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The Great Escape convention: First speakers announced

By | Published on Thursday 10 February 2011

So, we’ve been teasing you for weeks now about what we’ve got planned for The Great Escape convention this year – the conference side of Europe’s leading festival for new music, which is being programming by Team CMU this time – and today is the day we can actually start naming some names.

There will be a number of new strands to the convention in 2011, including an ‘in conversation’ programme featuring one-to-one interviews with some leading music makers and music business leaders. And the first interviewee to be confirmed for this programme is the brilliant BRIT Award winning Paul Epworth, the record producer who joins the dots between so much of the last decade’s best new music. His production credits include releases by Cee-Lo Green, Florence & The Machine, Plan B, Bloc Party, Jack Penate, this year’s Great Escape co-headliners Friendly Fires and tracks on the current number one album from Adele.

We’ll be talking Paul through his career to date, and will ask him about the relationship between producer and artists, and whether the role of the producer is changing in the digital, DIY age. We might also find out what it was like to produce four and half minutes of silence, as he did last December as lead producer on the Cage Against The Machine project.

Also new to The Great Escape convention this year will be a masterclass programme, featuring leading music business players offering practical tips and advice on key areas for new bands and their managers. Aimed very much at newer music business professionals, and artists themselves, these sessions will offer invaluable advice on engaging the media, developing journalist relationships and impressing agents and promoters to secure representation and bookings, as well as some legal tips from Brighton-based ACUMEN Media Law.

The other big news today is that PRS For Music will return as hosts of day one of the convention, presenting their own day-long programme of panels and insight sessions. These will include a keynote from PRS for Music Chief Economist Will Page, and discussions on new revenue streams and investment models, and how to move your band up to the next level. There’ll also be insights from PRS for Music’s Chris Carey on the last year in the music business, and Deloitte’s Paul Lee, who will be predicting the future of the media and entertainment sectors.

Talking of panels, which we almost were there, we have some great discussions lined up this year, which will focus on the key issues, opportunities and threats facing the music industry in 2011, while also offering insightful case studies and practical advice on how entrepreneurial music business practitioners are reinventing the way our industry works. Among the panellists already confirmed are Martin Goldschmidt of Cooking Vinyl and Essential, Alan Pell from the rapidly growing BMG UK, and David Bianchi from Various Artists, who manages Carl Barat and Killing Joke among many others.

Finally for now, something we mentioned here in the Daily last week but which is officially launching today, the Great Escape Start Ups Forum. This year we are opening this up to all new music companies from across the UK. Any new company under eighteen months old that is innovating in the music space – whether in music rights, live events, digital or interactive, brand partnerships, or cross-media projects – is invited to submit a brief summary of their business. A panel of music industry leaders will select the most impressive and we will invite the owners of those companies to present at The Great Escape, promoting themselves to the convention’s industry audience, and receiving direct advice from panellists. For more info check www.theCMUwebsite.com/thegreatescape.

We should add that all this is just the start of what we have planned for you guys come May, and we’ll be feeding more news on panels and sessions as they are confirmed at the top of Daily each Friday. But take note, you should book your delegates passes now rather than later, because if you do so before next Tuesday you get the special early bird rate of £80, which is such a bargain I’m still thinking one of the accounts guys did some sums wrong somewhere along the line. But take advantage of this offer while it’s there by going to www.escapegreat.com/buy-a-ticket/delegate-tickets.

And don’t forget a delegates pass also gets you into all the gigs taking place at The Great Escape, which this year already includes Warpaint, Katy B, Brother, Twin Shadow, D/R/U/G/S, Becoming Real, PVT, Dutch Uncles, Tribes, worriedaboutsatan, Teeth, Visions Of Tree and Seams. Delegates can also get their hands on discount tickets (just a £6 top up) to the big Dome shows taking place during the festival, which this year includes Friendly Fires.

So that’s all very exciting isn’t it? So exciting, I think I need three quotes to help calm me down. Oh look, here they are…

PRS For Music boss Robert Ashcroft on their hosting day one again: “PRS for Music is delighted to be hosting the opening day of The Great Escape for a second year, bringing together a whole host of expert speakers to offer real insight and discussion on important issues that face the music business. The Great Escape is a great place to gain real practical solutions for developing emerging talent, not to mention a fantastic place to check out some new music”.

Martin Elbourne, Great Escape co-founder, on PRS’s continued support: “Having PRS for Music back on board again as hosts of our day one programme is excellent. They bring with them great knowledge about the state of our industry and an address book full of experts. I look forward to the debates they initiate”.

And some bloke called Chris Cooke from CMU – also co-programmer of TGE this year – saying stuff in an excited voice: “I genuinely believe 2011 is set to be a turning point for the music business, as new approaches to monetising music being quietly developed in various corners of the industry start to gain momentum. Through the PRS for Music panels and insight sessions, and our other panels and debates, we’ll get a real idea of what those approaches are. Anyone planning on working in music in five years time would be well advised to join us. That you’ll also get to hear from Paul Epworth and other music makers while you’re here is simply brilliant”.



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