Robert Kronenburg of the University of Liverpool contemplates the task ahead as he starts a British Academy/Leverhulme funded project to write the history of popular music performance architecture, which will build on the typology of contemporary popular music performance venues that he has already developed.
Music festival season for young, inexperienced, and unsigned artists, can be a time spent anxiously waiting to see whether they are one of the chosen few selected to perform on the ‘unsigned stages’ that are present at most major festivals in the country.
Less well known than the much-touted exposure that they can bring an unsigned band is the introduction that they bring to the PRS whose collection of revenues from events like festivals is hotly disputed by promoters. Here, Matt Brennan discusses the implications and advantages for unsigned bands of a relationship with the agency.
One of the pioneers in the field of popular music studies, Dr. Dave Laing (from the University of Liverpool) presents valuable work on assessing the economic value of live music globally, collating data from international sources to present an overview and a sense of how the live sector compares with recording industry.
Stuart Galbraith (Kilimanjaro Live) is interviewed by Simon Frith (University of Edinburgh/Mercury Prize) as part of the Live Music Exchange, Leeds event on May 4th 2012. Stuart covers topics such as his career history, the role of the promoter, the issues facing the live music industries, ticketing and setting ticket prices, the importance of festivals, the male domination of the live music sector, and the increasing importance of digital media.
Jazz drummer and tireless music campaigner Hamish Birchall was a driving force behind the recent passage of the Live Music Act which frees up smaller venues to provide live music. In this post, he answers some questions about the campaign and the Act itself, for which many musicians and venues will have cause to be thankful.