Festivals are finally back and so too are invaluable music conferences: it’s almost time for Sound City+ 2021. The conference, which takes place in Liverpool across the same weekend as the wider Sound City Festival (October 1-3), is the perfect opportunity to blend new musical discovery with fresh insight into the future of the industry, after a two year Covid hiatus. What’s more: The Forty-Five have sponsored one of the 2021 Sound City+ panels: ‘Keychange Presents: What can you do for gender equality?’
The panel, featuring The Forty-Five’s own Charlotte Gunn, will also include various people involved in Keychange – a global movement dedicated to achieving gender equality within the music industry. Ahead of the Keychange application deadline on October 4, Marie Fol and Shekayla Maragh will outline everything budding musicians and music business professionals need to know about the programme.
Other highlights of the conference include an in-depth chat with the genre-busting Nova Twins about their journey through the industry, as well as a wide variety of exciting panels. ‘Black Squares? Who Cares?’, hosted by Alex Ives (Ninja Tune/Black Music Collective), Yaw Owusu (The Playmaker Group), Amanda Maxwell (UK Music Futures Chair) and Phoebe Roberts (Attitude Is Everything), is a session examining why the industry’s approach to race, gender and disability has largely been one of inaction and how this can finally change. And are you still none the wiser when it comes to NFTs? Then our interview with an expert is the perfect place to start, before you head to the ‘NFTs? Easy as ABC!’ panel on Saturday.
For the full lineup and more information on individual panels, head to the Sound City+ website. Tickets for the Sound City+ Conference – alongside tickets for Sound City Festival as a whole – are still available to purchase here.
