Athens Music Week
MESO Events in partnership with Technopolis City of Athens | Athens, Greece
Athens Music Week (AMW) is a boutique conference and showcase festival held annually in the heart of the city. The event spans various iconic locations and has become a focal point for the local, Balkan and Mediterranean music community with a door always open to global players.
Combining a Showcase and Festival philosophy with the “problem-solving” orientation of a Music Conference, Athens Music Week encompasses arts, heritage, innovation, technology, and urban/folk culture, along with various entertainment-driven topics. All, perfectly balanced within a hybrid environment that accelerates entrepreneurship, collaboration, and meaningful social interactions. The program includes a city festival and a showcase that sees over 2.000 visitors and an international music conference with more than 400 delegates for three days. With a rich history of successful editions, AMW continues to celebrate the spirit of music, art, and creativity.
Athens Music Week is run by the non-profit association MESO Events in partnership with Technopolis City of Athens.
Africa Rising Music Conference
Africa Rising Music Conference | Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
The Africa Rising Music Conference is a female and queer- led conference taking place every year in May in Johannesburg, South Africa. The conference unfolds through two vibrant programs: “ARMC by Day” comprises enlightening keynote speeches, thought-provoking panel discussions, and immersive workshops, while “ARMC by Night” comes alive with electrifying artist performances.
In ARMC’s most recent edition, its primary focus revolved around Building Bridges, seeking to unite diverse musical narratives, Amplifying Female Voices to shine a spotlight on the formidable influence of women in music, and Fostering Independence while Driving Innovation to empower artists and creators in navigating the ever-evolving music landscape.
BIME
LAST TOUR / FUNDACIÓN INDUSTRIAS CREATIVAS | Bilbao, Spain; Bogotá, Colombia
BIME is the festival of conferences on music, technology, entrepreneurship and live concerts organized by the Creative Industries Foundation, and which was born in 2013, with 12 editions so far. BIME has two annual editions, based in Bilbao and Bogota; in addition to an online platform, being a meeting point for industry professionals throughout the year. In the past year, BIME has
attracted more than 6,000 delegates from 50 countries.
In addition, BIME has grown exponentially over the years, attracting the largest contingent of the
Latin music industry in Europe. Finally, BIME also hosts a festival of showcases that, for 4 days, flooding the city in different concert halls and outdoor stages. In 2022 125 artists performed on the different stages of BIME.
The Creative Industries Foundation was created with the purpose of contributing to the development of culture as a basis for social transformation, providing spaces, resources, experiences and networks for the exchange of knowledge, information and values among professionals of the CCIs and society in general.
We want to position culture and creativity in a priority space at a social, political and economic level, to achieve a more cohesive, fair, innovative and positive society, able to look to the future with imaginative solutions to the challenges to be faced.
eAST EUROPEAN
MUSIC CONFERENCE
ARTmania Events SRL | Sibiu, Romania
Emerging from a difficult but necessary sabbatical, East European Music Conference & Showcase Festival (EEMC) is coming back in 2023 with a bang. Currently on its fifth edition, EEMC is working towards growing an international alliance of music industry professionals, authorities and artists, to the benefit of everyone in the music business, regardless of their role. Established 6 years ago as a way to improve industry know-how and set up support systems for professionals and artists in Romania, EEMC brought about an active dialogue platform between music industry entities in our country and in Europe, establishing a successful connection between the private enterprises and public authorities relevant to our sector. The conference’s aim is to identify, together with its guests, healthy long term solutions, in order to develop the creative and cultural industries, with a focus on the music and festival industry, respectively. A European event by excellence, EEMC has brought together industry experts, state authorities involved in the creative sector regulation, Romanian promoters, as well as the main international festival operators.
EEMC was created by ARTmania, the name behind many music industry advances in Romania, from events, to policy changes. Over the years ARTmania has developed or co-organized important projects like ARTmania Festival Sibiu, the oldest post-communist rock music festival in Romania, considered a landmark of the genre, Blaj aLive, a world music festival, His Holiness’ Pope Francis Holy Mass in Romania (Liberty Field, 2019), and music industry conferences.
ESNS
Stichting Eurosonic Noorderslag | Groningen, The Netherlands
ESNS is a non-profit, European artist only, 100% showcase festival and music conference. Selling out each year, ESNS attracts over 4.000 professional delegates, including 400 international festivals, and showcases around 350 European artists to over 40.000 visitors in total.
FIFTY LAB MUSIC FESTIVAL
Animacy ASBL | Brussels, Belgium
Fifty Lab Music Festival is an annual, multi-genre music festival for emerging artists, uniting curious music lovers and (inter)national industry professionals in the heart of Brussels to discover their next favourite music act during 3 days in November since 2019.
Unique to Fifty Lab is its programming. Each year, 20 different festivals from Belgium and beyond are invited to share their musical crushes with Fifty Lab. To the 20 names that come out of these (inter)national exchanges, Fifty Lab adds 40 more with careful consideration. The resulting mix is a future-proof line-up of local and international talents of a multitude of genres, genders, sexualities, racial origins and heritages. The event is produced by Animacy ASBL, a nonprofit organization founded by Mathieu Fonsny and Laetitia Van Hove.
fira B!
Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics | Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands
Fira B!, the music and performing arts showcase festival and conference of the Balearic Islands, is organized by the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics, an institution of the Government of the Balearic Islands that has as its main aim to present the culture of the Balearic Islands outside of the region. To that end, the showcase side of the event presents around 55 showcases of all styles of music, of which around 60% are by artists from the region, but also hosts over 30% showcases by artists from all over Europe. The conference side has an attendance of over 500 delegates, with over 100 guests from all around the world. It includes over 40 activities of various sorts (workshops, panels, presentations, interviews, etc.).
FOCUS Wales
FOCUS Music Cymru Cyf. | Wrexham, Wales, UK
FOCUS Wales is an organization, established to provide the annual new music showcase event for the Welsh Music Industry. Our core work centres around the delivery of our international multi-venue showcase festival taking place in Wrexham each year, which places the music industry spotlight firmly on the emerging talent that Wales has to offer the world, alongside a selection of the best new acts from across the globe. FOCUS Wales 2024 will mark the festival’s 14th year, and will welcome over 20,000 people to the town, building upon 2023’s record attendance across a jam-packed weekend of events.
There’s no place like Wrexham during FOCUS Wales, as we showcase 250+ artists from across the world, fill out a variety of spaces and music venues, using 20 stages, and hosting a full schedule of interactive industry sessions, arts events, and film screenings, throughout the festival. In addition to the delivery of the FOCUS Wales festival, we also deliver a number of international FOCUS Wales events throughout the year under the #WelshMusicAbroad banner.
Future Echoes Sweden
Discover Sensation | Norrköping, Sweden
Future Echoes is an international showcase festival in Norrköping, Sweden. The festival will be held in March 2024 on its third edition and also contains a songwriting camp called Future Songs. The festival has around 100 artists from around the world and an international music conference with international speakers for three days. The festival is held at several venues in central Norrköping which is a UNESCO Creative City.
Future Echoes is run by the non-profit association Discover Sensation.
Future Music Forum
Future Music Forum | Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
Future Music Forum is the ultimate music industry lifestyle event, promising an unforgettable experience! FMF is a meeting point for music industry professionals whose objective is to reflect on the constant change in the musical ecosystem.
Held annually in Barcelona, since 2010, the event offers talks and workshops aimed at electrifying businesses and helping attendees gain invaluable career strategies, forge powerful connections, and lead the music industry.
jazzahead!
MESSE BREMEN – M3B GmbH | Bremen, Germany
jazzahead! is an industrial gathering for the international jazz scene including 40 showcases and a conference program held at MESSE BREMEN in Bremen, Germany since 2006. In 2023 jazzahead! celebrated its 17th edition with more than 2.800 delegates from 51 nations, over 420 musicians and speakers from around the globe. In parallel to the trade fair jazzahead! also presents a cultural festival program with a lot more concerts (around 100) and other cultural events and performances in the city of Bremen. During the festival period 2023 around
10.000 visitors attended the shows.
An annual changing partner country is at the center of the trade fair and the festival, in 2024 this honor is given to the Netherlands.
Linecheck Music Meeting & Festival
Music Innovation Hub SpA | Milan, Italy
Since 2015, Linecheck has been a platform for the international visibility of the Italian music industry, a meeting place for professionals and music lovers and a moment to reflect on content and innovation in the music industry.
The Milan based event is a celebration of talent, creativity and new ideas, the ultimate meeting place between professionals and enthusiasts of not just the music sector, but an incubator for dialogues between music, creative, technology and cultural industries, bridging the gaps between Italy, other European countries and the rest of the world.
Linecheck is a Meeting by day, an essential fixture on the Italian music business calendar, and a Festival by night, a unique opportunity to learn about innovative sounds and discover new talents. Linecheck is also a showcase for the best innovative businesses and start-ups in the industry and is dedicated to all those who want to find out which way change is heading.
Linecheck is produced by Music Innovation Hub, the first social enterprise in Italy dedicated to music.
MaMa Music & Convention
MaMa Event | Paris, France
With more than 6,500 attending professionals in 2021, MaMA is the greatest French gathering of the music industry: french and internationals, independent and major record companies, concert venues, festivals, producers, agents, managers, music publishers, digital services Companies, regional/local authorities, trade unions, broadcasters, the private sector, subsidized institutions… and of course artists.
By day, MaMA suggests a conference program featuring over 40 international speakers and 170 panels, keynotes, workshops, match-making sessions and cocktails for music industry actors. Music industry highlights will be covered such as: finance and values, marketing and communication, innovation and data, entrepreneurship, brands and media, international markets, publishing, cultural policies, synchro, creation and autoproduction.
m4music
Migros Culture Foundation | Zurich, Switzerland
m4music, founded in 1998, is the most important networking music festival in Switzerland. Taking place in Zurich by the End of March, m4music consists of 50 shows, a Conference, and the competitions Demotape Clinic and Best Swiss Video Clip. It is frequented every year by more than 1’000 professionals (delegates), and ca. 5’500 music fans.
The event is produced by Migros Culture Foundation, the private foundation of Switzerland’s largest retailer. One of the main partners is Swiss Music Export.
Most Wanted: Music
Berlin Music Commission | Berlin, Germany
Most Wanted: Music (MW:M) – Berlin’s festival on the future of the music biz – is the most important music business conference in Berlin and a rising European hot spot event for music and creative industry professionals worldwide. It is run by the Berlin Music Commission, the music industry network of Berlin an behalf of the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises.
Most Wanted: Music aims to start building the music and creative industries of tomorrow, where
collaboration is not merely about working together but creating new with modern goals and rallying around a new ethos. MW:M’s key objectives are: enabling practical know-how transfer, fostering networking and exchange and inspiring new ideas and business models. MW:M is regularly happening in Oct/Nov every year. 2023 was the 10th edition with more than 3.000 registered attendees – off- and online.
The conference called MW:M Convention is accompanied by the Listen to Berlin: Awards, the awards for remarkable achievements in the Berlin music scene, and MW:M Live, Berlin’s international showcase event, as well as the MW:M Satellites, a broad variety of partner events distributed around the entire city of Berlin.
Primavera Pro
Held in Barcelona as part of Primavera Sound, the event serves as a meeting point to connect, share knowledge, and generate ideas, establishing itself as the premier platform for the internationalization of talent. The event encompasses a range of cross-disciplinary activities open to accredited professionals, including panels, networking sessions, conferences, workshops, mentoring sessions, showcases, and cocktail parties. The goal is to strengthen industry knowledge and contribute to its transformation.
Each year, the event attracts 3,500 accredited professionals to Barcelona, driven by the quality of activities and speakers, as well as showcases featuring talent from around the globe. Naturally, they also come to enjoy the unique experience offered by Primavera Sound festival.
Reeperbahn Festival
Inferno Events GmbH & Co. KG | Hamburg, Germany
Since its debut in 2006, Reeperbahn Festival has grown to become one of the most important meeting places for the music industry worldwide and boasts a broad spectrum of emerging and more established artists. It is today one of the world’s largest music business conferences and a great networking initiative for the internationalization of the German and European music business with partners in the USA, the African continent and China.
The Reeperbahn Festival conference, designed for professionals active in the music and creative digital industries has become one of the leading European music business conferences. The programme addresses all relevant submarkets of the sector recorded music, live entertainment, publishing, and digital distribution. It comprises a programme of 350 individual events (2019) which are realized in various existing venues around the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. In the last full-fledged edition (2019) the conference hosted 5900 participants from 55 countries representing around 1,800 companies and organizations. Information exchange and knowledge transfer, network building and expansion as well as the presentation of the artistic product are the three essential functions that the conference fulfils for the industry. In addition to around 200 classic conference formats such as lectures, discussion panels and workshops, around one hundred networking events were held, mostly in cooperation with individual industry partners. In another 50 or so showcase events, labels, publishers, music export organizations and others presented new up-and-coming artists. The music industry is a small-scale industry, 90% of which consists of solo self-employed artists and small and medium-sized companies. The Reeperbahn Festival conference supports them in establishing and maintaining contacts and networks, which are prerequisites for new business and ultimately for innovation in this economic sector. Within the framework of sessions, showcases, networking events and award shows, industry visitors to Reeperbahn Festival can listen to, rethink and experience music.
Due to the long-standing close ties of the internal staff of the Reeperbahn Festival with the music industry and the related creative industries, an always up-to-date, high-quality and diverse program is guaranteed. Ever since it started, the Reeperbahn Festival has focused clearly on these fundamental aspects with its diverse public programme put together by its own management team:
- SUSTAINABILITY: Development of sustainable processes and formats of music creation and production
- EQUALITY: Closing the gender gap and achieving gender equality at all levels of music culture and the music business (Reeperbahn Festival is initial partner of the Keychange initiative)
- DIVERSITY: Constantly enabling diversity (in terms of gender and programme line-up) with the aim of creating cultural and living spaces free from prejudice and discrimination
- TALENT FOCUS: Selective and sustainable promotion of talented people for the development and establishment of artistic and cultural identity value chains
SPIKE Bulgarian Music Showcase
SPIKE | Plovdiv, Bulgaria
SPIKE Bulgarian Music Showcase is Bulgaria’s leading showcase festival and music conference. Held annually in May in historic Plovdiv, Bulgaria, SPIKE plays host to music professionals and performers from around the world. SPIKE creates a warm and welcoming environment where attendees can relax, exchange ideas, do business, and create lasting connections, all against the backdrop of a beautiful, ancient city.
In addition to a strong educational component, SPIKE offers a perfect networking opportunity for those interested in the European music market. Plovdiv’s laid-back vibe makes the perfect setting for chance connections over a cup of coffee and long, fruitful conversations.
SPIKE’s showcases take place across five stages and are open to artists from all genres. Its last edition’s performers included heavy metal, J-Pop, hip-hop, folk, rock, electronica, ambient, punk, and pop. Artists are selected by an international jury and care is taken to provide artists with opportunities to connect with the showcases’ delegates.
Tallinn Music Week
Telliskivi Loomelinnak | Tallinn, Estonia
Tallinn Music Week (TMW) is one of the most acclaimed new music and city culture festivals and key networking events for music and creative industry professionals across Europe, held annually in Tallinn since 2009. The festival consists of three main programme parts: music festival, conference and city festival. The event draws music industry audiences across the Baltic-Nordic area as well as Central Eastern Europe and hosts a multi-genre showcase line-up from pop, rock and dance as well as classical music, world music and jazz.
The music festival presents multi-genre acts from all over Europe and beyond in Tallinn’s best concert venues. TMW’s music programme is renowned for its bold mix of unique talent across Europe and beyond with diverse genres from experimental electronica to classical represented. The line-up, selected from applications by a broad-based team of Estonian and international curators, is presented to an audience of around 20,000 festival goers and 1,000 industry professionals from around the globe.
The city festival events introduce diverse neighbourhoods and atmospheres across Tallinn, covering free city stage concerts in unexpected locations and presenting art, public talks, youth and kids programmes and various urban space activities that introduce the city through the lense of creativity.
The conference looks into the impact of arts as an engine for the economy, while offering both inspiration, practical activities and networking opportunities to music professionals, artists, entrepreneurs and policymakers from different areas.
TMW is engaged in introducing sustainable and environmentally conscious thinking in Estonia and beyond. TMW’s strategic partner is the music industry development centre and export office Music Estonia (ME). TMW is a partner festival of the global gender equality initiative Keychange and monitors gender-balanced representation throughout the festival’s line-up. The festival is founded and run by Shiftworks – a company that uses artistic content and creative concepts to initiate positive change through synergy and collaboration.
TMW – Tomorrow’s Music, Arts and Ideas
The Music Imbizo
KZN Music Imbizo (Pty) Ltd. | Durban, South Africa
The Music Imbizo is an international music business conference and exhibition that includes a film and a music festival. The conference is hosted in Durban (South Africa) on the last week of August. It collects various music industry stakeholders under one roof to map new and exciting ways for the music industry in the African continent. It is a platform to exhibit, network, share expertise and knowledge whilst doing business.
For the performing artists, it provides a stage in front of the most influential people in the value chain of the music business plus gives the artists opportunities to experiment with their own audience development.
The conference has grown to attract local and international thought leaders, musicians, brands, partners and sponsors. Yet, The Music Imbizo still finds room to accommodate the industry novice with the relevant workshops, meetings, masterclasses and forums to navigate their entry in the business.
In 15 years, the conference has hosted over 600 speakers from over 50 countries plus hundreds of musicians.
Viva Sounds
Westside Music Sweden | Gothenburg, Sweden
Viva Sounds is an international club festival in Gothenburg happening the first weekend of December. First edition took place in 2017 and it’s been growing organically since. The live program got loads of shows with bands/artists from all over happening in 12 venues within walking/crawling distance from each other. Everybody and anyone interested in music is welcome to be part of it. And oh, folks working the international indie circuit are invited for an intimate music conference with sort of structured networking opportunities, mingles and get-togethers. Next edition, Dec 2023, is likely to see some 125 delegates from 10+ countries present.
The event is produced by Westside Music Sweden, a small company mostly shouting about the (indie) music community. We firmly believe in breaking new ground with friends and partners instead of breaking your own back.
WISE - The Future Festival & Think Tank
WISE | Berlin, Germany
WISE – The Future Festival & Think Tank is a global summit at the intersection of Music, Art & Technology connecting thought leaders of the creative industries, science and the tech community and engaging them in an intersectional, societal dialogue.
Additionally WISE showcases exceptional emerging as well as established creative & diverse talent from Berlin and the world. WISE also consults government institutions, businesses, artists and the global creative community on all things China. WISE helps curate like-minded conferences / festivals and is active in the European Music Export & European Music Tech Community.
WISE was founded in 2018 in Beijing by Philipp Grefer, and will have its third Berlin edition on May 14-15, 2024 (the seventh overall) under the title “Me, Myself & AI”.
