Indies Head For PrimaveraPro

The Barcelona gathering, which recently switched venues to the Museum of Contemporary Art to make room for more people, is running the event along with the Association of Catalan labels (APECAT), European indies association IMPALA, the Independent Phonographic Union (UFI), and the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN).

IMPALA executive chair Helen Smith, Christof Ellinghaus from City Slang, WIN’s Charlie Phillips, Branko Komljenovic (MENART) and Borja Torres (Lovemonk) will be among the speakers.

They’ll discuss how to better reach audiences, break international markets and what cultural policies exist or are planned to support the indie sector. The other speakers at PrimaveraPro include Bella Union label founder and former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde, recording engineer Steve Albini, veteran German experimental composer Roedelius and International Talent Booking chief Barry Dickins, who will be picking up the 2015 Primavera Award for his contribution to the live music business.

Glastonbury Festival programmer Martin Elbourne and NME editor Greg Cochrane are also on the schedule. The 2014 edition stamped the Spanish event as Europe’s fastest-growing music conference, attracting 2,360 delegates.

PrimaveraPro is in Barcelona May 27-29. It runs more or less in parallel with the city’s Primavera Sound festival, which last year smashed its attendance record by doing 190,000 people at an average 47,500 per day.

This year’s lineup May 28-30 includes Andrew Weatherall, The Black Keys, Einstürzende Neubauten, The Strokes, James Blake, Interpol, and current European Talent Exchange Programme leader Ibeyi.