Jim's story

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Jim, composer and music lover

Jim: Hi, I am Jim and I am 22 and I live in Kent. I am a producer/songwriter. I love music - I love jazz and classical music and rock and I love that feeling you get when you are at a gig, or listening to music, and something that stirs down here (points to his heart) and that is what makes music so special to me.

I first heard about the Don't Lose the Music campaign at my college but I’ve not really known what it was all about and really what their message has been. I think it is important that everybody really does protect their hearing.

I think your ear is one of those organs that you take for granted, and everyone knows about the damage that can be done with cancers and things like that.

But worrying about your hearing really isn't at the top of the list of things that people think about. I certainly think that anybody who goes to gigs on a regular basis does need to protect their hearing and I think that the industry as a whole should take responsibility to look after their listeners and their fans' hearing.

I recently went to the Latitude music festival in Suffolk. Whilst I was there one of the team there asked if they could do a quick survey on how we listen to music. The questions ranged from ‘Do you take chill-out breaks when you are at a gig or in a club?’ to ‘Do you turn the music up on your earplugs on your mp3 player when you can’t hear it properly?’

I have always thought I’ve been quite good with my hearing and looking after it, but I scored 6 out of 10 which did surprise me somewhat because I thought I was better than that, and so I made the decision then to try and see if I could actually improve that score if ever I was to see them again, so one of the first things that I thought about was to get custom-made ear plugs, and these are earplugs, which rather than just being a generic design, are moulded for your ear and, unlike normal earplugs they don’t actually block out the sound – they just bring the volume down so that you can enjoy all the sound frequencies that make up music, but just at a lower level so that it makes music more enjoyable.

After going to Latitude, where it did get loud at some points, I did think about them again and decided to take the plunge and get a pair.

They won’t stick out, they won’t be noticeable, so I won’t feel self-conscious, and then I’ll be able to enjoy music without the ringing you get when you come out of a club or out of a gig. So I’m very grateful to Don’t Lose The Music for giving me that push towards actually getting them made.