2020: What we're looking forward to

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

We hope you enjoyed the festive period and are excited by the prospect of a new year. 2020 at ICMP promises to be jam packed with great new music, ace live gigs and fantastic events. You can check out our calendar here or follow our social profiles to learn more.

To pre-empt a new decade of music, we asked our community of students, tutors and alumni what they’re excited about in the next 12 months. Check out what they're hyped about below... 

Scott Colcombe, ICMP Songwriting alumnus

I've already got tickets to see Tyler The Creator, Anderson .Paak, Carly Rae Jepsen, Caroline Polachek, FKA Twigs, Disclosure and more so it's going to be an exciting year for live music. But most of all, I'm looking forward to seeing where this next decade goes musically.

The difference between 2009 and 2019 is already huge and I can't wait to see what sounds and styles comes out of the woodwork in the 2020s.

Marcello Ruggiu, Music Production tutor 

I am looking forward to continue organising parties with the Crux Events team and play at the big raves London offers so often.

I am working on some new tunes and I'm also really hoping to find the amount of time needed for a great new project I have in mind. But, mostly I am looking forward to listening to the work of my students and see their live performances at the assessments! It's going to be a great 2020!

Read our interview with Marcello on his career and teaching Ableton Live at ICMP. 

Dan Crossley, BA Songwriting student 

In 2020 I’m looking forward to releasing my music independently for the first time, bringing my most authentic and personal tracks straight from the studio to my listeners. I can’t wait! I’m also looking forward to playing a lot more live shows.

Read our interview with Dan.  

Ruth McPherson, Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) 

In 2020, ISM is looking forward to reaching a historic milestone - 10,000 members! Our ISM community has grown steadily over the last ten years and we are now supporting more musicians than ever before. 

Musicians' health was a major priority for us in 2019 and will continue to be in 2020. ISM members can now access free wellbeing services including face-to-face counselling and physiotherapy delivered by our sister charity, the ISM Members Fund, as well as essential insurances, legal assistance, business advice and much more as part of ISM membership. 

Visit ism.org for more. 

Dmitry Pastukhov, Brand Manager, Soundcharts

It's hard to name just one event, product launch or trend. There's so much stuff going around in the music business these days. 

There's the development of A.I, horizontal global streaming growth (Bollywood Music is the fastest growing genre on Spotify this year, following the app entering the market), post-album economy, TikTok, Patreon-esque monetisation models, and so forth. So it's impossible to single one thing out..."

Read our interview with Dmitry on how new artists can use data to advance their music careers. 

Martin Tell, One Light, BA Songwriting alumnus  

In 2020 we are aiming to release album number two at the end of the year. We're also excited about travelling around Europe playing shows and promoting ourselves as much as possible.  

Read our interview with Martin. 

Lauren Alex Hooper, MA Songwriting student 

I'm really excited for 2020. I'm releasing the rest of my EP, 'Honest', and there's a lot of exciting stuff coming with that: the tracks, obviously, the music videos, and other, extra content. I've also got more of my Masters to work on, which I'm sure will be really interesting. I'm also excited for the release of other artists' music, like 'Manic' by Halsey and Kelsea Ballerini's new album. Plus, there are concerts to look forward to, including Halsey and The Shires. It's going to be an exciting year. 

Read our interview with Lauren. 

Mark Adams, Music Gateway 

I think we'll see a rise in creative video platforms like Triller and Tik Tok. Amazon Music and Apple will become huge streaming players this year, placing huge pressure on Spotify.

Read Music Gateway's YouTube guide. 

Fire In Her Eyes (featuring BA (Hons) Songwriting alumnae Gabrielle Gordon and Daniella Livingstone, and current BA (Hons) Creative Musicianship student Natasha Livingstone.

We’re really excited to release our singles ‘Out Of Touch’ and ‘Wouldn’t Have Guessed It’ as well as record our upcoming EP. We’re also looking forward to the summer where we will be performing at different music festivals.

Read our recent ICMP Spotlight feature with the band. 

Sully Gravity, ICMP Student President 

In the next 12 months my student journey at ICMP ends, but I'm really looking forward for the release of my EP and touring Spain this summer! I'm also heading to Nashville to write with some friends I made last year!

Read Sully's interview on his music and advice for new ICMP students. 

PPL

In today’s digital landscape, metadata is crucial to paying those that contribute to the creation of a recording. The development of standardised processes for the creation and sharing of this music metadata will be an important part of 2020 and beyond, helping to make royalty payments more effectively by preventing inaccuracies in the data supply chain.

Read PPL's guide on why metadata is important for new artists.  

International royalties will become especially important as recorded music revenue from markets outside of the UK continue to grow. PPL aims to build bilateral agreements with other CMOs that benefit performers and recording rightsholders, maintaining the growth in global neighbouring rights revenues seen so far in this century. PPL is involved in many global initiatives across data, IT, licensing, introducing new legislation etc. with good collaborations taking place between various collective management organisations.

Indeed, this last year has seen us establish agreements with, or receive first-time royalty payments from, CMOs in countries such as Panama, South Korea, Paraguay and Nigeria. These agreements help us better identify recorded music usage overseas and pay those who have contributed to its creation, and we aim to continue this expansion of PPL’s international collections business."

Visit ppluk.com to find out more.

Dave Roberts, Careers and Industry Liaison team mentor

I’m looking forward to more blurring of genres in 2020. Artists no longer need to limit themselves to one style; I want to hear some experimentation, pushing of boundaries and radical mash-ups. Check out 100 gecs for inspiration - utter madness, especially the last 45 seconds! 

Find out more about the Careers and Industry team.