Sound City Opens Artist Applications For Zandari Festival and MU:CON in South Korea
| 14th July 2016
Sound City are delighted to announce that applications are now open for artists to apply to showcase at Zandari Festival (30th September – 3rd October) and MU:CON (6th – 8th October), South Korea’s most important industry events.
South Korea is a rapidly developing territory for music, with a thriving live music sector and a music subscription model which generates $139.6 million of revenue per year, accounting for 92.3% of all digital revenue and 53% of total trade revenue, according to the IFPI. This compares to $70 Million from both subscriptions and ad-supported streaming in the UK.
Zandari and MU:CON take place every October and form the gateway to the exciting and rapidly developing Korean music market. They are the biggest and most important city centre events of their kind in Korea.
Taking place from 30th September – 3rd October, Zandari Festival and its conference focuses on the live and independent sector, with 200 emerging artists performing in 22 venues to 3,000 industry delegates and 15,000 music festival attendees.
MUCON takes place from 6th – 8th October, and showcases 150 artists to an industry audience of 3,000 industry at its conference. It has a particular focus on publishing and sync licensing.
Sound City are inviting artists plus a member of their team to apply to perform at Zandari Festival and MUCON, including funding support to attend the showcases, until 6pm 1st August 2016 via http://www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk/soundcityplus/sound-city-korea-2016 Artists should be based in England and include details of their current UK and international activity in their application as well as links to their music.
Sound City are grateful to Arts Council England and The British Council for their support for Sound City Korea under the International Showcase Scheme. In 2015, Sound City supported 6 artists to go to South Korea to perform there; The Tea Street Band, Hyde & Beast, Natalie McCool, Johnny Sands, Fizzy Blood and Chelou. The artists are expected to generate £55k+ for from the trip over the next 2 years.
Alison Clark, Director North, Arts Council England, said: “We have supported Sound City through our International Showcasing fund which helps English musicians find new markets and audiences, and gain valuable experience through performing in South Korea. Sound City’s work has had a huge impact on the careers of the six artists who took part in the first year of the programme and I look forward to seeing how it develops in the second year.”
Zandari Festival Director, Yoon-Young Kong states: ‘We are excited to continue to develop this partnership with Sound City and look forward to Korean audiences seeing outstanding English artists this year. This helps us to build a wider international audience for our festival and conference. We have worked with Sound City for the past four years sending artists to Sound City in Liverpool which is a wonderful event for building the profile of Korean music in the UK. It is brilliant to work with Sound City in both the UK and Korea.”
Sound City CEO, David Pichilingi adds: ‘South Korea is an incredibly exciting emerging music market and we’re delighted to continue expanding the reach for our brand as well as for the artists and businesses we work with in Korea. This is alongside our relationship with our Modern Sky Entertainment which will see us creating opportunities for artists and businesses in China over the coming years. Watch this space.”
The UK’s leading development agency, Generator and Yorkshire based label and development agency DMF Digital will assist Sound City in working with artists and businesses attending Zandari and MUCON.
Sound City is the largest and most significant event of its kind in the UK. Since 2008 they have delivered large-scale music festivals and conferences in Dubai, Norway and Australia. Since 2012 they have delivered an annual boutique version of Sound City in Brooklyn, New York. Their festivals and business initiatives have generated over £16.5 million for the UK business economy*.
Artists and businesses wishing to apply to attend Zandari and Sound City in Korea should send their application by 6pm on Monday 1st August, click here to apply http://www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk/soundcityplus/sound-city-korea-2016
*Cobham Murphy Limited independent audited statistics.
About Sound City
Sound City’ is the brand responsible for organising a range of boutique music, media and technology festivals and conferences around the world. Since its inception 9 years ago it has designed, delivered, marketed and hosted events in cities on 3 continents that range from a series of shows, conferences and product and service launches to full music and arts festivals and creative and digital industries conferences. Sound City consistently delivers high quality, high calibre events that have been acclaimed by audiences and critics alike.
Sound City-owned events include Liverpool Sound City festival and conference (now in its 9th edition), Dubai Sound City, Tromso Sound City New York Sound City (4th edition), Gateway to the Asian Music Markets and Sound City Korea (2nd edition)
www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk / www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk/soundcityplus
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2015 and 2018, we plan to invest £1.1 billion of public money from government and an estimated £700 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk
About Zandari Festival
Zandari Festival annually showcases 200 emerging artists and attracts 3000 industry delegates and 15000 music festival attendees. Artists are from contemporary genres including rock, pop, dance, metal and hiphop. The business audience is 60% Korean and 40% international and includes key markets – China, Central Europe, Australia, Japan and USA. Delegates include music managers, record labels, promoters, venues, agents and tech companies eg: Samsung and LG. The music fans are tech savvy and are primarily aged between 18 and 24. http://www.zfesta.com/en/
About MU:CON
The annual Seoul International Music Fair 2016 (MU:CON Seoul 2016) is currently in its 4th consecutive year. It was first established with the goal of expanding and developing Korean music abroad, and has since grown to facilitate exchange between music industry professionals and develop business through information-sharing. MU:CON Seoul 2016 is a music market consisting of the Biz-matching program, the conference, the global music showcase, as well as other networking programs geared towards stimulating artists’ global expansion in the music business. http://www.mucon.kr/2016_en/