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Great Escape conference event announced
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 17 February 2009
Now, I’ve been to so many music business conventions over the years there are very few debates, keynotes and panel events I haven’t already seen, but this one I’m rather interested in attending.
Among the conference events due to take place at this year’s The Great Escape will be one where two execs from Limewire, the last big name in old school P2P file sharing, sit down with leading artist manager Pete Jenner to discuss the rights, wrongs, past and future of file sharing. They’ll also be showcasing the next generation of Limewire P2P software.
The US record industry’s lawsuit against Limewire is still going through the motions, and if and when it gets to court it could be even bigger news than the current Pirate Bay trial. To have reps from the P2P firm at an event like The Great Escape is quite exciting. And you never know, we might discover there’s some common ground worth exploring between the music firms present and the record industry’s biggest filesharing foe.
The Limewire session is just one of a string of events that have been announced as appearing during the daytime part of this year’s The Great Escape which, as previously reported, takes place in Brighton from 14-16 May.
Other events include Jon Savage talking to Jah Wobble, a session from PRS For Music’s top economist Will Page on the rights and wrongs of the much touted Long Tail theory, producer John Leckie leading a session on the music industry in India, and MUSExpo chief Sat Bisla discussing the US music market.
Oh, and the CMU Insights, with CMU editor Chris Cooke talking in-depth to key music business people. That bit’s going to be extra good, but you didn’t need us to tell you that did you?
Another interesting session will be a case study on the MAMA Group, the ever-growing music firm behind The Great Escape itself. MAMA are, of course, an increasingly important player in the UK music industry, especially in the live and management sectors, though this session will look in particular at the firm’s main media asset, the good old Fly magazine.
Various people will take part, including current The Fly editor Niall Doherty and MAMA Digital Development Director Lisa Chadwick. Actually, I should do that one too, I reckon I know more about The Fly and MAMA than anyone who works there, having been reporting on them throughout much of their history. Perhaps I’ll suggest it to them.
In addition to the formal conference proceedings, there will be an ‘artist village’ at this year’s The Great Escape where there’ll be various events and networking opportunities for artists and industry delegates, some aimed at newcomers to the music business, including the always good value CMU Beginners Guide To The Music Business.
The daytime conference bit of The Great Escape, of course, complements the gigs that take place across Brighton in the evening. Bands due to play this year include Metronomy, Kissy Sell Out, Michachu & the Shapes, Future of the Left and Passion Pit.
