From Discovery To Stage: Programming Tomorrow’s Artists with Adam Ryan
Tuesday March 29th, 2022: 12pm ET / 5pm GMT. Live online via Zoom
What goes into curating, booking and presenting Europe’s largest festival and conference dedicated to the discovery of new music? Our next guest, Adam Ryan, has spent the better part of his adult life tirelessly discovering, promoting and presenting new music locally, nationally and internationally. He is now the Head of Music at The Great Escape Festival, taking place annually in Brighton, UK. How different is it curating a renowned three-day festival versus booking a venue? What could today’s artists learn about building strong live promoter relationships? Prior to having a team, can artists book themselves onto festivals? How important is it to “be nice” to your promoter and your sound person? COVID has decimated the live music community around the globe. Has any good come from an entire industry needing to pivot and re-evaluate what it means to present live performances? What does the future hold for the industry? We ask all of these questions whilst finding out how to bounce back (if we have not already).
For this month’s event, Byta is happy to be partnering with the Association of Independent Promoters (AIP). The Association of Independent Promoters (AIP) is a new not-for-profit trade association bringing together independent promoters from across the UK with an aim to represent, empower and provide a vital support network to them. With a collective voice, AIP aims to bring about positive change within the live and wider music sector in the UK, helping members whilst also developing a vibrant, healthy, representative and sustainable independent scene.
This is a monthly online event that will be presented in two parts:
- A workshop: Tips & insights for tomorrow’s artists & music industry leaders with Byta founder Marc Brown.
- An in-depth interview with Adam Ryan: his journey, what artists and their teams can do, and the future of live music and festivals.
About the Event: Live in conversation with Adam Ryan
This series is designed to deliver the knowledge to enable tomorrow’s artists and industry leaders to better manoeuvre their way through the music ecosystem. Providing a fun and insightful Q&A along the way!
#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation will be hosted by Byta’s founder, Marc Brown, whose deep music business background and digital audio knowledge have helped him deliver unique insights to audiences from Tallinn to Toronto. Marc is a former label owner, A&R, manager and radio plugger.
Key takeaways:
- Starting out: how to get a gig
- Developing a relationship with a promoter as an artist, manager or label
- TRICKS ON Nabbing that key opening slot
- Best steps in getting “discovered”
- Early touring strategies for a new band
- The importance of a local community
- When should international artists look to come to The Great Escape?
- The importance of building brand partnerships
- Export: what, why and how?
Event Format
#HowWeListen Live (part 1):
The workshop will introduce industry insights that Marc has picked up from his work in A&R departments, running his own radio promotion company, plus years of experience managing artists and significant large-scale projects. Some of the topics he will touch on include artists’ teams, timelines and connecting the web of the music industry. Plus, most importantly, tips on what you can do yourself to better increase the chances of your success.
#HowWeListen In Conversation (part 2):
Each event will feature an in-depth one-to-one conversation. Adam Ryan is the Festival curator for The Great Escape. A role he has held for five years. The Great Escape is the largest new music conference and festival in Europe and has been running for 14 years. The Great Escape takes place in Brighton (UK) over three days in May, showcasing over 450 artists. Representing around 27 countries across 30 plus venues. Over 4000 music industry delegates and professionals attended each year from around the globe.
About Byta
Byta (“Bee-tah”: the Swedish word for exchange) is unrivalled in taking advantage of the unique properties found in audio files. By simplifying the reading and writing of file metadata, conversion of file formats and delivery of fast yet secure streaming, the platform enables everyone to send and receive digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Byta has also launched #HowWeListen, a not-for-profit organisation that complements the company’s ultimate goal: providing artists and their teams with the tools and knowledge needed to move their careers forward.
About Adam Ryan
Adam Ryan works at The Great Escape Festival as The Head of Music. Prior to programming, TGE Adam worked as a National Promoter and venue booker working across multi iconic venues in London. Adam has worked with and curated stages for Notion, Fred Perry, BBC, Channel 4, Radio X, Fader, Amazon New Music, Spotify, VEVO, and DIY Magazine, to name a few and has experience in brand activations for Fender, Dr Martens, Levis, Jack Daniels, Sailor Jerry Etc etc.. with over 15 years experience in the live industry it’s fair to say there are not many people Adam hasn’t worked with over the years.
The Great Escape is Europe’s largest festival and conference dedicated to the discovery of new music and the live industry. TGE hosts around 500 artists from around 30 different countries each year and is made up of over 90 individual stages across four days.
The Great Escape – The Festival For New Music
Founded in 2006, the festival showcases over 400 emerging artists from all over the world across 35 walkable venues for three days every May in Brighton, England. The event also features a music industry conference attended by over 3000 delegates from across the globe.
About Marc Brown
Marc is the founder of Byta / byta.com. Run as a distributed team across 3 continents, Byta enables sending and receiving of digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Built for everyone working with music today.
He has an extensive music business background and considerable digital audio knowledge, which have helped him deliver unique insights to audiences from Tallinn to Toronto.
Marc got his start at murderecords, Canada’s premier artist-owned label during the mid-90s. After working in A&R at the legendary London indie, Creation Records, and then at Alan McGee’s Poptones, Marc started his own boutique UK radio promotion company off the back of his success with The Hives. For over 10 years Marc worked with an impressive list of indie rock luminaries including Wilco, Bloc Party, Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes, Spoon and Refused as well as legends such as Tom Waits, Yoko Ono, Booker T and Mavis Staples.
Marc currently lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.