Sheffield musician’s helps create 99 second songs to entertain people in lockdown

A Sheffield musician has spent lockdown collaborating with others on a new platform launched to help people express their creativity.
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George Reid, who said he wanted spread positivity and help to expand people’s ears to music they may not have heard of before, has been collaborating with others on ‘The 99 Second Playlist’ launched at the start of quarantine in March.

A video is released every Thursday at 6pm via his YouTube page and today will mark the 10th week of the project.

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Over those ten weeks, George has created a weekly audience of 300 people that will tune in to listen to the videos. The catch is that every single video must be under 99 seconds.

George Reid, has been collaborating with others on ‘The 99 Second Playlist’ launched at the start of quarantine in March. George Reid, has been collaborating with others on ‘The 99 Second Playlist’ launched at the start of quarantine in March.
George Reid, has been collaborating with others on ‘The 99 Second Playlist’ launched at the start of quarantine in March.

George said: “The challenge is to get the best parts of any song into 99 seconds. Not only is this quite a challenge for musicians, but in a world where people flick through social media feeds so quickly, you’ve got a very limited amount of time to capture someone’s attention.

“It dissuades musicians from making long, self-indulgent music videos that we know people won’t watch. The goal is to create projects that musicians and audiences can enjoy in equal measure.”

So far, he’s collaborated with actors, George Griffiths from Book of Mormon International Tour, Eilidh Loan from Frankenstein, UK Tour, Tom Berkeley from Buddy The Musical and professional musician, Alex Barton, and has plans to work with even more musicians in the coming months.

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The 99 Second Playlist has so far included songs from The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Ed Sheeran, Bill Withers and Les Misérables.

George aims to get to 52 weeks of his playlist.

George is an actor and a musician. He trained at Guildford School of Acting and has performed at The Globe in London and in two international Shakespeare tours.

He has been gigging since the age of 15 around Sheffield and Barnsley.

Lockdown restrictions were introduced on March 23 to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Some of the measures have started to be lifted but others remain in place.

To follow George’s journey, YouTube search “The 99 Second Playlist”.

Any musicians interested or anyone wanting to hear a specific song, please get in touch at [email protected]