Member Article

Music development agency prepares for ‘Music Futures’ series

North East music development agency Generator has revealed the lineup for its Music Futures Series, which will give musicians and businesses the chance to quiz leading industry figures.

A series of weekly panels at Newcastle’s Live Theatre, will place industry experts before regional artists and music businesses to explain how they can take advantage of industry developments, and use them to create new sources of income.

The first event in the Music Futures Series will focus on the future of record labels, looking at how the relationship between artist and label is changing.

Simon Raymonde, co-founder of independent label Bella Union; Jamie Emsell, MD of the Communion, a flourishing community of musicians, and Julie Weir from independent heavy rock label Visible Noise, will make up the first panel on Thursday June 28.

The following week, the theme is music publishing, which is now considered by some as more important to an artist’s career than securing a record deal.

Caroline Elleray of Universal Music, who signed publishing deals with Coldplay and Keane; Ryan Farley of Warner Chappell; Steve Farris of Polar Patrol, a publishing company set up by the band Snow Patrol, and Helen Gammons, CEO of Sync in the City, will form the second panel.

The third event will take a departure into the world of dance music marketing, and club promotion, where the panel will discuss their experiences of what it takes to create a buzz on a track, how producers and DJs get their new tracks on the radar and how to break a new artist.

Steven Brainers, who hails from Sunderland and is the manager of rising house music star, Maya Jane Coles; Aaron Ross of Defected Records; Tracey Webb of Power Promotions; Neil Bainbridge of Kish Communications and James Vorres from online dance music retailer Juno Download, will for the panel for this focus.

The fourth and final event in the series will focus on broadcasting, which forms part of Generator’s ongoing Transmission project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, that looks at the past, present and future of music broadcasting.

XFM presenter John Kennedy; Ruth Barnes from Amazing Radio; Georgia Lewis Anderson, presenter at SB.TV and Nico Perez, creative director and co-founder of on-demand radio platform Mixcloud, will examine the shifting shape of broadcasting in the UK and the opportunities it presents for artists, labels and managers to stay ahead of the game.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .