Over 5000 people attended the inaugural Brighton Music Conference at Brighton Dome and various venues around Brighton this past weekend. The UK’s first business and education conference for electronic music attracted attendees from around the world with dance music fans and industry bigwigs flying in from Australia, San Francisco, India, Mexico, Amsterdam, Norway, Ibiza and Berlin to attend BMC’s schedule of panels, talks, technology launches and parties.

Representatives from Beatport, Mixcloud, Spotify, Pioneer, Native Instruments, Ableton, AEI Media, DJ Magazine and Resident Advisor attended BMC 2014 and took part in over 60 panels, workshops and talks. A large number of artists also attended BMC including Above & Beyond, DJ Pierre, Dave Seaman, Dave Clarke, AND.ID, Lisa Lashes, Steve Mac, Audiofly and Eats Everything. Feedback online was overwhelmingly positive with many taking to Twitter to share their positive thoughts. Dave Clarke tweeted that he was “Really sad to leave [BMC], honestly,” whilst Above & Beyond’s Jono Grant said BMC “Looks amazing…well done”. Dave Seaman tweeted, “The UK needed a conference like this,” and prominent Indian electronic music influencer Nikhil Chinapa said BMC featured “Great panels and some serious work being done in the music industry.”

There were a number of key technology and groundbreaking product launches at BMC 2014 too, including:

• Roland’s AIRA instrument line – Roland’s System 1, a new 25 note synthesizer controller hybrid, was exclusively unveiled at BMC
• Funktion-One’s groundbreaking new DJ monitor PSM318, that Carl Cox describes as “the best monitors he has ever used”
• JAMM – an anti piracy encoding system that renders tracks unmixable in digital DJing software, allowing labels and artists to share and upload high quality promos without fear of piracy
• Inflyte – an Android, Windows and iOS app that allows DJs to listen and react to promos offline on their mobile devices, for example, whilst on a plane
• Earcandi – a custom ear moulding system that allows anyone to create custom in-ear headphones at home
• AN.I.MA – an intimate 260 page DJ coffee table photographic book, featuring 29 underground artists sharing six photos from their private lives

Brighton Music Conference officially wrapped up with a secret party at pop up venue Cloak, beneath Brighton library, with Berlin DJs Sebo K, AND.ID and Ralf Kollmann. The organisers of BMC have stated that they plan to return next year with an even bigger and better music conference.