Following the success of two Breathe Sunshine African Music Conference events in Cape Town, Breathe Sunshine Engage is set to take place as a once-off satellite event in Johannesburg.
This one-day music conference offers an impactful, industry experience featuring local and international speakers, panels and interviews. Delivering the keynote addresses are: Terry Weerasinghe – Beatport’s vice president of Music Services, along with radio pioneer Gareth Cliff.
Cliff is one the most recognised radio DJ’s on the African continent, and will talk about the future of radio in South Africa and his experience launching his own online radio portal, CliffCentral.
The conference also comprises various panel discussions aimed at encouraging engagement and collaboration all aimed at building the industry.
Confirmed panelists include Black Coffee; Allan Nicoll of Soul Candi; Nomndeni Mdakhi of Edits Communications (Kalawa Jazzmee); DJ Clock of AM-PM Productions; Jullian Gomes; and Kavir Magan of Pulse Radio.
Two global speakers, renowned international booking agents from the UK’s Coda Music Agency, Paul Buck and James Whitting will also be interviewed during the conference. Coda looks after Imagine Dragons, Ellie Goulding, Bastille, Rudimental, Disclosure, The XX, The Vaccines, Bon Iver, John Newman, Jay Electronica, Jamie Woon, Faithless, Macy Grey and Jake Bugg.
“The African music industry is one of the fastest growing music industries in the world but the continent still lacks the skills and network of our international counterparts. Through our Breathe Sunshine conferences we aim to address these challenges and put South Africa on the map as a global music hub for African music,” comments Trenton Birch, founder of Black Mango.
“With strategic partnerships with Kenyan Music Week, AFRIMA (All African Music Awards - Nigeria), Reeperbahn Festival (Germany), Europe’s largest music conference and CJM (USA), we have opened up an international network with the world’s top global conferences.”
Breathe Sunshine Engage will take place on Friday, 3 October at The Market Theatre in Newtown.