Taking place over 3 days in May LSC 2011 was bigger and better than it’s previous 3 years highlighting the best in local and international music and tech, bringing renowned speakers from around the globe.
Vision+Media spent 3 days sampling the delights that LSC’s conference and gigs had to offer.
Our first panel was one of highlights of the conference- industry experts from High Voltage, Brainlove, Transparent and Good Tape discussing the future role of labels in the music industry. The consensus was that labels have had to evolve into an all encompassing service.
Tips for upcoming bands were:
- Do your own social media marketing
- Ensure your band has a vision
- Remember, labels know the importance of a good relationship with their band therefore let your personality shine!
Peter Hook and Kevin Cummins “discussed” the rise of Joy Division- whilst it was clear they were on opposing sides of the argument they both brought home the importance of bands having a clear knowledge of their rights- always read the small print!
Vision+Media’s technology brain was blown by the App Panel – perfect for the tech savvy but for those new to creating an app it was missing something more interactive.
Away from the delights of the Hilton the gig hopping began...
The queue was round the block for the Bombed Out Church, a shame as we really wanted to check out the cool site.
Frank Turner rocked the amazing Cathedral Crypt – what a venue and what an atmosphere, Turner’s crowd base was solid singing along to every song (we’re now big fans too!)
We then headed over to O2 where we almost lost a V+M employee amongst the crazy fearless View fans! After screaming along to an awesome version of Same Jeans and doing our duty picking up fans from the mosh-pit floor, we escaped unscathed to the Kazimier which took some finding! Tucked away next to Cream, Yuck were finishing what sounded like a well received set- we were stood a little too close to the speakers to fully appreciate it.
Close to 2am we were flagging and about to leave when The Whip came on stage to huge applause and continued to rock the Kazimier for the next couple of hours. With a new burst of energy we found our dancing feet again. The Whip were by far the best act we’d seen that night.
Armed with vitamin water (thanks LSC) day 2 began...
Conference highlights included discussion from fashion gurus examining the link between the fashion and music industry. Sadly we missed the start of the Promoter’s Panel but there was some really interesting points about the festival scene; labels are able to get their newer acts on the bill by negotiating this off the back of their larger names.
Our final panel was the Perfect Pitch, a chance to pitch music tech ideas to a panel of experts. Pitches ranged from a Fan Bus, a location based gig app and the winning pitch by Chris Meehan of Sentric Music a great idea of a discovery platform supplying the TV industry with music a great way of getting pre cleared tracks, keeping costs down, getting new and innovative music as fast as possible. Their polished pitch stood out as it had a real business case built around it with a demand from the TV side and plentiful supply of artists.
After much needed sleep another night of great gigs included Funeral Party, Jamie XX and the crazy Hot Club de Paris. Sound of Guns played the beautiful St George’s Hall where the enormous crystal chandelier rocked along with the crowd.
Overall SoundCity’s 4th year was it’s best yet and we’re already looking forward to 2012!
