TGE announces initial speakers and more for 2019
The Great Escape (TGE) has announced details regarding this year’s conference programme, including initial speakers, daily itineraries and music industry partners. The event will take place from 8 to 11 May in Brighton, UK.
Speakers will share insights, case studies and opinions related to the festival’s three key themes for 2019: music education, digital dollars and music marketing. The first 40 speakers include Virgin EMI Records’ Andy Knox, Insanity Group founder and chief executive Andy Varley, Fuga founder Dorothee Imhoff, Live Nation’s Jackie Wilgar and Warner Music’s Tim Fraser-Harding.
CMU Insights will launch three pieces of original research during TGE, including the first report from the ‘Redefining Music Education’ project, a ‘Song Royalties Guide’ explaining how artists are paid by streaming platforms and ‘Rethinking Music Marketing’, a new report examining the evolution of music marketing companies in the streaming era.
Speakers will share insights related to three key themes: music education, digital dollars and music marketing
At the heart of the conference are three full-day strands, each one focused on a different key theme and ending with a one-on-one interview. TGE has announced that Cassandra Gracey, president of Sony Music’s 4th Floor Creative division, will conclude the strand on music marketing.
TGE have confirmed 68 music industry partners, including BBC Music, AIM, The Box Fresh Network, Clash and Dork. Two of the partners, Believe and Julie’s Bicycle, have teamed up with TGE to stage a charity bike ride from London to Brighton this year.
The bike ride will raise money for London-based NGO Julie’s Bicycle, empowering the creative community to take action on climate change and environmental sustainability. The money raised will go towards their Green Rider initiative; a campaign that helps touring artists to work alongside venues, festivals, labels and promoters to become more sustainable.
All 2019 core conference sessions and networking events will take place at TGE’s new home at the Jury’s Inn Brighton Waterfromt, the official delegate portal and hotel. Early bird delegate passes are now available, along with hotel packages and conference only options.
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TGE reveals conference themes for 2019
Following last week’s First Fifty artist announcement, the Great Escape (TGE) has announced the key themes for the 2019 conference, which takes place in Brighton, UK, from 8 to 11 May.
Australia has also been announced as lead country partner for the event, following the Netherlands this year and Switzerland in 2017.
The 2019 themes, with descriptions courtesy of TGE, are:
- Music Education: Building Bridges not Walls (Wednesday 8 May)
The Great Escape Conference on music education in 2018 started a movement. In 2019 The Great Escape will regroup with new research and new ideas. How can music educators and the music business more closely align to ensure the future of the industry’s talent pipeline? - Digital Dollars: Getting Paid as well as Played (Thursday 9 May)
Streaming is now the biggest and fastest-growing revenue stream for the record industry, but issues with the business model remain. The Great Escape Conference will track every dollar generated by the streaming services and explain where it ends up. And then ask: why is it so complicated? - Music Marketing: Make Sure People Give a Shit (Friday 9 May)
Music marketing is changing fast. The influencers are changing. The messages are changing. Campaigns are getting longer. How do you keep up and cope when budgets remain the same? And how can marketers at labels and in the live music sector better collaborate?
Initial speakers will be announced in early 2019.
Rory Betts, CEO of organiser MAMA Festivals, comments: “We’re really proud to have a truly distinct conference programme at the Great Escape by ensuring that we have the time to dig deep into the key issues and trends of the day. When we put the focus on education in 2018, it really felt like we started a movement to more closely align music education with the music industry, so it’s great to be able to further that debate in 2019.
Meanwhile, I think we can all agree that for new artists, the big two challenges are getting noticed and getting paid – two things that will be at the fore with our full-day conferences on digital dollars and music marketing.”
All 2019 core conference sessions and networking events will take place at the Jury’s Inn Brighton Waterfront, the official delegate portal and hotel. Delegates passes are on sale now.
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