With only 6 weeks to go until The Great Escape 2014, organisers today confirmed the remaining four topics that will be explored during the focused half-day convention strands, which will be presented to the festival’s 3000+ industry delegates 8-10 May, when it returns to Brighton for the 9th year running.
Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines was the biggest and arguably most controversial song of 2013. Its critics accused the track and accompanying video of misogyny, triggering widespread debates about the portrayal of women in pop music. Hosted by BBC Radio 1 DJ Jen Long, the suitably titled ‘Blurred Lines: Does pop have a misogyny problem?’ will unite artists, journalists, campaigners and leading music industry heads to form a definitive take on this issue, questioning whether the industry should take a collective stand and addressing the possible side effects on the creative freedom of artists, both male and female.
Sitting alongside the Blurred Lines debate are the newly announced half-day strands, as well as already confirmed Global Digital Markets and Maximising Music Rights.
Building A Fan Business will take a look at how digital channels are enabling a direct-to-fan revolution that is changing the way artists interact and transact with their fans, with a keynote from Sam Taylor of CMU Insights explaining how ‘fandom’ really works.
New Product Strategies will be jam packed with ideas on how artists and their business partners can truly add value to core fanbase with new products and services, opening up a plethora of exciting creative and commercial opportunities.
Lastly, The Festival Business will provide an insightful exploration into festival opportunities in emerging markets and the new alternative ‘winter circuit’, plus the marketing challenges for events in crowded calendars and artists on busy line-ups.
This complete set of strands has been engineered specifically to give this year’s delegates the opportunity to delve deeper into key music business topics.
To find out more in depth information on each strand at this year’s Great Escape convention visit www.greatescapefestival.com/convention/
For the complete 2014 line up see www.greatescapefestival.com/line-up/
