creating new opportunities for our community.
Become a GLOSS member and help us build our second year
Glasgow Library of Synthesized Sound (GLOSS) is the UK's first electronic music library. We're a non-profit, artist-led and community-based organisation providing affordable access to electronic musical instruments, education, performances, events and a growing community of people making and exploring music.
Since opening for regular public access in autumn 2025, we've welcomed complete beginners, experienced musicians and everyone in between. We've established weekly Open Sessions, put on more than 70 workshops and events, and started building a community around the library.
Now we're opening our memberships for Year 2, and we're asking for your support to keep GLOSS going and help it grow.
We're aiming to raise £10,000 from supporters, which will be matched with another £10,000 from Creative Scotland through Crowdmatch.
The money raised will help us pay our staff, contribute to rent, bills and instrument maintenance, keep the library affordable and develop more opportunities for people to make, learn and share music together.
You can support GLOSS by becoming a member, renewing your membership or contributing to the campaign in other ways.
Membership
Membership is one of the most important ways to support GLOSS. It helps keep the library running and gives you affordable access to the collection and reduced prices across our programme.
We're offering three annual membership levels:
Access Membership – £100. For people who would struggle to afford the standard rate. No proof or explanation needed.
Standard Membership – £160. Our regular membership, helping to support the library throughout the year.
Solidarity Membership – £230. For people who are able and would like to contribute a little more towards keeping GLOSS affordable for others. Solidarity members also receive a GLOSS T-shirt.
All three memberships come with the same access and discounts, including 60% off Open Sessions, 20% off workshops and events, and your own enamel GLOSS membership badge.
We'll update our membership list at the beginning of every week while the crowdfunder is running, so new and renewing members can start using their benefits during the campaign.
You can also Donate a Membership, giving somebody who otherwise couldn't afford one a full year's membership free of charge.
And if membership isn't for you, we've got other ways to support us, including GLOSS T-shirts (new and old designs), limited prints and vouchers for Open Sessions, workshops and events.
What's GLOSS?
GLOSS started with two ideas. We wanted to make electronic instruments and the knowledge around them more accessible, but we also wanted to create a space where people and scenes and communities could come together through electronic music.
We see electronic music as part of a contemporary folk culture. Sounds, ideas and techniques are passed around, borrowed, changed and passed on again. It's something shaped by the people who take part in it, and we wanted to create somewhere that people can do that. Instruments and gear can be expensive, and not everyone has access to the instruments, space or knowledge to get started - or even feel like they know the right people.
Inspired by synth libraries around the world, we've brought together a shared collection of classic synthesisers, drum machines, modular systems, strange and unusual instruments, and plenty of newer equipment too. Some are great for beginners, while others offer almost endless possibilities for experimentation.
The vast majority of the collection has been donated or loaned to us by individuals and organisations who share our values and believe in the project.
During our Open Sessions, people can explore the instruments, make music, record ideas or learn something new, with an experienced librarian around to help. We also run workshops, clubs, performances, talks and other events.
OUR FIRST YEAR IN REVIEW
With the support of our first Crowdmatch campaign, we opened GLOSS for regular public access and began building a year-round programme around the library.
Since then, we've established weekly Open Sessions, grown our membership, expanded the team and welcomed hundreds of visits. Alongside Open Sessions, we've programmed more than 70 workshops, club sessions and events, working with artists, organisations and communities from Glasgow and further afield.
Through collaborations with organisations including Sonica, Counterflows, Radiophrenia and Thinking Culture, we've worked with artists such as Suzanne Ciani, Thomas Ankersmit, Slowfoam, Barker, Cole Pulice, Passepartout Duo, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Seijiro Murayama, alongside workshops exploring everything from synthesis and music production to sound art, composition and improvisation.
Our live programme has brought artists including Bitchin Bajas into the space, while our Quadraphonics series in collaboration with artist, Luukke and Sonia Killman has explored four-channel sound and different approaches to spatial listening and performance.
We've also worked with local artists and organisations, including Somewhere Press, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, creating opportunities for people working in Glasgow to perform, collaborate and exchange ideas with visiting artists.
Our educational work has been just as important. Through projects including ITEM: Introduction to Electronic Music and Future Sounds of Strathclyde, we've supported people developing their skills, confidence and creative practices through hands-on learning, recording and collaborative activity. As we move into our second year we are working hard on getting support to run funded projects like these ones and others again.
And through supporting A Sound Map of the River Clyde, a project developed by Counterflows, we've been able to dip our toes into lending field-recording equipment free of charge and inviting people to contribute sounds from across the Clyde.
Alongside all of this, regular groups have begun developing communities of their own.
Ableton Club has become a place where people bring things they're working on, share techniques, listen to each other's work and exchange ideas. Our Synth Club, developed with Signal Sounds, brings people together around the instruments themselves, while our new Dungeon Synth sessions have quickly rallied the mages.
The response from members has reinforced something fundamental to why we started GLOSS in the first place: the value of having a dedicated space for making music, with people and resources on hand to help.
As one member put it, GLOSS is "a source of inspiration and never just a static bank of tools to borrow."
We've been fortunate to receive support from instrument manufacturers, music technology companies, local businesses, artists and organisations, alongside coverage in publications including BBC Radio 3, The Big Issue, The Wire, Electronic Sound, Tape Op, The Skinny and The Herald.
We're very proud of what's happened in a year, and excited for the next one.
YEAR 2
Open Sessions will remain at the heart of GLOSS. We want people to continue having affordable, self-directed time with the instruments, whether they're learning the basics, experimenting or working on something of their own.
We also want to build on the communities that have started forming around the library.
In Year 2, we'll expand our clubs and peer-to-peer learning sessions, with new groups developing around the interests of the people using GLOSS.
We want to create more opportunities for people to share what they're making, too.
That might mean bringing an unfinished track to a listening session, showing somebody how a piece of music was made, playing a short live set, improvising with others or taking part in a member showcase.
We'll continue bringing visiting artists into the library, but we also want to see more of the people who use GLOSS sharing their own work, organising things and shaping what happens here.
Keeping GLOSS independent and accessible
GLOSS operates without regular core funding. We rely on memberships, ticket sales, partnerships, project funding and the generosity of people who believe in what we're doing.
It's been an incredible first year, but there's always challenges involved, particularly at a time when artists and arts organisations across Glasgow and beyond are facing increasing financial pressure.
As well as making sure that artists, librarians and other workers are paid fairly, theres rent, electricity, gas, water, insurance etc. that all need to be paid, as well as instrument and space maintenance and upgrades.
At the same time, we want to keep GLOSS as affordable as we can.
We make around 10% of tickets for workshops and events available free or heavily discounted, with no questions asked. We also offer lower-cost Access memberships and opportunities for people to receive gifted memberships.
We don't want cost to be an unnecessary barrier to taking part, but we also believe that in order to make a project like this sustainable, workers involved with delivering workshops, performing, organising the space, supporting visitors, putting together the programme, and more should be paid.
That's why this crowdfunder is so important to our future.
The money we raise will help us keep the library open, pay our staff, look after the collection and build on everything that's happened over the past year.
We'd like GLOSS to become a lasting part of Scotland's musical culture, and continue to be a wee oasis for folk who come here. Somewhere independent, experimental, connected to the wider world and shaped by the people who use it.
Become a member, renew your membership, support the campaign or pass a membership on to somebody else.
Or get your early Christmas presents for your pals, lovers and family, and support a grassroots independent arts organisation at the same time.
THANK YOU AND MUCH LOVE!
Lewis, Suzi and the GLOSS team
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st December 2026 at 1:35am