In this workshop, Francisco Cipriano presents European funding initiatives for cultural and artistic projects, while also providing tips for preparing applications and projects.

António Porém Pires, musical supervisor for the TV shows “Rabo de Peixe” and “Glória,” is leading a workshop on musical synchronisation. This workshop will use the music supervisor’s perspective to break down the sync process from research to music licensing for television and advertising.

Is decentralisation about removing power from the centre or establishing new centres? What does a process of cultural decentralisation look like beyond the promotion of access policies?The roundtable will question the cultural democratisation paradigm and explore strategies for developing cultural public policies that support diversity, participation, and local cultural production that aligns with the mission of cultural democracy.

Culture’s visibility in public discourse is a constant negotiation. This conversation highlights the challenges culture encounters in public discourse. These include the need for the sector to renew its discursive and research capacity, as well as the role of education, media, and lobbying in promoting culture’s visibility in the public discourse.

This roundtable will have a translation facilitator available to assist from portuguese to english.

Negative perceptions of urban nightlife overlook its cultural significance. The devaluation of the night-time economy puts at risk the preservation of a complex urban system that manifests in the interrelation between cultural, social and material aspects of city economies. Understanding the night’s potential in the economic, cultural, and social development of cities by recognizing the impact of the night-time economy and measuring its cultural value is the primary focus of this roundtable discussion.

As a market mostly focused on growing local talent than in importing international talent, what space is left for international artists in the Brazilian music market? In this discussion we gather professionals that are building the bridges between the Brazil and internacional music markets.

Night-time leisure environments are fundamental time-spaces for creating and experimenting with identities, sociabilities and urban subcultures and for enhancing individual and collective well-being. They are also spaces with liberating potential that allow us to transcend oppressive moral norms and where the right to pleasure is constantly reaffirmed. In these contexts, risk reduction is a fundamental care approach, favoring the creation of environments that are responsive to individual and collective well-being and capable of maximizing the pleasurable experiences of the people who frequent them. This round table is based on the think tank “Strategies for creating safer night-time leisure spaces”, organized during MIL! 2022. In addition to the main recommendations that resulted from this working group, we intend to share some examples of concrete actions that can be taken by the people who promote and frequent these contexts to create night-time leisure environments based on ethics of care.

This is a workshop that contextualizes disability in society and the music sector, with demographic, legal, types of discrimination and forms of access to entertainment. In the second part of the workshop will be given solutions so that grassroots spaces can make their offer more accessible to spectators with disabilities.

Is the present communication industry and cultural consumption market a danger or a resource to the future of music criticism and journalism? A round table of journalists and critics will come together to discuss the future of their profession in a world where countless sources of information compete constantly for our attention. The conversation will address topics such as the representation and diversity of artists, content curation, the erasure of space for cultural criticism, and the creation of alternative spaces for cultural journalism.

Dominican producer and DJ Kelman Duran and producer and DJ Marfox feature a Keynote Talk. Two of the most relevant names in dance music today talk about musical production and the creation of unique sounds that do not aim at alienation on the dance floor but its opposite.

The past year saw a number of artists cancel their tours due to mental health and financial reasons. Touring is becoming more vulnerable due to inflation and rising tour costs, the inability of promoters to offer better deals in response, and the growing concentration of the industry. The struggle is felt all over the independent sector. How to repair the damage and overcome the obstacles?

Streaming may slow down, TikTok’s growth continues, and the industry adapts to user-generated content platforms. Web 3.0 is a promise that will be fulfilled. In this panel, we’ll explore how the digital music market has grown in the past year and project its potential for 2024.

Is the cultural sector ready to challenge white power structures in the interpretation and decision-making of artistic projects? Without a decolonial approach to the cultural sector, can the ideals of cultural democracy and citizenship, the cornerstones of cultural public policy, survive? This roundtable will feature artists, cultural agents, and scholars who advocate for decolonial practices and approaches to the cultural sector’s modes of production and hegemonic structures.

With the fringes of the metropolises expanding and gentrification driving people away from the city centres, there are those who resist and continue to fight for the right to the city and the community. Who and how are they doing it? 

The loss of cultural spaces is mainly due to the rapid transformation of cities into tourist attractions. To what extent does urban touristification reduce culture to its eventification? How can the night-time economy coexist with urban touristification while upholding the value of community in neighbourhoods as cultural production and social reproduction spaces? The purpose of this roundtable is to assess the impact of touristification on cultural policies and propose ways to resist the commodification of culture.

LIVEMX, co-funded by the European Union, aims to nurture a more diverse and sustainable music sector in Europe. A central part of the project is a leading-edge funding scheme designed to address very specific needs within the European music ecosystem.

How can spaces be made accessible and ecologically sustainable without adequate resources or funding? And when there are structural limitations in these spaces? This roundtable will explore ways to adapt matrices for sustainability and accessibility specifically for independent and small and medium-sized grassroots.

This roundtable will have a translation facilitator available to assist from portuguese to english.

In this session, we will investigate the intersections that result in access barriers in the music field, encompassing gender expansive identities and other factors that go beyond gender. The different aspects of our identities, such as gender, race, socioeconomic background, disability, ageism and sexual orientation, directly impact how we access opportunities. By exploring current infrastructures, we will identify practical ways to create space for marginalized voices in your area of expertise. We’ll discuss our individual challenges and collectively explore recommendations and solutions, knowing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Bookers from venues across Europe get together to share what they’re listening to, their programming choices, and the trends in current popular music that most excite them.

MATE is the Meeting of Music and the Creative Economy. The first Portuguese edition of the MATE festival takes place in Coimbra between 20 and 24 October. Over five days, performances are scheduled with musicians of various nationalities. In addition to the concerts, there are also lectures, mentoring sessions and book launches. The festival wants to focus on the creative industries, with special emphasis on the music sector and is designed for professionals, artists, creatives, entrepreneurs, brands, students of the music/cultural industry universe and the general public. The festival is motivated by the promotion of the representativeness of diversity and appreciation of the professional activities of the cultural and creative industries, also opening space for the areas of law, accounting or management related to the creative industries. MATE Europe will tour 3 European cities: Santiago de Compostela (23 and 24 September), Thessaloniki (5, 6 and 7 October) and Coimbra.

See Tickets is one of the largest ticketing companies in the world with expertise built over more than thirty years! It has a network of over 8,000 promoters, festivals, sports events, theaters, attractions, parks, and more, operating in Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Currently, more than 500 people are part of the See Tickets team in Lisbon, Los Angeles, Nashville, London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Madrid, and other cities around the world. The group is a subsidiary of Vivendi, a European media group with global reach in content, media, and communications.

In Portugal, its activity began in 2018 and has experienced exponential growth in these five years, allowing it to work with large and memorable events in recent history, such as Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Rock in Rio, Kalorama, and, of course, MIL! See Tickets Portugal is a proud partner of MIL and continues to grow alongside this unique event in the national market, having been one of the first brands to be represented at the event since its inception.

Creative Europe is the EU programme for the cultural and creative sectors, with a focus on international collaboration. There are many opportunities for the European music sector within other funding calls of the programme, specifically the annual call European Cooperation Projects, Culture Moves Europe and Music Moves Europe. During this session, participants will get a general overview of these calls and some key tips about application process.

How is the current music festival market? European music festivals answer this question taking into account the phenomenon of festivals’ franchising, the concentration of the live music market, the diversity of alignments and the experience of audiences at festivals.

What is the potential impact of AI for the arts as an artistic practice and sector? The creation of fully automated art raises concerns about the ethical and legal implications of artistic creation and intellectual property. Ultimately, is it simply a matter of who and how AI is used, or should we be worried?

Seeds of Change are niche initiatives with a high transformative potential. In this workshop, we want to find out where those initiatives can be found, and how to help them amplify their impact to transform the music sector towards a more sustainable and resilient future.

About the workshop:

Together with a mix of music sector representatives, academics and policy makers, we will start this session with a workshop on the X-curve; a model that helps to explore pathways towards this desired future. In this part we will explore how to deal with chaos & conflict that arise when change occurs, and we will look into how new ideas emerge. We will discuss how old structures can be phased out, and how to strengthen the new ideas and structures we find important.

In the second part of the workshop, we will focus on finding initiatives that can contribute to this transformation: the Seeds of Change. Change takes place in the niches of a system. The music sector is no different. Niches are where new genres emerge, new business models arise, and new ideas come to flourish. It are places for experiment, the environment is less commercially competitive, and the formal bonds are looser. By mapping the Seeds and discussing strategies to amplify their impact, we hope this workshop contributes a little bit to a healthier music sector.

The workshop will be kicked off by a short lecture by Frank Kimenai, music ecosystem researcher at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, on how the music sector acts as an ecosystem, and how ecological principles can help create a more sustainable and resilient future for the sector. 

In an industry that relies heavily on freelance projects and lacks full-time contracts and labor protection, the fight for artists’ and professionals’ labor rights is still ongoing. This round table discusses the fight for labor rights in the cultural sector, including Universal Basic Income for artists, ending the gender pay gap, and creating an employment status for cultural professionals. The discussion also emphasizes the significance of care practices in this process. 

The invisibility of the cultural sector under the label of ‘cultural and creative industries’ and the political instrumentalization of culture are the focus of this roundtable. The sector needs to reclaim its own language to reconfigure the neoliberal axis that centres the discursive logic on the legitimacy of cultural policies on the economy. Who needs to be included in this process? Who can lead it and how?

Safer space protocols and policies are now a top priority for nightlife, with private entities stepping up to develop and implement these regulations. In this process, what are the responsibilities of public and/or governmental entities?

In the midst of an undeniable climate emergency, the music industry has a unique opportunity to reduce its impact and create a positive influence on the planet’s future while inspiring society. Explore eco-friendly practices and responsible strategies for your tours with Music Declares Emergency. Let’s make a positive impact on the future of our planet.

No matter how digital we become, the significance of artist and repertoire reps (A&R) remains untouched. This debate focuses on the present state of A&R, its ability to adjust to new consumer models, and its ongoing search for fresh methods to boost artists’ careers.

The arts and culture are essential in the consolidation of democracy. Expanding horizons and envisioning possible futures require creativity, critical thinking, and experimentation. Culture builds identity. We hold the belief that a reliable cultural sector is one that is committed to the emancipatory potential of culture. With the rise of the far right and uncritical acceptance of populist rhetoric, it’s necessary to ask if the cultural sector is fulfilling its role. The question arises: what is the sector doing, or not doing, for the democratic health of societies?

SHAPE+ is a new European platform for innovative music and audiovisual art co-financed by the Creative Europe programme. Running for three years, SHAPE+ fosters exceptional emerging talent, connecting them to local communities and audiences through collaborative residencies with multiple artistic outcomes, commissioned artworks, as well as one-off presentations and performances. Combining an open call and a curatorial selection, the platform members select a roster of artists to support each year.

In a conversation between an active cultural agent, a singer/songwriter, and a photographer/visual artist, FONTE focuses on how various forms of African expressions have been moving and evolving within Portuguese culture. This discussion revolves around reflecting on future possibilities for mobilizing and amplifying anti-colonial legacies that combat oppressive systems.

MIL’s second talk will feature Carminho, one of the most exceptional and original fado singers today, and Niño de Elche, a unique and self-proclaimed exflamenco artist. The two artists discuss their approaches to fado and flamenco, the similarities and differences between the genres, and how they recontextualize their cultural heritage.

Bia Ferreira, an activist and artist from Brazil, will be delivering the final presentation of the convention program. In her lecture, Bia Ferreira discusses how her music serves as a space for queer, anti-racist, and feminist resistance and the subversion of traditions.

Reset!, the European network initiated by Arty Farty in Lyon in 2022 and supported by Creative Europe, federates independent cultural and media structures representing diversity and pluralism in Europe, and amplifies their visibility and networking through a series of actions. The network’s aim is to highlight the stressful situation and specific needs of today’s cultural independence, which is neither under the control of any public authorities nor affiliated with large private groups. Working together to redesign (reset) the cultural and media landscape in Europe is Reset!’s main purpose. In its second year, Reset! and its members wish to declare their need to advocate and support their shared values of pluralism, diversity, equality and sustainability on the road to the European Elections 2024.

Multitask in all things culture. Tabea is a cultural producer and multimedia artist based in Portugal and has worked with associations and festivals for over ten years. She co-founded the muti DAO in 2021 and is working on educating more artists on the possibilities of web3 whilst organising cultural events in the nature of Portugal.

Numa conversa entre um agente cultural ativo, uma cantora/compositora e um fotógrafo/artista visual, a FONTE traz um foco como as diferentes formas que expressões Africanas têm movimentado e se movimentam na cultura em Portugal- partido em reflexão sobre possibilidades futuras de mobilização e amplificação das heranças contra-coloniais que combatem sistemas opressivos.

In 2021, Andrew Ogun was appointed Agent for Change of the Arts Council Wales after the organisation committed to investing in fairer and more equal access to its activities and funding. Andrew Ogun has been a central piece on the anti-racist movement in Cardiff as a community organiser and found of the Black Lives Matter Gwent, and is an artist and creative worker. In a keynote presentation, Andrew shares the path that led him to this position and why it enables inevitable change for Wales’ society.

Portugal has 1 million and 700 thousand people with some kind of disability. How do they experience live music? What conditions are provided for an equal experience? Furthermore, what experiences can we create? This panel gathers people with disability, activists and professionals from the sector as well as an international spokesperson from the United Kingdom that, for the past 20 years, has been changing the industry and its welcoming formats (by creating conditions for the thousands of people with disability to attend live events and festivals every year).

Nightlife is an increasingly relevant cultural and economical area in the context of global cities and post-modern lifestyles. It promotes social and cultural creativity and innovation, economic opportunities and “pleasurescapes” of celebration, liberation, transgressive excess and risk. Due to its nature, the night-time economy was severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic…
… After two years of different confinement measures the nightlife is fully back! Can we measure the impact of Covid-19 in the urban nightlife and it´s ecosystem? What kind of challenges, threats, risks and opportunities are there for the night-time economy? Are there
changes in the individual and group behaviours of nightlife visitors? What are the emerging benefits, risks and harms related with a post-pandemic night? During this panel, these and other emergent questions will be discussed.

International mobility is an essential part of the music industry: musicians travel to develop new audiences, collaborate with colleagues, and build their international presence. But recent circumstances—political upheaval, inflation, war, pandemic—have made international touring challenging and expensive. And concerns for the environmental raises questions about the sustainability of our traditional touring models. What is an artist to do?
This panel will discuss emerging strategies musicians are using to build their careers by touring smarter.

Going out and dancing is about liberation and pleasure. The dancefloor is a place for freedom, subjectivity and experimentation. From this sense of belonging and togetherness comes change – artistic, social or political. This panel is an ode to club culture and its political power.

Join us at the terrace for a Welcome to MIL session!

No registration needed 

Is the grass greener outside of the city? More and more people want to start their life closer to nature where space, freedom and affordable prices are possible. As cities become increasingly over-surveilled, rent prices skyrocket, and market competition reigns, many people are considering abandoning the city life to enjoy the airs of the countryside. All over Europe there are plenty of vacant buildings, waiting to be repurposed – but where does one start?

A change from urban to rural can be quite intimidating. It takes a lot of courage and effort to make the step and the non-urban environment requires different skills and strategies. This workshop intends to provide support to make such a transition: together with three rural creative space-makers, we will discuss a wide variety of topics that can help participants to engage with and in the rural world. In this workshop, we aim to raise issues related to personal well-being, finding resources and community building in rural areas. Some of the questions we propose for reflection are: how to engage with local rural communities? How to navigate in a different socio-political dimension? How to deal with feelings of isolation when one is far away from the vibrant city life?

Join Musika Bulegoa for a networking cocktail at Factory Lisbon’s Terrace. Musika Bulegoa is an open space for people from the world of music – a place to come and work together. It was founded to support and promote music created and produced in the Basque Country.

Join Belgium Booms (VI.BE & Wallonie-Bruxelles Musiques) for a networking cocktail at Factory Lisbon’s Terrace. Belgium Booms supports and promotes Belgian artists abroad and helps both artists and their entourage to build a sustainable international career. It is a collaboration between VI.BE and Wallonie-Bruxelles Musiques.

In recent years, the European Union has adopted a more specific approach in its policies and funding tools towards music. However, the sector is still underestimated compared to other creative industries, despite having demonstrated its economic, societal and cultural value time and time again. Bringing together EU policymakers, funding experts and international project leaders, this panel will take an in-depth look at the current efforts made to increase the support to music at European level, and draw scenarios for future policies.

We are a design and multimedia studio that seeks to help all entities linked to social impact that need an image as strong as their mission!
Based in Porto, we have, since 2018, collaborated with the biggest social impact projects in Portugal, contributing with graphic design, video, motion design, u name it!
We seek to respond to the challenges that are proposed to us in an informal, energetic, eclectic, outgoing but sophisticated way, so that our customers can reach their impact further, with a communication that is savored 🙂

Cachupa Creative Studio. Appetizing communication for Social Impact.

FADE INDEPENDENT is a software company with a focus on the film and creative industry. It acts at the intersection of art, technology and the orange economy. Promotes independent productions through an APP and WEB platform (B2B and B2C). We are building a platform dedicated to independent cinema, open to all artists, producers, filmmakers and people dedicated to the arts and audiovisual.

Creating connections between artists of various languages in the audiovisual, content creators, musicians, composers of soundtrack, podcasts, Broadcasts and the like in common projects….

CPWM started off life as a 7” singles club but now runs a series of initiatives that are specifically targeted towards under-represented or disadvantaged demographics within music – positive discrimination if you want to call it that! We work on most projects with women, gender minorities and LGBTQIA+ individuals,

Initiatives include 1:1 mentoring and workshops for musicians around release of new music and giving early career promoters and live industry professionals opportunities to gain experience and take risks with their own music events.

We run an LGBTQIA focussed podcast (Connected Sounds), have an annual conference for women and gender minorities in music, a bi-monthly magazine and run LGBTQ Inclusion training, initially for music venues.

Tony will be sharing observations on what is going well – and where more could be done right now.

Nighttime governance brings institutional awareness of urban night, its problems and opportunities. It helps to deconstruct the stigma around the night and enables the implementation of research and policies that protect this ecosystem. But nighttime governance has a broader role in cities’ development. Nighttime advocates and governors from Berlin, New York and Liverpool share how so.

A crença de que o impacto da cultura na sociedade é incomensurável criou vários obstáculos ao desenvolvimento e proteção do setor. Especialistas cujo trabalho é traduzir a relevância da cultura em dados qualitativos e quantitativos partilham como e porque é que o seu trabalho é fundamental para criar consciência, atrair investimento e desenvolver políticas.

Circuito is the Portuguese music venues association. Get the chance to have a speedmeeting to some of the association’s members! Register below:

REGISTER HERE

Quando um profissional residente num determinado país vai trabalhar temporariamente noutro país, como acontece na mobilidade internacional de profissionais na área da cultura, é necessário acautelar de um conjunto de questões burocráticas que se prendem com impostos, segurança social e vistos.
Com este encontro pretendemos transmitir como, na prática, este três assuntos se resolvem, tentando, assim, que a mobilidade internacional – essencial à criação, à difusão e ao setor – não fique prejudicada por dificuldades administrativas. Que os artistas sejam mais livres para ir e vir.

INSCRIÇÕES

Regional sounds and practices that do not have anglo-Saxonic origins are getting a place in the international music circuits. This panel looks at the trajectories that lead these decentralized forms of music to international stages and global awareness, and how the listening habits are changing in this framework.

Cultural-led transformations in cities’ dynamics enable sustainable and well-thought changes that consider local communities’ well-being and the city’s development. From slowing down gentrification processes to fostering a local identity, cultural policy experts and research reflect on the role of cultural policies in re-shaping cities.

Digital transition is not only about technological evolution – mostly, it’s about how people use technology and take advantage of these developments. When it comes to the culture ecosystem, it’s important to reflect on the ethical implications of this transition for digital communities, intellectual property and big data. Guaranteeing transparency and digital justice is a priority, just as is data protection and the fight against desinformation.

For many years, music venues have needed a paradigm shift. The old model of opening in the evenings and closing in the day, of a business model based purely on selling tickets and drinks, is dead. Gentrification and the rising competition for space in town centres have made it increasingly difficult to sustain this old model.

Music venues are valuable silos of highly sought after skills and knowledge; technical skills, problem solving, management, digital-first approaches. We need to ‘open-out’ our venues, creating new learning opportunities for young people, stimulating opportunities in our towns and cities while creating new understanding of the roles our venues play. Venues need to develop new models that see them driving forward progressive change in their towns and cities, contributing new value to society and in turn generating new revenue streams. To achieve this successfully, venues most also play an active role in public policy, both in their towns and cities, but also regionally and nationally.

Future Yard CIC is a non-profit independent live music venue in Birkenhead, Liverpool, UK. Over the last two years we have launched one of the UKs most dynamic new music venues, a range of skills & training programmes, an artist development incubator, led regional music policy and attracted over £2.3m in grant funding.

In this workshop we will examine our ‘Community Music Venue’ model, share our learning and explore options for Circuito’s members to take this learning into their own venues and across the network.

REGISTER HERE

And do you still need a music label in 2022? But why, really? In the current landscape of the financialization of music, vinyl crisis and whatnot, four labels and distributors share how they navigate this scenario and keep investing in their artists’ growth.

Intermediæ is a space of Matadero Madrid dedicated to artistic practices socially committed which become a key cultural space in the city of Madrid and in the development of innovative arts and community projects. Sister Midnight is a community benefit society on a mission to create an accessible, affordable and inclusive grassroots music venue in Lewisham. In this keynote talk, Lenny Watson, one of Sister Midnight founders, and Zoe López, Intermediae’s head of content programme, explore what makes a cultural space and what is its commitment with communities, territories and governance, intersecting models for programming and public development.

Does it? The foundations of web 3.0 and blockchain are built on decentralised, community-first and ownership principles. People are becoming less skeptical about blockchain, however many believe that web 3 is just one step towards the hyper commodification of art. What’s the verdict, then?

Less than 25% of record deals are offered to female artists, and the lack of industry knowledge around how to properly support women in this industry is holding them — and their teams — back. This presentation will explore the unique challenges female artists face and discuss simple, actionable practices for setting them up for success, whether you’re a manager, label, marketer or collaborator.

The growing concentration of the live music market is leaving little space for small-sized and independent players. This phenomenon entails new challenges to booking agents, whose options are narrowed down, and grassroots music venues, which can’t compete with big players. Only two options are left: finding aaalternative circuits or succumbing to consolidated music circuits.

It is getting harder for new music to reach audiences. In the digital age, the music market is becoming impenetrable for those who don’t own a piece of the Internet and aren’t backed by majors. Label managers, A&Rs, bookers and managers reflect on the changes the music market is going through and how they led their artists to cut through the noise.

Frenesim is dreamed up and put into practice by a group of artists and educators who work to promote art as an end, as a project for change, development and bringing people together. It is from the mixture of musicians, sculptors, performers, teachers and curious people that a particular way of working with those who come to us is born. This cross-cutting approach is the key to personal and group exploration.

Being an artist and/or a creator remains synonymous with living a life of precarity and hustling. Improving artists and creators’ conditions means ensuring their interests, guaranteeing fair remuneration and pays, but also providing platforms for a sustainable development of their careers. Here’s how.

The not-so-smooth return of the festival season has led some to believe that the market might be reaching a saturation point. But is there a thing as too many festivals? When you have more than one music festival to organize and curate, how is music kept at the core of these events?

Music has a complicated and invariably intertwined relationship with the communities which participate, engender and enable its production. From DIY venues to major record labels, community-building currently stands as one of the most difficult, rewarding and profitable means of being a music practitioner, particularly in the age of social network and streaming platforms. What could a more equitable, horizontal and distributed future for music communities look like? Join Kaitlyn Davies on an exploration of what web3 and decentralised autonomous organising enabled by blockchains can offer artists and music maintainers.

This session will take place in 2 parts; a hands-on workshop as a practical investigation of these infrastructures, followed by a masterclass presenting the findings and exploring concepts further. Space in the workshop is limited.

REGISTER HERE FOR WORKSHOP

Music has a complicated and invariably intertwined relationship with the communities which participate, engender and enable its production. From DIY venues to major record labels, community-building currently stands as one of the most difficult, rewarding and profitable means of being a music practitioner, particularly in the age of social network and streaming platforms. What could a more equitable, horizontal and distributed future for music communities look like? Join Kaitlyn Davies on an exploration of what web3 and decentralised autonomous organising enabled by blockchains can offer artists and music maintainers.

This session will take place in 2 parts; a hands-on workshop as a practical investigation of these infrastructures, followed by a masterclass presenting the findings and exploring concepts further. Space in the workshop is limited.

REGISTER HERE FOR WORKSHOP

Mero is an architectural metaphor of a fish. MERO is a design proposal for the temporary Walk & Talk pavilion, which results from the creation of an architectural metaphor, in other words from the process of intersection between the features of a charismatic animal from the Azorean aquatic fauna and the elaboration of an architectural project.

Participatory arts do not only entail a creative process that involves audiences and communities – they enable shared and democratic processes of decision-making and ownership. Participatory arts is not only about changing an individual’s life – it is about empowering individuals and communities. It could be about revolutionising societies as a whole. In this panel, we take from the experience of those who develop participatory community arts projects to realise the potential of these processes were they to be global and permanent.

Qubitz is a startup dedicated to the development of software and blockchain solutions focusing on creating the infrastructure and tools needed to develop and implement blockchain technology. With this in mind it developed TIKIT, a decentralised ticket distribution platform, which puts an end to current distribution issues and opens the industry to new markets, audiences and solutions. TIKIT is more than just a box office; it’s an ecosystem where event organisers can regain independence and truly interact with their audience in a transparent, fair and decentralised way.

Join SIM São Paulo for a networking cocktail at Factory Lisbon’s Terrace. SIM São Paulo is one of the main music fairs and conferences in Brazil, held in São Paulo.

Get the chance to meet with festivals like Victoria Dalston, BAM, Dabadaba, Fifty Lab and other music players coming to MIL!

REGISTER HERE

We’re sad to inform that this workshop was canceled.

Ponto d’Orvalho is a transdisciplinary festival open to discussion and environmental action through artistic, social and ecological interventions. It is a regenerative space of creation and renewal, a field to explore the dynamic transformations of the environment and their impact on our collective future and its social structures.

 

The festival brings together artists, speakers, farmers, cooks, philosophers, activists, local experts and cultural promoters focused on promoting transformation and creating new narratives that allow us to envision a more sustainable future. Different artistic disciplines thus come together with the intention of producing transformative experiences.

Collecting and analysing data on diversity allows organisations to have a better understanding on what changes need to be made towards equality and inclusion. Without it, there’s a lack of quantitative evidence on the effects of structural racism, discrimination and sexism. This panel gathers experts on data collection and gender and race equality taskforce members to discuss the importance of diversity data.

Rodrigo Cuevas is a ‘folklore agitator’ and member of the sexyfolk movement. Always pushing the barrier of folk music, Rodrigo understands this practice as one that can accomodate change while being a space for freedom. Puta da Silva is an afro/travesty and immigrant multi-artist. Through dashing baile funk compositions and dance, Puta da Silva is a symbol for liberation. In this keynote conversation, Rodrigo Cuevas and Puta da Silva reflect on tradition, belonging and identity in popular music.

Following Womxn in Artist Management‘s workshop, join RoC Collective and shesaid.so portugal for a networking cocktail with Catxibi on the decks!

Led by artist managers Charlotte Caleb (UK) and Meghan Stephens (PT), this half-day workshop will bring womxn in management together to share and solve problems in a safe, inclusive space. Through conversation and collaboration, the goal is to help managers find commonalities as well as overcome individual challenges, isolating pain points and identifying paths forward.

Come prepared to share your artists, your goals and your experiences, leave with actionable takeaways and new connections in the industry! Beyond the IRL session, Meghan and Charlotte will continue to build this community online, activating what will become a global network of womxn in artist management.

Applications are now open for participation in this one-of-a-kind community designed to help you build your career through the power of caring and collaborating (and cocktails).

APPLY HERE

Believing that the future of culture is the future of live, how to ensure protection and growth for the ecosystem that makes “live” possible?
Andy C. Pratt, academic and researcher on cultural and creative economy, presents a keynote presentation on the need to invest in infrastructures and public policies that protect live culture ecosystem’s players, introducing a long term vision to recover cultural economy.

The growing corporate and streaming platforms consolidation has shifted power to big tech giants leading to dominance over live music sectors such and promotion, ticketing, venue and artist management. To protect independent players, unable to compete with big corporations, it is necessary to implement antitrust mechanisms and regulations. In this panel, we discuss strategies to revert this tendency.

In a time where populism forces are gaining new traction, where does cultural journalism stand? Should it rethink impartiality in order to not look away from the danger democracy faces? Four cultural media discuss how they approach this phenomenon in their work.

Digital transformation introduced new challenges and opportunities for copyright management, which can lead to a whole new way of handling intellectual property. Whether it concerns regulation, data or decentralized models for copyright management, four experts reflect on the future of copyright in a panel curated in partnership with SLASH program.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought urban music scenes to a halt. With concert venues closed, tours interrupted and festivals at a standstill, many artists have taken advantage of this hiatus to develop more personal and creative projects. Among recent musical experimentations that are becoming trendsetting are those that draw on the so-called folk and traditional musics and infuse them with contemporary sounds. The resulting sonorities mix muñeiras with trance rhythms, fado with electronic music or flamenco and hip-hop, appealing to a broad audience in search of a new sense of identity and belonging in times of uncertainty.

Even though the virtual space makes it possible to establish many connections and communities, it will never enable the same proximity, gathering and a sense of togetherness as live spaces and encounters do. Preserving the live music ecosystem, its interactions and communities is the first step to guarantee that the future of music is live, not livestreamed.

The world is changing rapidly and the music market is no exception to that. New dynamics and possibilities arise, namely for children and families’ cultural programming. What now?

Arts and cultural centres can impact neighborhood changes positively, contributing for their revitalization and community development while avoiding the risk of gentrification. But to achieve such a goal, it is important to carefully incorporate these spaces and its work into neighborhood planning and growth, fomenting a strong link between both agents.

By tightening up the reference terms used for music search vague references become more eloquent, results faster and campaigns more effective. Songs become more searchable. For the past couple of years Lynden Campbell has developed methodologies for an ethical music tagging and classification, which she will share in this workshop.

The Global Nighttime Recovery Plan is a collaborative, practical guide for cities that are trying to determine the best way to design and execute a safe and feasible strategy to reopen and reactivate their creative and night-time economies. The guide is a joint effort that involves more than 130 practitioners, academics, public health experts, advocates and industry representatives from more than 70 cities all over the world and is meant to be an interactive platform to share frameworks, tools, and practices among cities during these unprecedented times.

Barómetro Gerador is an annual study focused on cultural perception in Portugal. It was launched for the first time in 2019 by Gerador, an independent platform for culture.

More than a decade has passed since streaming platforms emerged to dominate music consumption. For the better half of it, people and institutions have been trying to fix its existing opaque and unequal platforms, but perhaps the only way to do it is by creating alternative streaming tools and policies.

If anything, the paralyzation of international music circuits gave some no other option than to turn to local scenes. However, investing in local scenes and artists is part of the ethos of many, enabling their internationalization and promotion on and off borders. Four music industry agents share the importance of applying such a vision as a long-term strategy.

Culture is one of the main drives for cities’ development, contributing actively for its economy. In order to guarantee sustainability and growth for the cultural ecosystem, it is necessary to draw long-term – and not an emergency – strategies for the sector, in which cultural policies take a central role. Cultural policies’ specialists and mayors share the process of planning and executing cultural policies integrated into a long-term strategy for the sector.

In a whitewashed and heteronormative industry, those who own and have access to the means are the ones who thrive. Confronted with this, investing in training and empowerment has become a priority for many organizations that try to subvert the current logics of access through training and affirmative action strategies.

Either by extending the festival duration, experimenting with other formats and investing in strengthening ties with their communities, music festivals are reinventing themselves and embodying new programming, promotion and audience development models. How?

Even though we share the same borders, the exchange between Portugal and Spain music circuits is still poorly explored. In the panel, we gather some of the agents that have been making these connections to share exchange strategies between Portugal and Spain.

Catching the attention of media outlets isn’t always easy. Take part in this workshop and learn how to prepare relevant materials to media and create a relationship with journalists. Know the basic tasks of doing PR and learn how to create a place for your business near journalists.

ALL VENUES is a platform for music venues and agents, aiming to create a circuit of small music venues connecting the North of Portugal and Galicia. ALL VENUES is a media specialized that enables sharing booking proposals and promoting events. Conceptualized in 2019, it represents, more than ever, a plus to a fragile sector. The networking of venues, agents, musicians and audiences’ purpose is to strengthen the synergies between these two territories, hoping to show the ties between the two contexts that, right now, are developing independent scenes.

Marca Pistola is a search engine of musicians and musical projects connected to Azores that moves in the possibility of capturing, updating and presenting what was already done, what is being done and what can happen in the future on the islands’ music scene. More than just a label made in Azores, Marca Pistola is a project that aims to create an audiovisual archive and database. The archipelago of 9 islands is the leitmotif of Marca Pistola as a recording platform in three components (music, sound and photography). In the first phase, the main recording format is via tape and hopefully it will accompany 11 bands until the end of the year, where we will include musical projects such as WE SEA, Filipe Furtado, PMDS, Tosco, Maçarico e P.S Lucas.

How do culture, its players and the collective movements developed within this environment arise as actors of mobilization, enabling structural changes? Four activists show how they build acts of resistance and networks of hope through their work.

Artists are the running engine of the music sector. Yet, during the pandemic many were left to fend off by themselves, with sometimes barely no institutionalized support. Making a living with their music was already a major challenge for plenty of artists even before the crisis. After more than 18 months with no regular opportunities to play, plenty of emerging and up-and-coming artists and creators turned to jobs beyond music to make ends meet. Some have quit the sector altogether in exchange for more financially viable professions.

What do we need to ensure new artists can develop their careers in a sustainable way and grow as professionals? How can we can best implement support schemes to boost the future of the European music ecosystem? This will be at the heart of this panel curated by Liveurope.

Resuming live touring has imposed new challenges for artists’ booking and promotion, especially in smaller music markets. Where to start? What strategies are being put into action to return to the stages? What are the main challenges for agents and promoters? A panel of agents, managers and promoters discuss the challenges and strategies for live touring A.C as well as the sustainability of the agent and promotor’s business model in small music markets.

Being a social, communal and participatory practice, arts can transform society, fostering changes in political and social structures. Through cooperation networks between artists, communities and cultural institutions, and training, empowerment and innovation practices, who is making an impact with – and out of – arts?

The music industry, and festivals particularly, has presented innovative proposals in the sustainability area that can apply to societies’ other domains. But can sustainability be just a group of dispersed projects? What are the principles that should guide professionals from the sector on their path to sustainability? What examples must they consider? Which models and practices should get the attention of society? In this talk we’ll hear some of the major sustainability activists within the festival culture.

While touring is at a standstill, sync has become an even more important source of revenue for music creators, providing promotional opportunities for artists to reach wider audiences. However, this still stands as an area of the industry that is still yet to be fully tapped into.
Chi Chi Nwakodo, Senior Creative Sync Executive at Sony Music Publishing UK, speaks from her experience to share the best tools and methodologies for music creators to get the best out of sync.

The European live music sector has faced a crisis like no other in the last 18 months. For an industry relying on public events, international mobility and cultural tourism, which have all been entirely suspended for the best part of the pandemic, this unprecedented moment has been particularly impactful. Our panel brings together European professionals representing all sectors of the live music ecosystem (booking, venues, festivals, export offices) to try and answer a simple question: after such a long crisis, how much damage are we talking about? How bad is it today for artists, live music professionals, the touring business, the events sector? And on a more positive note, our experts will also describe the lessons learned for the industry, suggest solutions to get back on track and draw perspectives for the future.

Digital transformation is moving through a hazy, verticalised and big tech-controlled process, mimicking other society’s inequalities. For the music sector, this represents, once more, an unbalanced scale for the independent and small/medium-sized agents. It urges, then, to transform the ongoing digital transformation.

Taking streaming as a starting point, Liz Pelly, jornalist and author of articles such as “Socialized Streaming”, and Tom Gray, songwriter and #BrokenRecord spokesperson, are joined in a keynote talk to reflect on what paths should digital transformation follow in order to enable a fairer, democratic and transparent digital ecosystem.

The goal behind this workshop is to explore all the scenarios where it is possible to build up a career in Production Music, which focuses mainly in the synchronization of music and video productions. It is a big branch of the music industry, and it’s thriving now more than ever thanks to the new technologies. Which types of careers are available nowadays in the market; from the purely creative and musical jobs, to the administrative and copyright aspects, all of them essential for the industry. We will share as well some personal experiences and talk about the way we work particularly in Cézame in order to give some real-life scenarios and help the audience understand how a daily work routine in a music library looks and feels like.

Against the rising of populist and fascist forces, it’s the voices, the bodies and the arts that resist daily that become the main forces of fight and mobilisation.
In a keynote talk, Linn da Quebrada and Lila Fadista will share their stories of resistance, both through art and on the streets, as way to raise awareness, empower and fight against oppressive, xenophobic, transphobic and racists forms of power.

Boom Festival is the most internationally awarded portuguese event in the category of sustainability. What makes it unique? How is it thought and projected? Which hypothesis should be considered? How do you envision a festival for 40.000 people in a rural landscape? This is an interactive workshop where participants will gain tools used to produce and make Boom Festival.

Without doubt, one of the largest innovations for music is the internet. The music industry has changed, and social media play a critical role in the industry.

As social media continues to give musicians new opportunities every day, in this workshop we’re going to learn how musicians can reach all their potential if they use social media to their advantage.

PART I | The power of black influence
BANTUMEN is the first digital magazine dedicated to the black lusophone community. The media assume a role very important in terms of identity and representativeness, a role that is often poorly performed when it comes to the black community, often helping to reinforce stereotypes and cause identity dilemmas. BANTUMEN was founded to help eradicate those stereotypes, create pluralism and new possibilities, through the community’s own narratives and perspectives.

PART II | The role of BANTUMEN for black urban music in Portugal
For the past six years, BANTUMEN has been a fundamental tool for listing and promoting artists of African descent in Portugal, contributing to the rise of many newcomers.

AEAPP (Associação Espetáculo – Agentes e Produtores Portugueses) was created in the midst of the COVID Pandemic and represents the interests of Portuguese Agents and Producers in the performing arts, specially music.

Skoola was born in Village underground in April of 2021 as an urban and contemporary music academy. It uses a model completely different from formal education principals where the focus is on the young participants as individual constructors of their own knowledge. A school where there is not only one professor but a lot of people to learn from, where the curriculum draws an ally to “making music” ancestral to new creative possibilities brought by technology and where the learning goes by the goals of the participants.

Skooda pretends  to feed in artistic freedom and diversity examples, making an easy approach to known professionals in the musical industry. The development with these factors in an environmental and training context, allowing not only sharing their accumulated experiences, but also the increasing young people’s access to new opportunities, contributing to the expansion of possibilities for building their life project, increasing self-esteem, confidence and belonging. 

It’s a space where young people can be themselves, where they discover their potential for music and artistic identity.

In this masterclass we will look at research into music audiences and of the cultural sector more widely. Jonathan Goodacre, Senior Consultant at The Audience Agency in the UK will provide insight into the trends of recent times, especially in the last two years, given the impact of Covid-19 and its associated aspects. In this overview, he will report on The Audience Agency’s own recent research as well as other international studies, explaining what it means for our work as promoters, organisers, marketers and creators.

In the age of digital transformation, ownership and accessibility are everything. But can new artists and grassroots cultural agents achieve it in the current landscape? Ignasi Labastida i Juan, academic teacher and promotor of Creative Commons in Spain, presents a masterclass about new approaches to manage intellectual property, share and access content in the digital space based on open access models and tools.

presentation

In this presentation, DATA SIM will discuss the results of the unprecedented survey in Brazil “Women in the music industry in Brazil: obstacles, opportunities, and perspectives”, conducted by DATA SIM / SIM São Paulo in 2019. The survey was inspired and compatible with the survey “Women In The US music industry: obstacles and opportunities ”, from the Berklee College of Music and Women in Music (WIM), which investigated the presence of women in the US music market. This report features Brazil’s results and strategies for building a less unequal music market worldwide, and how different markets can collaborate to that end.

talk

In this session, EU and music sector experts will take you through the main features and perspectives of “Music Moves Europe”, the first European initiative dedicated to the music sector. You will know everything about the EU’s commitment to boosting support for the European music ecosystem, what it means in practice, and how it could develop in the coming years. Studies, innovative projects, funding perspectives: this is your chance to know all support possibilities for music at EU level. Needless to say, a significant part of the session will be dedicated to a Q&A session with our experts, to leave no stone unturned.

workshop

[This workshop happened in September 2020 in MIL after MIL, a series of workshops, debates and masterclasses in person.]

Theoretical-practical work session with a group of 15 to 20 participants on practices that cultural entities must implement in order to guarantee more sustainable action and reduce their environmental impact.

exhibition

Pop’lar is an interactive exhibition aiming to popularise the Portuguese popular music imagination. Starting from a private collection of cassette tapes, the visitor is invited to actively explore the music content through an exhibition that highlights the cover design, allowing unexpected associations between various Portuguese popular music artists of the last 40 years. From Ágata to Zeca Afonso.

presentation

The GDA Foundation was created in 2010 by GDA – Gestão dos Direitos dos Artistas (Management of the Rights of Artists), with the aim of valuing and dignifying the career of performing artists, namely musicians, actors and dancers. Its activity seeks to favor diversity and cultural participation, promote the quality of life and well-being of artists, as well as their training and qualification, while protecting and disseminating their rights.

Mário Carneiro, General Director of the GDA Foundation, provides a global perspective of the work done by the Foundation within this framework, presenting its programs and mechanisms of a cultural, social, institutional and educational nature, that support artists’ projects and their practice professional.

In the last 15 years, there has been a proliferation of publications, especially online, with a focus on independent music and emerging talents. In these environments, artists find a media space to promote their work and grow fanbases. In this conversation, Punch Magazine invites three independent media projects to reflect on the role of independent online publications and media in creating fan communities and their importance in publicizing emerging artists early in their careers.

talk

[This talk happened in September 2020 in MIL after MIL, a series of workshops, debates and masterclasses in person.]

Music and cities are intimately connected: we cannot imagine a city without musical activity, just as it is difficult to dissociate certain popular music genres and styles from the urban environment in which they emerged.
In recent years, the term “music city” has been adopted as a catchy phrase to denote “a place with a vibrant music economy which has been intentionally supported and promoted” through music policy. From this perspective, music is a valuable city asset that “has to be assessed, managed and evaluated” as any other urban infrastructure. On the other hand, for the critics of this paradigm, the concept of “music city” represents just another top-down strategy of city branding to boost tourism and increase competitiveness in the global context, as the UNESCO Cities of Music Network exemplifies.
This roundtable will interrogate the notion of “music city” in relation to Lisbon’s thriving music ecosystem and also to the threats and opportunities that urban phenomena such as gentrification and turistification pose to the musical life of the city. The closure of traditional live music venues, the general rise in prices and the cost of living, the development of Lisbon as a tourist city and the new consumption styles associated to it, or the implementation of new regulations controlling night-time activities are some of the recent developments that urge to rethink what Lisbon as a music city might sound like.

 

talk

With the recent increase in the migratory flow from Brazil to Portugal, the Brazilian artistic community living in Portugal has grown significantly, introducing a variety of new practices and events that dynamize cultural life in their cities.

Due to this phenomenon, the synergies created between the two territories and their agents encouraged many artists to cross the Atlantic to make themselves known to the Portuguese public and, from there, explore the European music market, also multiplying Portuguese artists. who do the reverse route.

In this panel, Ava Rocha, Hélio Morais, Cigarra and Di Cândido reflect on the potential of the Brazil-Portugal connection in introducing these artists to each of these territories and the characteristics of the Brazilian music scene that now lives in Portugal.

keynote

Connecting bridges between innovative projects, startups and the creative industries, Yvan Boudillet, founder of TheLynk, has more than 10 years of experience leading digital development and consumer strategy. Invited by StartUP Lisboa, Yvan will host a keynote about innovation in the music industry where he will share how he is accelerating innovative projects in the creative industries and boosting digital transformation.

workshop

In a 2-hour workshop, Luís Viegas, who is the director of Ao Sul do Mundo, manager of Conan Osiris and agent of Elza Soares, Bulimundo and many others, demystifies the role a manager in the management and empowerment of an artist’s career. Luís Viega will share tools and methodologies that potentiate the relationship between artist, manager and the international music market circuit.

masterclass

Data analytics is not an unknown method for the music industry, but with the rise of music digital consumption, the amount of information available has multiplied significantly. On an extreme level, data has been used to inform creativity and crack new music trends, but an efficient and responsible interpretation of this kind of information can potentiate career development, maximize engagement, reach and overall cross-platform performance, which will lead to more revenues.

In this masterclass, digital music consultant Sammy Andrews will share the necessary tools, methods, and approaches to interpret and understand data and the metrics provided by DSPs in order to enhance cross-platform performance.

 

presentation

Green Mountain Lodge is a creative strategy partner in music, culture, tech, brand and international business.

presentation

Guitarras ao alto is one of a kind event that takes place in Alentejo, Portugal, inspired by music, wine and food.

presentation

A green pledge for the dance music community. Clean Scene’s first project is an easy-to-use carbon offsetting tool for DJs and their agencies. They are inviting DJs and booking agencies to make a green pledge to reduce their environmental impact – by offsetting carbon emissions from flying. It’s simple, quick and surprisingly cheap.

presentation

Green Room develops creative strategies for environmental and social change in the music industry since 2016.
Creator of the #GreenYourTouring project and campaign.

presentation

In this presentation, DATA SIM will discuss the results of the unprecedented survey in Brazil “Women in the music industry in Brazil: obstacles, opportunities, and perspectives”, conducted by DATA SIM / SIM São Paulo in 2019. The survey was inspired and compatible with the survey “Women In The US music industry: obstacles and opportunities ”, from the Berklee College of Music and Women in Music (WIM), which investigated the presence of women in the US music market. This report features Brazil’s results and strategies for building a less unequal music market worldwide, and how different markets can collaborate to that end.

Nowadays, being a musi­cian means being multi-task­ing : prac­ti­cing its instru­ment, devel­op­ing its career, integ­rat­ing net­work of pro­fes­sion­als, pro­mot­ing its pro­ject, diver­si­fy­ing rev­en­ue streams, man­aging copy­rights, under­stand­ing and deal­ing with new digit­al prac­tices.

Nowadays, being a musi­cian is to be a key influ­en­cer and the major stake­hold­er of its career.

Discover the daily life and the business model the joys and hardships of these musician-slashers.

talk

[This talk happened in September 2020 in MIL after MIL, a series of workshops, debates and masterclasses in person.]

It goes without saying that being successful in the music industry is a precarious one. As the Music Industry Investigation Report (2020) found, an artist’s income, which is often based on touring, does not allow them to earn a living wage. Touring is a major source of income for a musician, bringing with it its own challenges, from directly impacting the musician (burn-out, lack of support system, away from family), to implications on a societal level (environmental impact). The pressure to “make it” and the limited support available contribute to difficulties in establishing oneself as a professional artist. In addition, mental health and self-care are not taken into consideration when assessing the overall success of a musician. Alongside the lack of diversity (both in terms of people of colour as well as gender), the multitude of challenges to make a living in the music industry can be overwhelming. This panel gives space to present current initiatives that offer solutions to these issues faced throughout the industry. From capacity building to (self-) care, diversity and green touring, we will discuss ways to build the industry of tomorrow.

talk

[This talk was done online in May 2020 as part of MIL URL talk, an online series of five talks that didn’t happen in MIL 2020.]

Working in music today leads to two fundamental questions: how to become the next Avicii, and also, how to avoid becoming the next Avicii? In success as in indifference or failure, pursuing a career in the artistic field can lead to immense satisfaction as well as deep disappointment. In the streaming age, how healthy is the European music industry?

talk

Rap is a music genre with decades of history in Portugal as part of the Hip Hop movement. It has had an undeniable growth in recent times and if a few years ago it was unthinkable for a rapper to live off music, today this is an increasingly notorious reality. Rap sells out arenas, is part of the soundtrack of the life of many elements of the new generations and plays on radio stations like never before.

From Portuguese to Creole, rap made in Portugal easily reaches other Portuguese-speaking countries and creates bridges between universes that may have already been distant. The same is true of rap produced abroad, which, through language, increases the sense of community that Hip Hop has always wanted to foster.

Between Europe, Africa and South America, the language brings together citizens of the world, but the contexts in which it presents itself are different. How does the context change the way rap is presented and perceived? To what extent has rap contributed to bringing Portuguese-speaking communities together? Is language an element that triggers internationalization?

Gerador and the MIL come together in this conversation to gather a panel of speakers who are dealing with the potential for collaboration and exchange of this kind in Portuguese-speaking territories and the challenges they face.

With the growing autonomy that artists have released and distributed their music by their own means, the idea of signing to a label may seem dispensable. However, labels remain curators of great influence based on the confidence they are given. This leads us to question how labels have been reinforcing their importance with artists and rethinking their relations with them?

There have never been so many music festivals as there is today. The multiplication of these events and the growing competitiveness of the sector obliges the major music festivals to rethink their relationship with the audience and the approach to artistic programming, which is pressured by the sale of tickets. How, then, does a music festival become a business without losing its identity?

talk

[This talk was done online in May 2020 as part of MIL URL talks, an online series of five talks that didn’t happen in MIL 2020.]

A prominent trend in the past year, podcasts are important vehicles for the creation of micro-communities of fans, creating connections between those who listen and those who speak. The music industry is investing more and more in this format, which leads us to understand the importance of podcasts as music marketing tools.

talk

[This talk was curated in partnership with Canal180, which did it online on its channels. The final result is here.]

Since the 80s, music videos have been constantly evolving in their format, duration, and approaches, be it from the commercial point view or its artistic approach. In the digital age era, a music video can potentiate important revenues for the artists, standing as the biggest music-streaming format. So, how are music videos evolving considering the constant changes in its platforms and media? Canal 180 brings together creative and music directors to answer this question.

talk

[This talk was done online in May 2020 as part of MIL URL talks, an online series of five talks that didn’t happen in MIL 2020.]

In order for the cultural and economic importance of live music spaces in cities to be recognized, it is essential to invest in research, studies, and analysis that allows quantifying it. Cultural agents and researchers responsible for important work in this area share how they developed them and their contribution to the growth and valorization of this economic and cultural sector.

talk

[This talk was done online in May 2020 as a MIL URL talk, an online series of five talks that didn’t happen in MIL 2020.]

The multiplication of data available is transforming the way the music industry operates. The way in which this piece of information has become so relevant to the sector in the making of new hits or in the development of fan communities requires a critical reflection on how the data is being placed at the service of the music industry.

talk

[This talk happened in September 2020 in MIL after MIL, a series of workshops, debates and masterclasses in person.]

The impact of the music industry in the carbon footprint is outsized. Besides touring and the artists’ individual carbon footprint, there’s the impact of musical production and consumption, music festivals, and others. Do we all, audience, agents, musicians and such have an important role to play in this pressing issue? How can we rethink music production with a more sustainable approach? It is possible to stage design and lighting to be more “green”? How are music festival answering to this negative tendency?

keynote

Every November, the city of Utrecht in The Netherlands is taken over by Le Guess Who?, the festival that is also a celebration of global sounds in its various expressions and boundary-crossing music. Praised as being one of the most diverse festivals in Europe, Le Guess Who? has developed into an unalike experience of discovery of the unknown that is strongly connected with the city of Utrecht and is a product of a singular approach to the curational process.

In this keynote interview, we invite Bob Van Heur, artistic director and co-founder of the festival, to share with us the process of making Le Guess Who?, the importance of the city of Utrecht in the whole experience of the festival and how is the process of curating the festival and challenging artists to take the role of curators themselves.

masterclass

Streaming platforms and digital services have forced us to rethink marketing campaigns to communicate album releases, concerts or tours, relying more than ever on the visual component. What, then, are the strategies that allow you to create successful campaigns?

Theresa Adebiyi, Creative Director from Partisan Records who has previously worked in Ninja Tune, and Ellie Rumbold, product manager from Partisan Records, deconstruct the process of building a successful promotion campaign from envisioning the visuals to building the overall marketing strategy.

presentation

Keychange is a pioneering international initiative which transforms the future of music whilst encouraging festivals and music organisations to achieve a 50:50 gender balance by 2022. 74 emerging artists and innovators each year from across Europe and Canada will take part in international festivals, showcase events, collaborations and a programme of creative labs. Keychange aims to accelerate change and create a better more inclusive music industry for present and future generations.

In this workshop, a SACEM shares the mechanisms and services they have accessible concerning the registration of works, collecting and the distribution of copyright.

talk

Given the growing concentration of the live music sector in one or two major companies, independent promoters and club owners face a major challenge: take the check or face the Goliath and risk everything?

talk

Who is representing the rights and common interests of the music sector? Bringing together a group of organizations with this statement, this panel intends to discuss and understand their missions, as well as the struggles that each one of them deals with when it comes to supporting their members, advocating for their interests and acting on their concerns.

talk

Now that artists have the means to become fully made companies, the idea of being their own agents is something many consider. In this panel, we gather agents from internationally renowned agencies to share their expertise on the importance of having an agent that will open doors to the new markets.

talk

Many arts and cultural centres are fostering a move toward a new category of cultural centre, centred on the notion of cultural third places. These are hybrid spaces that offer different social and functional dimensions by combining multiple spaces of knowledge and culture sharing and experimentation, while opening up to public participation and action. In this panel we aim to discuss in which extent these cultural centres play a role in community learning and development and how do they improve new forms of production and distribution of knowledge.

talk

Understanding a music trend implies a complex process of getting back to its origins and tracing evolution from a local level to a global one. On a broader scope, popular music trends often reflect a regional sound, practice or music scene – we’ve seen with punk rock, post-rock, hip-hop and such. Now, as music trends ebb and flow further and further away from the anglo-saxophone roots, how does a music trend thrive and goes from regional to global?

talk

In a context of political conflict and oppression, art and culture face many attacks and threats aiming to repress condemn such forms of expression. Given the rise of political instability all over the world, incidents of censorship and persecution are more frequent than not, which leads us to reflect on the activist role of art and culture in such contexts. Taking from their own personal experiences, we invite three intervenients to answer the question: “where does art stand in a political divisive context?”.

talk

Concerts should be places of togetherness, but accessibility remains an issue in many music venues and events. While technologies might have enhanced accessibility to music consumerism, we tend to forget that physical barriers, lack of inclusive politics, languages and places, anxiety and emotional difficulties, harassment or even unaffordable prices are some of the reasons stopping people to attend their favourite shows. In this panel, we bring together entities that are working together with live music spaces and event in order to address this issue.

talk

[This talk was done online in May 2020 as a MIL URL talk, an online series of five talks that didn’t happen in MIL 2020.]

12 years in, the streaming global markets are now dominating the music industry more than ever before: in a report by the IFPI, streaming revenue account by almost half of global revenue. But, while the success of this market is undeniable, it is also true that there is a slowdown in overall global streaming revenue growth, which means new challenges for these services. On the other hand, the streaming market is becoming even more complex by the day, which might be a challenge for artists to maximize their streaming revenues.

How will the streaming market maintain this growth momentum? What changes and models should be thought out according to the needs of the artists?

talk

Touring is a fundamental source of revenue for musicians. If you want to thrive, you need to get yourself out there and show your music around the world. For many artists, that accounts for a significant amount of rides on an airplane, cars, etc, contributing to the damaging effects on our climate.
So, how can artists rethink their touring practices without jeopardizing their success and income? What does “slow touring” mean and how is it possible to put in practice? Because it’s urgent to do much more than just buy carbon offsets, this panel aims to approach this topic critically.

keynote

[This talk happened in September 2020 in MIL after MIL, a series of workshops, debates and masterclasses in person.]

How can cultural and creative industries be more sustainable? Is the idea of ​​sustainable creativity possible? Lucy Latham, Policy and Cities Programme Lead for Julie’s Bicycle, will feature a keynote presentation on sustainability in the creative and cultural industries sector. Based on the research work that the British charity institution has been carrying out on the environmental impact of this sector, Lucy Latham will present some indicators that demonstrate the dimension of this problem and reflect on how creative communities should reorient their activities, making them more sustainable.

masterclass

[This talk happened in September 2020 in MIL after MIL, a series of workshops, debates and masterclasses in person.]

Small and medium-sized live music venues trigger innovation, provide a platform that allows emergent artists to develop their career and enable the formation of different communities that potentiate creativity. The value of this space in the cities is not only cultural but also economic. Putting this into numbers is crucial to fight the closing of so many cultural spaces.

In this masterclass, Lutz Leichensring focuses on the measurement and indexing of the live music space in the cities, giving the participants a context of his work as co-founder of Creative Footprint and VibeLab. Simultaneously, and considering Creative Footprint’s research developed in cities such as Berlin or New York, the masterclass will provide the methodologies, approaches, and tools used, present its results and impact in the cities, and discuss ways of adapting it to different urban environments.

workshop

Cura Collectif will host a two-part workshop focused on musicians’ health and wellbeing.

Physiotherapy with Coralie Cousin:

“Musicians are “high-level emotional athlete”. In the musician world, it’s common to hear “no pain no gain”.  This is the reason why most musicians feel guilty to speak about their pain and prefer to suffer in silence. Our mission is to work side by side with musicians in order to disrupt this mentality. Because Musicians are “high-level emotional athlete”, their body needs medical help and the right advice. Everyone agrees on one thing: health education should be mandatory in every high-level music school. Today, I’m here to share my testimony about my wonderful 20 years’ experience as a physiotherapist for musicians.”

Nutrition with Sandrine Bileci:

Nutrition is both the fuel and medicine of our bodies and minds. We will cover the role of nutrients in stress management strategies and how to implement them in a life dedicated to music, tour, shows or recording sessions.

P2P came to be considered as the main threat to the music industry. Could Blockchain be the solution? To what extent can decentralized registration protocols help musicians to create and ensure that their rights remain secure? How can governments and their regulatory agencies contribute to a better balance between art and business? Law, culture, technology and entrepreneurship join hands in order to answer all these questions and many more.

Southern Europe is a region with great creative potential, being home to some of the most creative artists in Europe. For this reason, the possibilities for internationalization are multiplying. What, then, are the main characteristics of the Southern European music market and how are music export offices working in order to enhance the export and internationalization of their talents?

[Talk in Portuguese]

Even though there’s a shared language, collaborations between portuguese-speaking countries still have a long way to go. Some agents that have been leading a change in this scenario discuss their projects and the ways they have been creating bridges between the rest of portuguese-speaking countries.

Can creativity have a transformative effect on all aspects of our lives? Do new technologies and innovation enable creative capital and potentiate the growth of art economy?

In this masterclass, Andrew Erskine, a Senior Associate of Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy, approaches the intersections between innovation and the creative economy and how individual and collective creative capital can be unlocked through new uses of technology and how we can create value through culture.

[talk in english]

Merchandising is a marketing tool within the music industries since the 60s. Besides being a way of making revenue, merchandising products work as a brand extension for an artist or label. Nowadays, there are more collaborations between artists and brands, designers or high fashion designers than ever, reinforcing the importance of merch products.

This panel aims to discuss the evolution of merchandising, its relationship with design and fashion and how it serves as a way of commercialization of the artist’s brand.

Artists spend a huge amount of time connecting with their fans and promoting their music online, particularly on social media. Meanwhile, the number of outlets artists can communicate on has multiplied (streaming platforms, concerts etc…) yet the amount of time available to do so has not.

The question today is: does it work? And how can they be sure it’s not just a waste of time? In this masterclass, Emily Gonneau will help artists effectively promote their music by laying out the key data they should be looking at to understand who their fans are, and giving them straightforward practical advice on how to leverage their efforts with a strong Direct To Fan focus.

MIL is also a platform for innovation. But what’s innovation and how to approach it? Joining forces with Start Up Lisboa, Pedro Moura will focus on this big word in 3 acts: first, from the conceptual and theoretical perspective and the practical and methodological perspective. Then, Pedro will focus on real cases presented by fellows from the JUMP programme and the audience will be invited to participate and think critically about the concept.

[interview in portuguese]

José Mário Branco is one of the singer-songwriters who renewed the Portuguese song in the 60s and 70s, being one of the greatest exponents of the Portuguese intervention music.

As an intervenient in concerts or edited albums,  singer-songwriter and/or responsible for musical arrangements, José Mário Branco is the author of a singular work in the Portuguese musical scene.

He worked with several other outstanding artists of intervention music and other genres, namely José Afonso, Sérgio Godinho or Fausto Bordalo Dias. In the same way he composed and sang for theater, cinema and television.

In this keynote interview, Gonçalo Frota and José Mário Branco will not only remember José’s inspiring path but also reflect on his vision about the current popular music.

Pena Schmidt is a music producer from Brazil. He worked for Warner Music, founded the indie label Tinitus and was the presidente of the brazilian Association of Independent Music. Pena was the men behind the growth of bands such as Mutantes and is currently a advisor, researcher and consultant for projects such as Natura Musical, MusicaMinas and Itaucultural. In this interview, Pena will share his visions about the current indie music scene and projects such as The List of the lists.

The interview will be conducted by Henrique Amaro, radio journalist from Antena 3.

In this workshop, Manuel Faria, music producer and specialist in sound engineering, will share technics and methods to better help an artist to make his music sold, shared and consumed.

Publishing and copyright can be a fundamental revenue for artists. In this workshop, Yannick Jame, a specialist in the area of copyrights, will explain the basics of publishing and copyright while giving tools and sharing methods that will help artists taking better advantage of this.

[debate em inglês]

Next Destination presents three cities with music scenes of great vitality and the opportunities they offer for the development of a musical career.

São Paulo is the most populous city in Brazil and South America. Considered one of the main cultural capitals in Latin America, São Paulo is home to the largest market for Brazilian culture, having a rich and diverse music scene, influenced by musical cultures from Worldwide.

Growing Trends reveals three musical trends that are gaining international recognition, their characteristics and the artists responsible for the internationalization of the practice.

What does Brazilian Pop Music sound like? Much more than MPB, the popular music of the largest country in Latin America that is conquering the world is permeated by the rhythms of funk, axé, forró, sertanejo, hip-hop and electronic music.

[Conversa em inglês]

Road life is anything but easy. To the endless hours in an uncomfortable van are added the successive unloading and loading of heavy material, fast food-based meals, or the distance from home. For this very reason, the physical and mental well-being of musicians on tour is an issue of increasing importance within the music industry.

In this conversation, good practices and ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle on the road are discussed.

[conversa em inglês]

The debate on the reform of copyright rules in the EU has been going on for some time and it is not always clear what is at stake: fair remuneration? Transparency for music licensing? One thing is certain: it is a complex and fundamental theme for the music ecosystem, both in Europe and in the rest of the world. This conversation brings together agents who have been at the forefront of this debate in recent years who will present the various outlines of this issue.

Agents of leading artists in the international music scene discuss career management strategies and tools for their artists, taking into account the perspective of the agency of DJs and live bands.

[talk in english]

Next Destination presents three cities with enriched music scenes. Key agents in these markets will explore its main features and opportunities to develop a musical career

Although it remains unknown to many European agents, Taipei has the most influential independent music scene in the Asian continent. The most chilled capital in Asia differentiates from cities such as Shangai, Hong Kong or Seoul because of its bigger investment in live music and independent artistic production.

If it’s true that we have entered a dashboard era in the music industry, as Sam Potts once put it, how have record labels reinvented themselves in the context of music streaming and rethink their conventional approaches in order to answer the needs of these new consumption models?

There’s been said that playlists are the future music consumption. In this ecosystem, curators have a crucial role as gatekeepers, similar to radios and labels: having music highlighted in the right playlist can lead an artist to be discovered by thousands of new fans. A panel of specialists discuss the way playlists are leading to a paradigm shift in the way music is consumed, distributed and created.

Next Destination presents three cities with enriched music scenes. Key agents in these markets will explore its main features and opportunities to develop a musical career.

Luanda is the capital of Angola and the biggest city in the country. Homebase of kuduro and kizomba, Luanda has seen its music scene developing into one that’s diverse and independent.

It’s not always easy to know who to talk to when it comes to financial support for a music project. Be it a tour, an album, a professional organisation, an export initiative… the jungle of music funding can sometimes be quite thick. Local, national, European, public or private, our panel will provide you with a map to navigate this complex landscape, with examples from various countries and various approaches to music funding.

Paul Pacifico is the CEO of the UK’s Association of Independent Music. Previously, he was the CEO of The Featured Artists Coallition and President of the International Artist Organisation. On this keynote, Pacifico explores the topic of criative enterpreneurship in music in the digital era, taking into the account the paradigma shift between the “old” and “new” world.

[conversa em inglês]

In the suburbs of Madrid and Barcelona, ​​a new musical trend is emerging: the spanish trap. Influenced by the sub-genre of transatlantic rap, the spanish trap crosses the trap with reggaeton, salsa and flamenco and the videos of its protagonists reap millions of views on youtube.

Através de oportunidades de concertos, residências, salas de ensaio e estúdios, os espaços dedicados à música desempenham um papel crucial para desenvolver novos talentos. Em alguns países europeus, beneficiam de um apoio nacional para desenvolver essas atividades e construir o terreno para uma florescente cena musical local. Projetos como o Liveurope surgiram justamente para ampliar esse processo e impulsionar as carreiras internacionais de novos artistas europeus em locais icónicos através de suas fronteiras.

Como é que estes espaços, iniciativas nacionais e plataformas europeias trabalham para apoiar melhor os talentos promissores (locais ou internacionais)? E como novos artistas podem se beneficiar desse tipo de apoio?

Europe is going through a period of crisis and discredit. Following the austerity crisis, populism has regained strength, several countries are experiencing an identity crisis and there is, let us admit, no signs of optimism or hope. This panel reflects on this scenario and the possibilities to counter it. What if culture is the answer?

In 2018, SIM SÃO PAULO launched its research center, the only one in Brazil dedicated 100% to data collection, studies and mapping of the Brazilian music market, sponsored by Natura Musical, supported by J.Leiva Cultura & Esporte, by Sympla and directed by Fabiana Batistela and Dani Ribas. In the last edition of the event, in December last year, the results of his first two projects were presented: “The Music Market of São Paulo – Part I, Live Music Venues” and “The Map of Brazilian Festivals”. For MIL, DATA SIM will present part of these two surveys, highlighting the space occupied by international artists in these two scenarios, in addition to showing how data can help us to create exchange strategies between Brazil and Portugal.

The number of music festivals is multiplying at such a fast pace that it is increasingly difficult to handle all events. So, what determines the success of a music festival? Bob Van Heur (Le Guess Who?), Tom Michelberger (PEOPLE Festival) and Márcio Laranjeira (Tremor) discuss innovative and transdisciplinary forms of curation and the importance of space in creating a unique experience at music festivals.

[debate em inglês]

Excessive use of drugs and alcohol, sexual harassment or problems with sound and sustainability are some of the challenges that night clubs, theaters and festivals face in order to create a safe environment. In Safe Environment for the Dancefloor, lines of action and solutions are discussed to allow action on these and other issues.

[Conversa em inglês]

In a time when social media and multimedia platforms that encourage user-generated content in its various formats are multiplying, audiovisual content gains a priority place within the artists’ communication strategy as a brand, allowing artists to maintain frequent contact with their audience.

This panel brings together experts with inspiring content projects to discuss how content creation can complement the creative process of artists.

Music journalism has undergone so many changes in the past decade that it is difficult to define today. This panel will explore the recent transformations in this area, what it means to be music journalism today and what the future holds for the next generations of taste makers and trendsetters.

Leave your worries at the door, and welcome to the future of music journalism.

Contrary to what many might say, music jornalismo is alive and kicking. However, changes occured in the digital era have obliged to rethinking what approaches allow publications to be sucessful and readapted to new formats.

In this theoretical-pratical class, Simon Reynold, music critic since the ‘80s, will explore the basics of music journalism and its current state, offering tools and methods for making better reviews and develop publications.

[Talk in English]

Spacemen 3 was just the beginning of a brilliant path for the producer and musician Pete Kember (Sonic Boom). After the end of the group, Kember started new projects where ccontinuously explored his unique vision on music and sound. Besides his prolific career as a musician, he has a vast curriculum of collaborations with artists such as MGMT or Panda Bear. In this keynote interview, Pete Kember will go a few decades back to the Spacemen 3’s era and reflect on his current vision about music and sound, as well as the role of the music producer.

Digital creates new opportunities for career development for artists. Collective management plays a key role in this new economic reality: new ways of collecting and distributing rights, new opportunities to promote works, new schemes to support artists … How to optimize the management of digital rights for artistic development?

Touring is every band’s dream. Traveling around (and maybe conquering) different regions, reaching new audiences and breaking down cultural barriers, and sometimes linguistic, is a challenge that isn’t suited for everyone. Three national bands that have toured outside Portugal share their stories, experiences and DIY methods, showing how it is possible to reach international circuits by themselves.

José Fortes is an outstanding portuguese music producer. He was the man behind the recording and production of some of our most important artists from the 60’s, 70’s and 80s, such as José Mário Branco, Paulo de Carvalho, Amália, Heróis do Mar, Mão Morta or Sérgio Godinho. He is still an active producer, working with José Palma and Lavoisier in his studio-van.

2016, 80min.

Time Will Burn tells the almost forgotten history of the Brazilian alternative rock at the beginning of the 90s. Independent bands that played their guitars at high volume, sang in english and produced their own shows were responsible for the making of an urgent and visceral music scene that got the attention of the media.

An intense period in the Brazilian music starred by bands such as Pin Ups, Killing Chainsaw, Second Come and Mickey Junkies. A chapter that was hidden is finally captured in a documentary.

2016, 100min.

Electronic music is twice as old as rock n’ roll and, in Portugal, before its commercial emergency, many were the intervenients that tried to broaden their musical lexicon.

“Tecla Tónica” explores the alchemy of electronic music in Portugal and its intervenients whilst drawing the genesis of a machine like a synthesizer.  Registering the timeline of the technological evolution of the genre, this documentary travels through 80s electronic pop, by the emersion of sampling, culminating in the dancefloor’s freedom. Directed and produced by Eduardo Morais, the documentary comes from a sinergy between himself and Jameson Irish Whiskey during the year of 2015 and features musicians like Carlos Maria Trindade, José Cid, Carlos Zingaro, Vítor Rua, Tó Pereira, Moullinex and many others that represent this genre in Portugal.

Rock has never been so Brazilian … and Brazil has never been so rock’n’roll as in data from the 1990s. Raimundos, Chico Science, Skank, Planet Hemp, Mundo Livre S / A and several other young bands changed the way to make electric music in the country, with much more originality and international quality.

The fourth film by journalist Ricardo Alexandre tells this whole story from a smaller story: that of Banguela Records, the label that the Titans created alongside producer Carlos Eduardo Miranda, launching bands such as Raimundos, Maskavo Roots, Graforreia Xilarmônica and others .

 

Liveurope, founded in 2014, is membership organisation that works as a quality label to guarantee the commitment of venues with the promotion of European diversity. The aim of Liveurope is to increase the inclusion of new and emerging European artists in the regular programming of clubs and venues, helping them to reach new audiences beyond the borders of their countries.

Since 2016, Musicbox has developed LIVEUROPE CHAPTERS, a series of mini-documentaries with some of the bands that played at the Lisbon venue. The videos work as a visual representation of what Liveurope stands for, exploring the relationships between the bands, Musicbox, the city of Lisbon and Europe.

Different media specialized in music are using tools and communication strategies carried out in order to spread their contents in the digital era. Given the tendency to adopt standardized formats that are highly dependent on social networks, what are the differentiating factors that diverge media nowadays and how the music critics adjust to this new formats?

A panel with some of the best european agents get together in this talk and share about their secret methods and practices to get their artists on international circuits as well as the components behind the selection of artists to work with.

Brazil is the biggest music market in Latin America, being on the top performing global markets for recorded music. Outstanding players in brazilian music market are responsible for propelling the exportation of this market’s features and specificities.

 

The digitization of music changed the way we consume and produce music, thought as more democratic and accessible. With the emergence of streaming services, artists can benefit from these platforms where it’s possible to distribute music at low cost, giving them the means that rule out the need to be associated with any publisher or other intermediary. But can we talk about independence?

In a period in which the freedom of the Internet and the limits of its neutrality are at stake, we aim to discuss whether the digitization of music has given way to the democratization of music, allowing another form of indie being and its limits. Given the importance of metadata management, it will also be discussed and metadata are addressed by these services and how can artists benefit from them.

[Talk in English] 

Small and medium-sized music venues play a vital role in a healthy urban ecosystem, fomenting the development of a local ethos and creating tourism opportunities. Besides that, venues are spaces of experimentation where artists are given the opportunity of gaining audiences, contributing crucially to the establishment of specific music circuits. However, this portion of live music sector is being affected by cultural policies that tend to favour music festivals and arenas.

The role of music venues in energizing the city’s cultural fabric is discussed by Sérgio Hydalgo from Galeria Zé dos Bois, Philip Kolvin QC, Former Charmain of London’s Nigh Time Comission, and Audrey Guerre from Live DMA, an european network focused on promoting and defending the live music sector. Paulo Furtado (The Legendary Tigerman), an established artist that continues to prefer tours around small and medium-sized venues, will also take part in this talk.

[Talk in English] 

What’s your dream creative job? Want to know how to get it in just a few easy steps? The “Communication And Content Creation Masterclass” draws from Keith Vaz’s vast experience in the sectors of; the Music Industry, Social Media Industry, Filmmaking & Content Creation, Business & Team Management, and Commercials Directing in the Film Industry. Keith will share learnings and tangible takeaways from each sector, and most importantly, the secret keys and insider tricks for “How To Get Any Creative Job You Desire”… the overarching theme of this masterclass.

 

As the music industry revenue recorded its second year of growth in 2016, music rights management is more than ever crucial for artists and music business professionals. Copyright revenue is the result of good copyright management. This starts with how the works are registered, but that is not all. How can we collectively deal with this increasingly challenging, complex and more and more international rights’ management?

SIM São Paulo invites for a networking session with Brazil. ATR will held a dj set.

Alain Lahana is a concert promoter. When he was 17, he started to organise alternative gigs in Toulouse (France), which helped him land a job as part of the management team for Magma at 19. Alain has had many prestigious collaborations, from David Bowie, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode and Phil Collins.

In 1977, he created the first Punk festival in France with artists such as Clash, Police, The Damned, The Jam…

He went on to create Rat des Villes, promoting memorable concerts (his first at the Stade du France was in 1998 with the Rolling Stones), managing and producing artists (Carla Bruni, Paul Personne, Stephan Eicher) and promoting shows for Patti Smith, Iggy & the Stooges, Ayo, Rachid Taha, Saul Williams, Féfé, Zaza Fournier, GiedRé…

A life in the service of the music and the artists and so many stories to share.

Contrary to the idea that musicians are becoming disconnected to politics, there are artists and others music agents focused on restoring the idea of music as a politicised space. In this debate, artists that embrace collective activist actions and representatives of festivals whose programme addresses social causes discuss the impact that results from this political attitude.

While the EU is at a crossroads between conflicting political visions, the debate on European values and identity has never been higher on the agenda. Culture, once a non-subject in the EU policy debate, is becoming a hot topic in this context. And music, being one of the biggest cultural and creative sectors, is now at the center of the stage.

“Music Moves Europe” is the action carried out by the European Union to pave the way for a fully-fledged European music funding programme after 2020. Initially developed in 2016 through meetings with key European music industry stakeholders to identify the main challenges facing the sector, this ambition action has received funding from the European Parliament to develop pilot activities in 2018. In times of changing dynamics in the industry, the Music Moves Europe action could dramatically change the way music operators are supported, funded and promoted at European level and beyond.

Our high-level panel of speakers will address the EU’s new strategy to support the music sector, the various challenges ahead, and the ambitious goal to set up the first ever European funding instrument for all the branches of the music ecosystem.

[Talk in English] 

Cape Verde has a rich music heritage, being the birthplace of funaná, coladera, morna and batuque. Its music identity reflects the region’s diversity. The island’s music scene is starting to becoming more known through the new trends that aim to go beyond world music, resulting in a fusion of traditional and contemporary styles. The Cape Verdean music scene is introduced by key players on the promotion and research for this country’s old and new best kept secrets.

 

Matthew Errington, Director of School of Music Business of London, shares his know-how about music marketing strategies that can help constructing the brand identity of a band. Matthew is also working as an artist manager. Matt will answer one of the common questions he gets asked: what is my brand and how do I define it, refine it, and implement it?

Drawing from his own career, he will explain the three important elements of discovering your brand identity and why it’s so important. Then, look at how to skillfully implement it for maximum effect and examining why brand in music is more important than ever, in this streaming dominated world, and how some changes can take you from a few hundred plays to millions.

The Brazilian Music Market is the biggest market in Latin America and holds a position within the top 10 biggest music markets in the phonograph industry. Get a chance to know the brazilian professionals that are responsible for the exportation of the brazilian music.

Professionals: Juliano Zappia (Sete Mares), Eduardo Porto (Let’s Gig/ Festival Contato), Fabiana Batistela (SIM SÃO PAULO), Fabricio Nobre (Festival Bananada), Andre Bourgeois (Urban Jungle), Rodrigo da Matta (BossaFM) and Anabela Cunha (Connecting Dots).

Join the Spanish delegates for a networking reception. Professionals from Mercat de Musica Viva de Vic, Monkey Week or Charco Musica have already confirmed their presence.

For years, options for the future of the musical industry have been imagined. But the digital revolution disrupted the musical landscape. Commercial flows changed and are now in different hands. Transparency and equal distribution of the music industry’s resources and revenues are some of the preoccupations that affect the industry in the digital era and will be debated in this session.

What are the main characteristics and behaviours of the largest Portuguese-speaking music market? How does it relate to the rest of the world, and what are the best strategies to reach it? A panel of Brazilian professionals will talk about the actual market in Brazil and speak about the opportunities the music industry offers in the country.
*This panel was co-organized by MIL and Adriana Belic.

Many artists build their careers in a particular place but, at the same time, they have ambition to go further afield and win international recognition. How does one plan an international campaign in a way that it reaches the main European and international markets? This talk gathers a panel of international experts and professionals from different sectors of the music industry, to present and talk about the various types of campaigns and key strategies to promote artists and their work internationally.

How can a city become more attractive to artists and the public? What factors and mechanisms are behind the transformation of a city into a creative and artistic hub? MIL’s first edition will bring together a group of professionals that will analyse these questions – approaching them through economical, political, artistic, social and demographic criteria from different cities of the world – to better comprehend the city as an important creative and artistic hub.

This session will explore the role of politics in the music industry, and consider how this relationship operates in different regions of the world. At a time where public subsidies for the cultural and creative sectors are decreasing, we need to think about new, alternative ways to distribute the available resources. Is there a better way of rethinking city planning and reassessing social and cultural politics, in order to achieve new cultural ambitions?

The advent of digital technology brought radical changes to the relationship between the different elements inside the music industry. In this debate, the role of the independent labels and their relationship with the music industry will be discussed. With the economic crisis, the major record labels partially resigned their role of monitoring artists they represented. Did these developments benefit or paralyse the progress of independent labels? How do these independent bodies contribute to the creative process? Moreover, how do they see their future in the digital era?

One role of the manager is to adapt to the artist’s reality. Nowadays, the artist-manager relationship is constantly challenged by new elements like new technologies, the economic crisis or the countless possibilities that social networks provide. What is the primary role of a manager in an artist’s career? Fund debut singles? Negotiate new contracts? Produce videos and social media content? What is the manager’s role in collecting royalties and related rights? Does the manager need to master every trick in the industry’s commercial playbook? Based on these questions, the relationship between the artist and the manager will be debated, taking into consideration the constant mutations that the sector itself imposes upon the artist and the creative process, plus production and distribution.
*This panel curated by ETIC.

The idea of a market with 270 million consumers is subject to debate and represents new opportunities. This session proposes a reflection on the main characteristics of the different Portuguese-speaking language markets.
*This panel was co-organized by MIL and Adriana Belic.

Through history, different rhythms and cultures crossed paths in Portuguese speaking territories, leading to much diversity and new cultural expressions. In time these have been translated into innovative musical languages. In this debate, we propose a chronological journey through the history of Lusophonic sounds, guided by journalists and programmers who will share music and rhythms that mirror the originality and creativity of musical production in these countries.

In this session, the Portuguese music industry will be debated. How well are we doing and where are we going? Through a reflection on the problems that affect the sector and an analysis of good practices, this conversation aims to examine the present and future the music industry in Portugal.
*This panel curated by Why Portugal.

What are the main criteria for booking an artist for a festival? What are the possible scenarios? What problems and approaches can we anticipate? From sales to social media interaction and press coverage, which are the most relevant audience indicators? How does the relationship between the music programmer and the other professionals of the sector affect their work? These and other questions will be debated by a group of European programmers who will meet to talk about their work and share their vision about the main challenges of the art of music programming.