Deccan Alternative Music Conference
We're launching a conference! 🥳😳😱
Having attended a fair share of music conferences in the past decade as music industry professionals, we always come back hungry for more.
We don’t know whether it’s the electricity in the air when you first enter the venue, or the new faces who become lifelong friends and colleagues, or the random piece of information that stays with your for the rest of your career, or the new musicians whose music you come to love after meeting them, or a combination of all of these.
There’s power to bringing people under the same roof for a common purpose, and a music conference is perhaps the most effective way we can make strides towards our vision of developing a dynamic, self-sufficient, sustainable and export-ready independent music industry in India.
Conceptualised over a year with a diverse core team, Neon Culture presents Deccan Alternative Music Conference (DAMC).
An annual, travelling, boutique music business conference and showcase festival in the Deccan region of India, co-presented by Heartland Experiences, Indian Gig Poster Archive and OriginalDog.
DAMC aims to have an alternative focus on the brilliant community level initiatives, innovation and grassroots work taking place in the independent music industry emerging in the Deccan Region. The first edition will take place in Neon’s home city of Bangalore, India on 9th and 10th February, 2024.
We have observed that many music industry events tend to focus on a pan India outlook, but finally end up only representing one or two regions of the country. While that approach is not wrong at all and very necessary, we believe that it does not solve for unique issues and pave the way for advancement and growth of local music industries in our huge, multifaceted country. So, DAMC is set up as a travelling conference with a city in focus every year. We discuss and present actions to build a more resilient music economy in the Deccan region city by city and discover a new music scene every year!
This is also a boutique conference that incorporates action-based and skills-oriented programming, doing away with panels and instead including hands-on workshops, knowledge packed masterclasses, insightful presentations and intentional networking slots built in to create maximum value for delegates and attendees between 9am to 4 pm.
We will be releasing more about our unique venue partners, exciting sponsors, speakers who share our vision and event schedules regularly throughout January, and you can keep up with these on your platform of choice. We are also looking for a dynamic team of volunteers to help us on-ground, and application forms are live now.
Accompanying DAMC will be the launch of DeccanAlt, an annual showcase festival highlighting the vibrant music in the Deccan region that will serve as the evening event to the conference that takes place during the day.
Applications for the showcase are open until January 12 - do share this application form with any emerging artists that you think would benefit from this experience.
An anonymous jury consisting of experts will handpick and curate 10 export ready artists who will perform their music to 300+ fans, talent buyers and bookers in the music industry. Selected artists will also participate in a series of workshops with industry experts from across the world to learn how to build strong pitches for themselves and utilise all the opportunities available to them through these avenues.Â
This event is designed to foster community development, knowledge exchange and experiential learning for current and future music industry stakeholders with a long-term vision of building a music industry in India that is resilient, thriving and sustainable. As some of Neon’s earliest believers, we invite you to join us for 2 days of learning and music discovery and hope to see a lot of you at the conference and/or showcase. Business by day, party by night - join us for a brand new experience!