Participating venues and promoters: Kino Šiška / Lvl Up (Ljubljana), Gala Hala (Ljubljana), Druga godba / Cankarjev dom (Ljubljana), Hangar Bar (Izola), MIKK (Murska Sobota), Pri rdeči ostrigi / Festival In Memoriam prof. Peter Hafner (Škofja Loka), Wetrinsky / Salon uporabnih umetnosti (Maribor), eMCe Velenje (Velenje), CMAK (Cerkno)

Though the Slovenian music market is small, it still offers many interesting live venues and promoters, even in the smaller towns. At MENT, you have a great opportunity to meet and present your work to a selection of renowned venues and promoters in Slovenia. Join the ride from Murska Sobota to Izola, from Krško to Kranj, and get your chance to play in our country.

Host: Klara Zupančič (Val 202, Punk Rock Holiday, SI)

Speakers: John Robb (Louder Than War, UK), Sasha Yerchenko (Atlas Weekend Festival, UA), Stepan Kazaryan (Moscow Music Week, Bol Festival, RU), Anita Richelli (Paper And Iron Booking, DE)

A group of international music professionals will go on a blind date with songs by selected MENT artists, who will receive immediate, direct and honest feedback. We bet you don’t often get a chance to hear an honest analysis of individual songs by internationally renowned music experts – so don’t miss this one!

There’s no doubt beehype contributors have a great overview of music video production from all over the world. In 60 minutes, we’ll see what they think are some of the best clips made in recent years. Sit down and enjoy!

Participating festivals: Welcome to the Village (NL), BUSH – Budapest Showcase Hub (HU), Stereoleto Festival (RU), Indirekt Umag & Indirekt Beograd (HR/RS), Ypsigrock Festival / Linecheck (IT), Tallinn Music Week (EE), Europavox (FR), Pohoda Festival (SK), Moscow Music Week / Bol Festival (RU), Atlas Weekend (UA).

MENT offers you a great opportunity to meet and present your work to some of the most renowned European music festivals – from Sicily to St. Petersburg, from North Sea to the Balkans. Don’t miss your chance and make some new useful contacts.

Speaker: András Bodrogi (New Media Expert, HU)

This presentation will show you how to engage your fans and grow your official YouTube channel. It will provide you with examples of the best practices for content development, advice on how to use different creative formats, and tips for building a strategy with your audiovisual content on the platform. To round things off, we will focus on the ways for generating optimal revenues and analyzing your data on YouTube.

András Bodrogi is a certified YouTube Expert and Google Regional Trainer, who is helping local and regional YouTube partners, creative and media agencies, artists, brands and content creators to reach their goals with audiovisual content.

Host: Gabrielė Tamutytė (Tilto Namai, LT)
Speakers: Ania Kasperek (Chimes Agency, PL), Sandra Vabarna (Trad.Attack!, EE), Ina Tatarko (End Of The Road Festival Management, Parallel Lines Promotions, UK)

This time, we’ll focus on the management of up-and-coming bands that are usually plagued by lack of recognition, slow fan base growth, many shut doors, and meagre incomes on the one and an unbridled measure of enthusiasm and a sea of missed opportunities on the other hand. Managers from various backgrounds will reveal how a collaboration with a new band is born, how to maintain the long-term vision despite many “growing pains”, how they cultivate relations with musicians, what the economy of bands and their management is like, and which are the most significant challenges and driving forces when working with such bands. Managing young bands from A to Z.

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Host: Eva Matjaž (Poligon, SI)

Speakers: Helen Sildna (Tallinn Music Week, Musiccase, EE), Mirca Lotz (We Make Waves, [fwd: like waves], DE), Sasu Paakkunainen (Slush Music, FI)         

Tallinn Music Week, Slush Music and We Make Waves are festivals that don’t hide in the bell jar of the music industry, but open and address other social issues in addition to the music, aiming to actively contribute to the mosaic of broader social change – from increased representation of women in the music industry, through technological and start-up innovation, to the expansion of the creative industries and more open society. Let’s meet three special music festivals that are more than just that.

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Host: Richard J. Foster (The Quietus, WORM, NL)
Speaker: Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC Radio 6, DJ, UK)

On the one hand, Mary Anne has been broadcasting great new music on the radio for over 20 years and has become one of the most influential music media personalities in recent decades. On the other, she’s toured the world as a live DJ in the last decade, playing to her biggest crowd of 15,000 people at Sonar Festival in Barcelona. On top of that, she’s also an artistic advisor and curator at the BBC 6 Music and Manchester International festivals. Let’s hear how she’s combining all her roles, how they’re weaving together and nourishing each other, and how she manages to stay on top of what she’s doing.

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Participating clubs, festivals and concert promotors: WUK (Vienna), Platoo (Graz), Ink Music (Vienna), Spoon Agency (Vienna),  Acoustic Lakeside Festival (Sonnegger See), Posthof (Linz), Picture On Festival (Bildein), Elevate Festival (Graz), FM4 Events (Vienna)

Austria is a diverse Alpine country with a similarly diverse concert landscape – many smaller festivals, varied club infrastructure, numerous concert promotors of all kinds. MENT offers a great opportunity to connect with selected referential festivals, clubs, and concert organisers. Find the tunnels and mountain passes to the Austrian live market.

Host: Eric Eitel (Music Pool Berlin, DE)
Speakers: Sammy Andrews (Deviate Digital, UK), Olya Moldavskaya (The Orchard, UK), Steffen Holly (Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technologies, DE)

Predictions of streaming revenues and paying subscribers in the future offer favourable figures, but there are several side effects and unknowns worth discussing. Platform business has created new gatekeepers, which is why we need to discuss how playlists are “curating” the future of music. Major streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music still aren’t available in entire regions of the world. What does it mean for the local music markets and cultures to be cut off from the streaming business? The panel will also take a look at new technologies that might have an impact on the streaming business, and speculate about the bright future ahead.

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Host: Koen ter Heegde (Yugofuturism, Subroutine Records, NL)
Speakers: Lucija Ivšić (Punčke, LAA, HR), Jernej Šavel (Dubioza kolektiv, SI), Guri Shkodra (Gillespie, KO), Ana-Marija Cupin (Repetitor, RS)

Four musicians from different corners of the former Yugoslavia share their knowledge, first-hand experience and insights on a variety of topics, ranging from their local context to promoters and agents, DIY vs. the industry, and international perspectives. How to get your band from the Niš-Ekspres to the Trans Europa Express, how to start an independent venue, and how to make a living as a musician in/from the region. Not introducing the same old ideas, but discussing new opportunities and horizons, for and by musicians, regarding infrastructure, audiences and media. The panelists share their experience, roadmaps, and navigation, and travel from one topic to another. They improvise and introduce shortcuts, recommending the best transfer at the right station. Visitors from other destinations can hop aboard to get a better understanding of the music environment and the regional infrastructure.

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Participating festivals: Waves Vienna (AT), West Way Lab (PT), Liverpool Sound City (UK), Sonic Visions (LU), Live at Heart (SE), Spring Break (PL), Monkey Week (ES), MENT Ljubljana (SI).

INES, the Innovation Network of European Showcases, is a European cooperation project initiated by eight international showcase festivals and gigmit, the European digital platform for artist booking. Don’t miss your chance to meet the representatives of the INES festivals and introduce them to your artist(s).

https://www.ines-festivals.eu/

16:00 @ M Hotel D

Host: Nur Al Habash (Italia Music Export, IT)

Speakers: Isabella-Anja Khom (Noisey, AT), Ingrid Kohtla (Tallinn Music Week, EE), Monika Marušić (The Garden Croatia, LAA, HR)

The swift evolution of social media is thoroughly changing the flow of information and communication in music media as well. What do these changes mean for traditional media (radio, print magazines) and old-school music journalists? Where to find new opportunities and which are the hottest examples of good practices right now? What’s the prognosis for the near future? How should musicians respond? What do they need more – good PR or good social media management?

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Host: Serene Sass (Warner Music Group, UK)
Speaker: Seymour Stein (Sire Records, US)

What do the Ramones, Talking Heads, Madonna, Depeche Mode, The Pretenders, Ice-T, The Cure, Ministry, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. and Aphex Twin have in common? Seymour Stein, who established Sire Records no fewer than 51 years ago! In the 1970s and 1980s, Seymour put punk and new wave on the music map, in 1982 he released Madonna’s first single, and for many decades, he knew how to predict music trends and discovered bands that then defined entire eras of music. In 2005, he was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Let’s hear from a living legend of rock ‘n’ roll history and find out spicy details from the backstage of the music industry.

Host: Brigita Gračner (Radio Študent, SI)
Speaker: Dorit Chrysler (AT/US)

Dorit Chrysler is an internationally renowned composer, producer, and singer, and one of the few theremin virtuosos described in superlatives by global media: “supreme sorceress, goddess or mistress of the theremin“. Ahead of her concert, we’ll let her tell her tale. She’ll share the backstories of her numerous collaborations (Trentemøller, Chicks on Speed, Marilyn Manson, Lars von Trier …), what it’s like to perform at CERN in Switzerland, where she got the idea for her theremin school (KidCoolThereminSchool), and many other intriguing details from her plentiful musical and artistic career.  

Join the Austrian delegates for a networking reception hosted by Austrian Music Export, Waves Vienna, and Austrian Cultural Forum Ljubljana. Use the opportunity to make new acquaintances and enjoy drinks and snacks in a relaxed atmosphere.

Austrian Music Export is a joint initiative of the Austrian Music Information Center mica – music austria and the Austrian Music Fund. Austrian Music Export aims to be a service and resource centre for exporters of contemporary Austrian music in all genres and aspects (recordings, live, sync, etc.).

Waves Vienna is Vienna’s first club and showcase festival. The festival’s motto is “East meets West”; numerous international alternative, electronic, rock, and club acts will be performing around the city’s 9th district. The next edition of Waves Vienna will take place from 27th to 29th September 2018.

After last year’s success, it wasn’t even a question whether the Hungarian music export initiative HOTS (Hungarian Oncoming Tunes) will return to Ljubljana’s MENT, so here they are again with two spicy acts, Fran Palermo and Freakin’ Disco. Raw sauce, no ketchup. Meet HOTS, the bands and the Hungarian professionals from various sectors of the music industry, after Eurosonic and before Tallinn Music Week, and keep up with their ongoing mentoring projects for the CEE region, including the Outbreakers’ Lab art and mentoring camp for emerging acts, songwriters and managers, and their master classes aimed at uniting the regions’ professionals. And don’t forget to check out their off-program at the Balassi Institute (Barvarska steza 8, 1000 Ljubljana)!

Participating venues: A38 (HU), L’Aéronef (FR), Sala Apolo (ES), Blå (NO), FZW (DE), Melkweg (NL), Palác Akropolis (CZ), Musicbox (PT), Rockhal (LU), Stodoła (PL), Vega (DK), Village Underground (UK), Ancienne Belgique (BE), Kino Šiška (SI).

Liveurope is an initiative supporting 14 concert venues around Europe in their efforts to promote up-and-coming European artists. Liveurope provides support in the form of a financial bonus to the member venues, proportionally to their booking of emerging European acts.

Eligible artists for the Liveurope project can’t have been professionally active for more than five years, must have published three professional studio albums at most, and must have proven a dedication and aspiration for an international music career.

Seize your chance to meet venues all around Europe for your next touring adventure, especially if you or your artist fulfill the Liveurope criteria.

http://liveurope.eu

Host: Tony Duckworth ([PIAS] Poland and Eastern Europe, PL)
Speaker: Helen Smith (IMPALA, BE)

Helen Smith is the Executive Chair of IMPALA, the Independent Music Companies Association – a non-profit trade body established in 2000 to help European independent music companies represent their agenda and to promote independent music in the interests of artistic, entrepreneurial and cultural diversity. It represents over 4,000 independent music companies and national associations. Let’s hear how Helen became the Executive Chair of the organization and what her role is, think back on the achievements and battles won in the “indies'” favour, and look ahead – which are the key challenges facing IMPALA in the coming years?

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Host: Fabien Miclet (Independent European Affairs Consultant, FR)

Speakers: Matthieu Philibert (IMPALA, BE), Helen Sildna (Tallinn Music Week, Musiccase, EE), Elise Phamgia (Liveurope, FR), Mateja Demšič (City of Ljubljana, SI)

What if there was a music policy at the European level? Over the last two years, the European Commission has been speaking with representatives of the industry to tackle the latter’s greatest challenges and how to best address them in a potential support program by 2021. The initiative is beginning to materialize, as the European Parliament has adopted a preparatory action to carry forward this dialogue in the next three years. So what’s in store for the sector at large, and what are the next steps? MENT will be one of the hubs covering this major topic for the future of the European music sector.

Host: Didier Gosset (IMPALA, BE)
Speakers: Marko Godnajvec – Jizah (Nika, Beton, SI), Nikola Jovanović (Kontra, RS), Danijel Sikora (PDV/Pozitivan Ritam, Geenger Records, HR)

Ex-Yugoslavia is seeing the rise of a new kind of music entrepreneur. These numerous and ambitious record labels operate in territories with their very own specificities, from majors being represented by local indies to limited access to streaming platforms. The challenges are numerous and treacherous, yet this new breed of music labels is marching into the future with high hopes. It’s time to discover what their day-to-day reality looks like.

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Host: Magdalena Jensen (Chimes Agency, PL)

Speakers: Sarah Besnard (ATC Live, DE), Jörg Heidemann (VUT, DE), Nikki McNeill (Global Publicity, UK)

Let’s take apart the mysterious triangle of making it abroad – the booking agent, the distributor, promotion. The referential booking agency expects bands to have distributor for their records, as well as intense PR activities in its territory. The distributor will condition the collaboration with guaranteed promotional support and as many gigs by the band as possible. Hiring a PR agency can get real expensive real fast if you’re a young band, and everything can be quicklycome watered down into oblivion. How to successfully navigate the requirements of all those involved and combine their forces into successfully conquering foreign music markets?

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Speaker: Daniela Grečnerova (Tootoot.FM, House of Ukulele, SK)

So you boosted your event on Facebook, posted it to Instagram and shared it with fans on your Facebook page. What’s next? What should your optimal digital strategy contain? Who are your potential customers and how can you identify them? The panel will focus on digital marketing strategies combining various online platforms. Daniela will explain the key parameters of a well-prepared online strategy and show us some of the latest data, but most importantly, we can think together about how to build an efficient online campaign with a low budget and a growing audience.

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Host: Markus Linde (Thag’s Agent, DE)
Speakers: Pia Hoffmann (musicsupervising.com, DE), Tanja Kos (A1 Slovenia, SI)

The right music makes a film work, the right song can make all the difference in a commercial – and the placement of a song in a commercial or the commission of a composer’s work for a film have become deciding factors for careers. Who makes the decisions, who finds the right song and best composer, and how do they do it? A moderated talk with two distinguished experts of their trade will provide insight, answer questions, and dispel the myths.

Supported by INES – Innovation Network of European Showcases.

Host: Natalia Talayero (Beloud, ES), David Sobrino (Sobry Music, ES) 

The Music Magazine & Artist App project (MMAA) will empower musical artists with an all-in-one, easy-to-manage solution for recurrent needs where artists now need to use different tools. In the workshop, we’ll review the following topics, giving some useful tips to artists and explaining how the MMAA project can help:

– How to get more and better concerts and tours?
– How to earn more money selling merchandise (online and at concerts)?
– How to carry out a successful crowdfunding campaign?

Workshop participants must apply in advance at: conference@archive.ment.si (subject: MENT 2018 – MMAA Workshop). The deadline for applications is 28 Jan 2018. The number of participants is limited.

Speakers: Natalia Talayero (Beloud, ES), Patricia Hermida (IMMF, ES), Volker May (IMMF, FZW, DE)

The Music Magazine & Artist App project (MMAA) will empower musical artists with an all-in-one easy-to-manage solution. It will provide the most valuable insights on where the artist’s fans are, as well as a direct and efficient way to communicate with them through an attractive consumer app. Finally, it will provide the means to a clear strategy for audience expansion, with tools to enable loyalty as well as monetization. During the presentation, you’ll have the opportunity to join and get special benefits.

http://mmaaproject.eu/

Host: Mariusz Herma (beehype, PL)

Speakers: Maniucha Bikont (PL), Katja Šulc (SI), Samir Čulić (BA), William Griffith (CN), Andrea Putz (AT), Aliaa El Shabrawy (AE), Ares Buras (GR), Justine Guimard (LX), Brett Summer (BE), Filip Olšovský (SK), Andraž Kajzer (SI)

Music is the universal language, and good songs translate without understanding the lyrics – these can tell awesome stories, as well as connect various regions or countries. beehype contributors and musicians from all around the world will present their local situations and anecdotes. In five-minute speeches, we’ll be able to hear stories of language barriers and specifics related to music and musicians. How come Slovenes consume so much Croatian and Serbian music, but not vice versa? How do the Austrians hear German lyrics from Germany? Are Czech singers popular in Slovakia? What about the multilingual countries such as Belgium and Luxembourg? What about the Middle East? What about China?

Presented by Tallinn Music Week & Music Estonia
! Organised bus transfer from Kino Šiška to Moderna. will leave at 16:30. !

Come and celebrate the grand jubilees! Join the Estonians for a cosy evening with drinks ‘n’ toasts, lovely food and brave new sounds from their country. Welcoming words by Helen Sildna (Tallinn Music Week) and Virgo Sillamaa (Music Estonia). Introduction of tomorrow’s grand schemes. Muzak by Ingrid Kohtla.