The Brighton Music Conference, hosted within the divine environs of The Brighton Dome, was awash with the great and the good of the dance music industry.
Things kicked off royally at The BMC and AFEM Welcome Party in conjunction with Ticketmaster, Inflyte and Evermix at The Tempest Inn with Just Her and James Clarke providing the melodic, emotion-filled grooves, from house and electronica through to techno to fire up delegates.
Here are our highlights from the conference:
Day one
Following a late-night and perhaps one or two drinks, the ever-accommodating BMC commenced their schedule at the considerate hour of 11:00 with PRS For Music hosting the “Getting paid for your creativity” panel in The Academy Theatre.
With three seminar zones running concurrently it was time for us to pick and choose what to do and where to go, with such a wide range of topics covering everything from Diversity and Inclusivity through to Music Piracy and Content Protection being addressed this was no mean feat!
Fuelled by an espresso or two we headed over to the “So You Want To Be A DJ” Masterclass, moderated by Phil Dockerty, the DJ and producer probably best known for his work as part of Futureshock. The panel was packed out with fresh-faced young people keen to find out how to turn their aspirations into a viable career. This Q&A was full of pro tips for aspiring DJs and producers with comprehensive direction on the dos and don’ts of how to lay the foundations to a potentially successful career provided by legendary Ibiza DJ Pete Gooding and singer/DJ/producer and label owner Anna Wall.
We then headed over to the Old Court Rooms across the road to check out “LNADJ presents Social and Corporate Responsibility in the Dance Music Industry”. This interesting panel discussed ways in which artists and DJs can partner with charities by providing their services and utilising their social media reach to highlight campaigns and provide desperately needed funds. Bristol-based DJ Eats Everything, who has raised over £70,000 for LNADJ’s Have a Drink on Us campaign to provide safe drinking water for children in Africa, received a warm round of applause for his efforts. He encouraged artists and performers to influence their agents and managers to allow them to perform even one gig a year for a charitable cause. Nico De Transilvania discussed how her Muzică Without Frontiers is part of this global shift to make a positive change in the world and how we should all use our privileged positions in the industry to create opportunities for those less fortunate than ourselves.
We stuck around for “AIF Presents How to Get the Most from Your Artists on the Stage” moderated by Jim Mawdsley of AIF where the hot topic was how to get booked to play at a festival without an agent. Ami Lord (Standon Calling), Emma Zillman (From The Fields) and James Cousin’s (Boomtown Festival) were in universal agreement that the best way to get noticed and to start a conversation to get booked is to ensure you’re contacting the right festival, be aware of the festival’s content and your music’s relevance to it and then reach out to them directly with the following: a brief biography/synopsis including shows performed and where in the previous year, a press image, social media links and a well-recorded live video performance. Most festivals are booked between September and December of the previous year and finalise announcements in January, so timing and content are the key to success!
We finished the day with a visit to Block to catch South of the Stars amazing live Imaginary Soundtrack at The Novation/Focusrite networking event .
Day two
We kicked off day two back at The Old Courts to catch the “Brands In Music” panel moderated by the effervescent Normski, who cajoled Brand Culture Managers James Sutcliffe (Relentless/Monster), Sandra Blass (Denon/Akai), Jack Thomas (Novation) and Insanity CEO Andy Varley into revealing how artists agree deals to align brands with bands for tour support and artist video product placement, along with how artists can become brand ambassadors. The main concern is how difficult it is for individual artists to gain access when major corporations have brand partnerships divisions, which is food for thought for the independently minded producers and artists looking to access this area of potential sponsorship.
We then headed over to the “Producer Q&A” to catch Luke Solomon (Defected/Classic), Tony Colman (Hospital Records), Rachel K Collier (Ableton) and Illyus and Barrientos (Toolroom Records) discuss how they produce music and what equipment they use to perform live. The synopsis of this panel was “whatever works” as everyone has a preferred software and hardware provider and all the producers worked in different ways. It was an illuminating insight into making music in the 21st century.
Our final panel of the day was DJ Magazine Editor Carl Loben’s highly amusing interview with Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh discussing his relationship with music and how that informs his writing style. Welsh proclaimed that he “loves punk, disco and soul” and had to hide his musical open mindedness from his friends in the punk fraternity. The opening scene of Saturday Night Fever and The Bee Gees’ Stayin Alive made a great impact in his formative years and influenced his writing of Trainspotting and the associated highly successful and lucrative soundtrack. Welsh finished the session reading a hilarious extract from his new novel Dead Mens Trousers which details the lives of the Trainspotting crew Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud in their advanced years.
Party time!
Appropriately we caught up once again with Just Her, this time joined by These Machines for a banging BMC fifth birthday party at The Brighton Dome, followed by Hospital Records Networking Event at Dead Wax Social and then off to the Horus Music Networking event at The Tempest Inn to round off proceedings, finally slinking off to bed with ears throbbing and heads buzzing.
Words by Sarah Slater
For more information or to chat about upcoming events contact Sarah Slater here.
