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FEATURE: The magnificent panels of the 1st day at the Brighton Music Conference 2016


The first day of the revamped and totally improved Brighton Music Conference that took place at the impressive venue Brighton Dome was an absolute success with crowd that combined successful professionals from the electronic music industry and amateurs who search creative channels to unleash their talent and communicate it with fans around the globe along with lovers of electronic music who wish to explore their passion even further. The panels both on the professional and academy theatre were really easy to follow even if you don't know details about the industry and offer great insights and initiatives to advance your position in the electronic music industry.


On the keynote speech was discussion about how the electronic music communities in UK can get active and pressurise their local MP's and their local community to Save their local club life. Carl Loben (Editor; DJ Mag) || Alan Miller (Chairman; NTIA) | Hans-Christian Hess (Promotions & International Marketing Manager; Egg London) | John Ross (Owner; Mothership Group) | Mark Lawrence (CEO; AFEM)


The distinguished panel of Carl Loben (Editor; DJ Mag) || Finlay Johnson (Agent; WME) | Rob Baldwin (Booking Manager; Deltic Group) | Sarah Cole (Owner; Supercharged Events Ltd & AEI Live) | Steve King (Booker, Space / Safehouse Management) explored the future of the clubs and grass roots venues against the domination of big scale festivals.



Jack Bridges (European Account Manager; Beatport) has explained the situation at Beatport after the decision of the mother company SFX to sell it to new owners and he talked about the exciting possibilities that they develop at Beatport to make more immersive experience for their customers.


The panel of Marcus Barnes (Journalist) || Amy Jayne (Head of Promotions & Radio Plugger; Hospital Records) | Paul Gibson (Bookings & Promotions Manager; Patterns) | Paul Quinsey (Owner; Take & Head of Entertainment; McQueen, Shoreditch) | Terry Ryan (Head of A&R, Promotions & Music Specialist; On The Rise) explored the possibilities to break into the electronic music industry and what it takes to achieve it.



The panel of Andy Singh (Director; Republic Of Music) || Joe Vesayaporn (Squadron Leader; Music Glue) | Matt Abbott (Managing Director; Label Worx) | Paul Hamill (Chief Navigator; Inflyte) | Ralf Kollmann (Founder & Managing Director; Mobilee) | Zac Vibert (Digital Marketing Manager; !K7 Artist & Label Services) have presented the available options for music distribution for label and single artists who struggle to find a label to release their music and they take the decision to do it on their own.



In an absolutely packed academy theatre Marcus Barnes (Journalist) ||Jessica Rowe (Owner; Level Theory) | Pavan Mukhi (Foreign Beggars / Brapp TV) | Tim Binns (A&R Director; New State Entertainment) | Tom Nettleton (Agent; Paramount) discussed why nowadays your brand is everything and why some artists reach the other end by forgetting being themselves and care more about their nice photos and how they look at the social media.


Within the PRS in Music in conversation the panel of Ashley Howard (PRS for Music) || Greg Marshall (AFEM) | Ian Edgley (PRS for Music) | Simon Bourn (PRS for Music) discussed the trials to find the right audio recognition technology in order to collect royalties from clubs and festivals.


Electronic music industry is mainly dominated by men so Women in Music panel of Lucy Blair (Director; Motive Unknown) || Ayah Marar (Singer) | Charlotte Cijffers (DJ Mag; Digital & News Editor) | Katy Ellis (Manager; Norman Cook) | Lauren Lo Sung (Artist; Safehouse & LoLife) | Sarah Cole (Owner; Supercharged Events Ltd & AEI Live) offered positive cases of how actually women can make it in the industry and inspired many to follow their path.


The panel of Mark Lawrence (CEO; AFEM) || Ben Rush (CEO; Audio Lock) | Jack Bridges (European Account Manager; Beatport) | Stuart Knight (Managing Director; Toolroom Records) debated how DJs who subscribe or download illegally music to play in their dj sets kill the industry that actually feed their passion with new exciting music.


The panel of Carl Loben (DJ Mag; Editor) || Adam Savage (PR; Backdrop Promotions) | Friction (Managing Director, Shogun Audio) | Icicle (Artist) | Keir Tyrer (Managing Director; Shogun Audio) | Richard Snow (Label Manager; Shogun) explained how the Shogun Audio record label operates and answer the questions of the audience who wanted to discover what is hidden behind the scenes of the successful drum n bass label.


The panel of Lee Smith (Owner; Leak Delete) ||Ben Rush (CEO; Audiolock) | Dean Muhsin (Director; Bear Management / Dispersion PR) | Perc (Artist, DJ & Label Owner; Perc Trax) | Sebastian Spring (Head of Publishing; SUISA) | Will Edge (Label Manager; Believe Digital) explored the effective ways that electronic music labels can fight piracy and loss of their valuable income.


On the music publishing panel in the academy theatre Ashley Howard (Dance Music Account Manager; PRS for Music) || Alex Banks (Artist) | Hannah Simmonds (Head of Publishing; Toolroom Records) | Sebastian Spring (Head of Publishing; SUISA) presented in easy to understand way what is the role of the collecting societies and how can support artists and labels.





On the last panel Chris Goss (Managing Director; Hospital Records)|| Adam Woolf (Label Manager; Critical) | Jon Rundell (Director ; Intec) | Matt King (Label Manager; Skint/BMG) | Ralf Kollmann (Founder & Managing Director; Mobilee) the various very successful label managers explained how they manage to carry on their businesses and offered tips for survival.


On the Igloo theatre well known Djs and producers discussed tips and techniques they apply in their productions and dj sets plus there was demonstration of latest dj technology equipment.


This was briefly the magnificent first day of the Brighton Music Conference that goes from strength to strength each year at the stunning scenery of the brilliant venue Brighton Dome.

Here you can read the review of the 2nd day at the  Brighton Music Conference.

Thanks to James, Matt at Alchemy and the Brighton Music Conference organisation committee for having me as press at Brighton Music Conference.

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