The first ever change-making global music conference and festival, Manchester’s Beyond The Music, confirms the first 60 next generation acts for Beyond The Music: Discovered. Taking place at independent music venues across the iconic Northern Quarter in Manchester from 11th to 14th October, the Beyond The Music: Discovered programme is a statement of intent. Striving to make change within the industry, the festival has partnered with some of the most influential curators including NQ LEGACY, SXSW, DOT TO DOT FESTIVAL and NICE SWAN to deliver a series of showcases that will shine a light on a diverse and inclusive range of artists who previously may not have had the opportunity to reach new audiences or the industry professionals who could help to grow and enhance their careers.
The programme also offers the opportunity for new artists and bands to submit their music to a panel of music industry experts, led by A&R executive Caroline Elleray of Second Songs Publishing, for the chance to perform at one of the festival’s anchor music venues; encouraging music discovery through live performance. Submissions are open now here.
The first names for Beyond The Music: Discovered 2023 include Manchester’s own rising singer-songwriter [ K S R ], a singer-songwriter praised by Complex, Notion and Red Bull for his soulful vocals and futuristic soundscapes; and Slovenian superstar in the making July Jones, whose combination of edgy electro pop, forward-thinking production and unfiltered lyrics about relationships, queerness and mental health have seen her championed by BBC Introducing and gracing the cover of Gay Times.
Elsewhere, electro-punk collective Tokky Horror have made a name for themselves with their thrash riffs that juxtapose hyperactive old school jungle breakbeats, and squelching 303 baselines against the dual attack of vocalists Mollie Rush and Ava Akira; while Scottish glam-goths Walt Disco’s blend of emotionally resonant grandiose and a hint of the obscure has seen them tipped by everyone from NME, Rough Trade and METAL Magazine for their convention-defying reinvention of pop.
As part of Discovered, the festival has also announced the ‘Kick Like A Girl’ showcase at Night & Day Cafe. The stage will host an all female line up curated by Manchester’s own Loose Articles, who helped to launch Beyond The Music with a performance at the Beyond The Music showcase at SXSW in Austin, Texas earlier this year alongside New Order.
Speaking about the opportunity to showcase diverse talent at Beyond The Music, Loose Articles say:
“As a band we aim to showcase female identifying and non-binary talent as much as possible. Recent news articles have stated that women are seen as too much of a “risk” for headline festival slots, with statistics showing if you count the total number of performers on stage during headline slots, only one in 10 (11%) are women and even less (2% are non-binary people).
We need to change the attitudes towards female identifying and non-binary musicians and this starts with support from conferences such as Beyond The Music who have given us a platform to do this. We aim to showcase as many talented musicians as we can to highlight this issue in the hope that this will start to effect change in the way festivals are booked.”
The music industry is facing unprecedented and urgent challenges. In response, Beyond The Music aims to explore, define and tackle those issues to shape the future of the music industry and turn the challenges into opportunities to overhaul and advance. Beyond The Music is the first festival and conference to have an integrated decision-making structure to create actions, and exist as more than just a talking shop. Its Co-Operative Membership programme will allow everyone from musicians, producers, managers, record labels, and trade bodies, through to delegates and gig lovers to have their say in the future of the global industry. Participants will have a stake and a say. Beyond The Music is a place to gather artists, entrepreneurs, creatives and music industry professionals over the course of three days with funders, businesses and organisations in order to maximise impact and take solutions to scale whilst putting the spotlight back on live and new music discovery alongside world class artists. The global annual event will seek to not only solve the issues being faced today but to produce innovative models for the future.
Early bird tickets for the first edition of Beyond The Music are available now, at an exclusive price for a limited time at £29 per day / £49 for the weekend. Tickets are available here.
The festival has also launched a Pay It Forward system in order to maximise accessibility for those who are hoping to advance their career within the music industry, but may not be able to afford the full ticket price. Applications for PIF tickets are open here.
At the heart of the festival will be four days of live music by the most exciting new and established artists from around the world, alongside a series of conferences exploring The Past, The Present, The Future and The Summit, identifying everything from the entrepreneurs who have aided in defining Manchester’s music DNA to the new wave, the right to sustainability, ownership and equality within the industry, and how to find music’s place within the new cultural economy of tech, gaming, branding and film & TV.
Beyond The Music is founded by promoter and social enterprise founder Oli Wilson, working alongside BTM Director Sarah Pearson, Founder of Wasted Youth Music, and Chair Rose Marley, CEO of Co-Operatives UK, and a committee that includes Michael Adex, CEO of NQ, and Jane Beese Director of Music at Factory International. With Beyond The Music, Oli Wilson intends to build upon the foundations laid by his father Tony Wilson, a broadcaster, journalist and creator of Factory Records and the Hacienda nightclub, responsible for some of the world’s greatest music.
An impressive array of founding members have been brought together including Mayor Andy Burnham (GMCA), Bev Craig leader of Manchester City Council, John McGrath Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Factory International and Vaughan Allen from CityCo with a host of trade bodies, content creators and industry organisations all swiftly signing up as members, ensuring this is the place that all those organisations can come together cooperatively and implement true change.
For more information and updates join Beyond The Music here.
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