Major names share music industry insight at unique event in South West

Ed O'Brien from Radiohead; singer/songwriter, Billy Bragg; and 80s electropop icon, Howard Jones are just three of the major music industry names who will be sharing invaluable insight with musicians from across the South West at University College Falmouth's Dartington Campus in Devon on Friday 26 March 2010.

University College Falmouth (UCF) and the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) are hosting a day-long event to raise awareness of how the music industry can adopt new working methods as music file-sharing continues to challenge the status quo, and the many opportunities that this changing landscape offers to emerging talents or undiscovered artists.

The FAC campaigns for the protection of performers' and musicians' rights, with a particular focus on informing national policy and enabling musicians to strike a new bargain with record companies and distributors in the digital age.

"This is the first event of its kind in the South West to offer musicians advice on how to promote themselves, sell their music, protect their rights and maybe even get that elusive deal in this new and dynamic arena," explains UCF's Music Business Fellow, Rick Rogers. "This is also the first of many events that UCF will be hosting to encourage musicians to seize the many new opportunities that exist and we are delighted to be working in partnership with the Featured Artists Coalition to attract leading industry names and influence the development of the digital economy in the region."

Featured Artists Coalition members Ed O' Brien, Billy Bragg and Howard Jones will be joined by fellow FAC board member, Lucy Pullin (a singer/songwriter and guest vocalist for artists such as Robbie Williams and Goldfrapp) and the FAC's acting CEO, Jeremy Silver (formerly EMI's Vice President of New Media and Virgin's former Director of Media); Clive Gardiner who is Senior Vice President of music streaming website, We7 and former Managing Director of BMG Records; former member of the management team for rock band, Marillion and now Artist Manager and CEO of Wingnut Music Consultancy, Erik Nielson; and Daniel Millington who is Performer Account Manager at Public Performance Ltd (PPL), the licensing and collection agency for performance royalties.

This one-off opportunity will take place at Studio 1, Lower Close on UCF's Dartington Campus on the Dartington Hall Estate in Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EJ from 9.30am to 5.30pm on Friday 26 March 2010. Tickets, which include lunch and refreshments, are £10 and can be booked online at http://bit.ly/aDJBGA. Tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis and demand is expected to be high.

Self-employed musicians and music-related businesses who attend this event will also be offered, at no extra cost, the opportunity to take part in a follow-up event at UCF's Tremough Campus in Cornwall that will focus on how lessons learned can be put into practice.

If you require any special assistance to help you to attend this event or have other questions about event accessibility, please email events@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone 01326 213756.

This event is supported by Platform - UCF's programme of performance that heralds and celebrates the launch of its new Performance Centre in autumn 2010.

UCF is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2012/2013 that will be unique to the South West.

The University College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

For further information about Events at UCF, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/events

For further information about the FAC, visit http://www.featuredartistscoalition.com/ 

Ends

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email:  jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk 

For further information about the Featured Artists Coalition or to arrange an interview with an FAC participant, please contact Benjamin Webb, Telephone: 020 8732 8867; Mobile: 07930 408 224, or email: benjamin@deliberate-pr.com

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