As music conference go, In The City Manchester, UK, founded in 1992 by Yvette Livesy and Factory Records, Anthony Wilson, is an important UK-based music festival and gathering of Europe’s music business leaders. Livesy and Wilson are planning on taking that success across the pond to New York City with the launch of new music conference, In The City Of New York, on June 13-14, 2007.
In the late 1980’s through the first few years of the 1990’s, the New Music Seminar was the premier music industry event in the United States. Generally held at the Times Square’s Marriot Marquis hotel, the conference faded away around 1992/93. Most newcomers to the music industry have no idea the event even existed. Today, CMJ holds the reigns as the top music festival in New York, but it doesn’t represent the larger music industry and is generally focused on independent music and college radio.
The most important new music conference and festival in the U.S today is the Austin, TX based South by Southwest, where many new bands are discovered. You’ve got the yearly National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), which has to impacted by the closings of many mom and pop and chain retailers, including the recent shuttering of Tower Records. There’s also the Billboard conference and awards for Hip Hop, Latin, Country and Dance Music. You’ve still got the Winter Music Conference covering dance and electronic in Miami Music 2.0, Digital Hollywood, and Digital Media Wire are the most heavily attended digital music events.
This new conference sounds pretty interesting. It remains to be seen how Livesy and Wilson will fare stateside, but we’re optimistic it will be a success. Hopefully, they’ll be a place for dance/electronic music within the structure of the event.
