Sound City: A festival of trade as well as great music
Source: Kevin McManus, Liverpool Vision's Head of Creative and Digital
It was great last week to see Sound City announce their high profile industry speakers for the New York Sound City event in March.
It’s impressive to see how far the company has come in the short space of five years. At this stage in 2008 (just five months before the first Liverpool Sound City), I remember sitting in the ACME office with Sound City boss Dave Pichilingi trying to work out how we would actually manage to deliver an event of the quality we wanted. Somehow the team pulled it off and since then it has gone from strength to strength. Sound City is now a truly international music and digital industry event with a global reputation.
One of the really exciting things about Sound City is the pace of growth both domestically and internationally. . That said, the US has been a longer game (relatively speaking), with a regular Liverpool presence at South By South West in Texas, and adding New York to the rosta next month. Successful events have also been delivered in Dubai and in Norway with more to come I’m sure. All these international events provide a platform not only for Liverpool musicians but also for the city’s creative and digital businesses.
The Liverpool event also has a very real international feel. At a basic level Liverpool audiences get a chance to see some of the best of the emerging artists from across the world. But more importantly from a business point of view the event attracts leading music and digital industry figures from the US and from Europe. Liverpool businesses get access to these leading lights and get a chance to pitch their products and Liverpool as a city gets a chance to sell itself as a great place to do business in to this highly influential group of people. Seymour Stein loved the event and the city so much after he spoke at it in 2010 that he signed a Liverpool band he had seen at Sound City and paid his own way here in 2011.
In 2012 Sound City as usual are doing anything but resting on their laurels. In 2012 Liverpool Sound City will feature the first ever National Student Music Awards. Another new addition is Sound City Expo which will bring the newest and most forward thinking exhibitors to the Echo Arena. This will provide access for both consumers and music/digital professionals to the people, tools and services they will need as we move ever onwards in the digital age. It will not be the traditional, and often dull, type of trade show, but instead will focus on the current and future intersection of music, art, business and technology.
Just like Sound City itself, the Expo will be forward looking and daring.
www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk
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