Stepping Out: Music in the new media landscape

Posted: February 11th, 2014 | Filed under: News | Comments Off on Stepping Out: Music in the new media landscape

February 26th in the Auditorium, UCA Epsom

The Fall once sang: “I used to believe everything I read, but that’s all changed and now I’m stepping out.” In the 35 years since Mark E Smith uttered that line the way music is communicated has completely changed – from the three weekly ‘inkies’ to the dazzling array of digital sites we have today. This reflects how much the music industry too has been reconfigured, in the wake of the download revolution.

This Industry Day/conference marks the rapidly shifting landscape for music and media, with panels on the music industry and music writing across platforms.

SESSION 1: 10.30-midday

INDUSTRY PANEL: Is ‘live’ the future of music? moderated by Gareth Thomas (Senior Lecturer, Music Journalism)

The panel looks at the live music industry and its relative health. How is the grassroots scene coping with venue closures and how does that affect the chances for new blood coming through? With live having become the main way bands make money, are they now demanding too much? Is the knock-on effect on ticket prices deterring people from going to gigs? And then there are the ongoing issues around secondary ticketing and festivals finding it harder than ever to book headline acts, due to high fees and exclusivity deals.

Panel: Tom Kiehl (UK Music), Heart Doe (Redfest), Amber KcKenzie (ITB), Rich LeGate (Leefest) and Domenique Czopor (The Boileroom, Guildford)

SESSION 2: Midday-1pm

KEYNOTE LECTURE: Stephen Mallinder: ‘Produsers, Conducers, Prosumers: Working and Living in a Changing Music and Media Ecology’

Once either music producers or consumers, we have collectively become users and sharers. In the ‘perennial present’ of the online world how we perceive the past, place, space and ourselves has dramatically changed. Media once a thing is now a process in which are all, if unwittingly for some, involved. What does this mean for creative production and the challenges for artists and musicians?

Stephen Mallinder is co-founder of avant-noise punks Cabaret Voltaire, and now a producer/DJ/conceptualist and academic.

SESSION 3: 2-4pm

WRITERS’ PANEL moderated by Lucy O’Brien (Course Leader, Music Journalism)

Into the blogosphere. How is current music writing ‘stepping out’?

This panel explores how digital media has changed music writing. Panellists also take us on their personal journey through music and words, and how they see the future for the music press.

John Robb (Louder Than War blogger and singer of postpunk band The Membranes), Jo Fuertes-Knight (Editor of VICE’s Noisey) and Zoe Howe (NME writer and biographer of Wilko Johnson, The Slits and now Stevie Nicks)

Directions: http://www.ucreative.ac.uk/epsom/map

* FREE ENTRY, but please book with [email protected], so we know numbers.

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