Liverpool Sound City interview: Kevin McManus
Liverpool Vision is the public sector partner of Liverpool Sound City. Kevin McManus is the Head of Sector Development – Creative and Digital Industries for Liverpool Vision.
Kevin has been involved with Liverpool Sound City since its inception in 2008. Kevin has a background in the music industry and wrote for music/style magazines such as NME, ID, The Face, and Mix Mag. Kevin has specialised in providing business support for creative businesses for the last 15 years through his work with Merseyside ACME.
Liverpool Sound City takes place every May and is the largest live music conference in the North of the UK.
Why is Liverpool Sound City important to Liverpool Vision?
A key part of the conference has been about helping Liverpool companies to do business with the international music industry and this has been really successful with deals worth £2m secured for Liverpool businesses over the last 18 months.
The event brings in businesses from across the world and music fans from across the UK and delivers significant visitor spend.
Sound City has also succeeded in exporting the Liverpool brand internationally and providing access to new international markets for Liverpool music/digital companies. A key plank of this is the Liverpool Sound City stage at South By South West, the world’s biggest music industry event which takes place in the US every year. Again Liverpool companies have secured significant deals as a result of the Liverpool Sound City presence there.
Sound City has also delivered an event in Dubai and in Tromso in Norway.
How is this year’s Liverpool Sound City shaping up?
The conference is truly world class this year and also has elements which allow Liverpool companies to put themselves in front of key international music industry/digital figures with the aim of winning work from them.
Each year Liverpool Sound City grows and develops. In 2010 Liverpool Sound City welcomed more than 35,000 music lovers and 1,700 business delegates from 23 countries.
You recently hosted a panel at Liverpool Sound City in Norway’s Tromso. What was the purpose of this event?
I was part of the 'Creative spaces and happening places' panel, where I was able to discuss ACME's work through Liverpool Vision and the development of Liverpool's Baltic Creative, but we were there to share our knowledge and expertise, as well as to spread the good Liverpool name.
Tromso was keen to learn from Sound City and see how lessons could be applied to its own music and creative industries showcase. So Sound City delivered a two day music conference for them alongside a two day music festival headlined by Liverpool acts Miles Kane, and Wave Machines.
The key people in Tromso were absolutely amazed that Sound City could succeed in attracting key music industry figures to Norway’s northern most city! It was an incredibly successful event and has resulted in a large party of people from Tromso attending this year’s Liverpool Sound City and it also seems likely that the Tromso event will now be held every year.
BBC 6 Music also attended Tromso Sound City which resulted in us landing lots of national coverage. An important outcome though is one of the Liverpool businesses who came to Tromso with us is also looking to set up a Norwegian arm as a direct result of the contacts made.
What’s next for Sound City?
Sound City is very ambitious and aims to be the biggest music industry event initially in the UK and then in Europe, within the next five years, but as well as growing the Liverpool event it will also continue to look to export the brand across the world. A one-day event in New York is planned for early 2012 and another new territory is likely to be announced shortly.
For more information on Liverpool Sound City or to purchase tickets for the event click here.
For more information on Merseyside ACME click here.
[Image: Kevin McManus in Tromso, Norway]
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