Indie-Con 2024 to Explore AI, Festivals and More

Festivals and touring, artificial intelligence, and how labels can create social change are among the hot topics set to slide under the microscope at the 2024 Indie-Con, the full program for which is now available.

Also, the campaign for Teen Jesus and The Jean Teasers’ debut album I Love You, which bagged a top 10 debut on the ARIA Chart in 2023, will be dissected for a special case study at this year’s gathering.

Among the programming highlights for the forthcoming conference is “navigating life online” (presented by Support Act), “new opportunities for the independent sector” (with Xelon Entertainment, Future Classic, Spotify, Mushroom, and Secretly), and “AI - is it a threat or an opportunity” (with APRA, Partisan Records, Downtown, and Heavy Duty).

Reps from Unified, The Annex, Spotify, and Super Duper PR will lead the Teen Jesus album case study.

Indie-Con 2024 will be presented at the Mercury Cinema Adelaide from July 31 to Aug. 2, and is supported by the South Australian Government’s Music Development Office.

International speakers include Lisa Hrseko (General Manager, A2IM), Ellie Rumbold (director of international at Partisan Records), Dona Inthaxoum (head of music label partnerships APAC at META), Jim Romeo (founder of Ground Control Touring), Emmy Feldman (head of A&R, Heavy Duty Music Publishing), Stuart Kennedy (ATC Live), Marcus Rowland (GM, Outdustry), Pippa Ryan-Kidd (chairperson, IMNZ, and Dylan Pellett (GM IMNZ).

Produced by the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR), the three-day program will cover the length of challenges and opportunities for the indie music sector, and focuses “on issues that are specifically relevant to the independent music sector."

Once again, the conference wraps with MusicSA’s Scouted, showcasing emerging and unsigned talent from South Australia’s music scene.

The Malinauskas government also supports the AIR Awards, which will be presented on Thursday, Aug. 1 at the Queen’s Theatre in Adelaide.

As previously reported, Cub Sport, The Teskey Brothers and Jem Cassar-Daley lead the nominations heading into the 2024 AIR Awards, a celebration of the best and brightest from Australia’s independent music community which is entering its 18th edition.

Read the full Indie-Con program here.