The Right(s) Frequency

BMC26 starts Wednesday. The UK electronic music industry's annual gathering lands in Brighton for four days. Here is everything you need to know going in.

Brighton Music Conference 2026

BMC returns to the Brighton seafront for its thirteenth year from 20 to 23 May, with more than 240 speakers and artists across four theatres. rightsHUB is back as a conference partner and on stage this year.

The four days span multiple venues across the city. Wednesday evening opens with the welcome party at The Tempest. Thursday and Friday carry the full conference programme. Saturday closes the week with parties and networking.

The structure breaks across four theatres. Theatre 1 at The Tempest covers wellbeing, with sessions on burnout, sobriety in nightlife, ADHD, mental health and parenting. Theatre 2 at Players runs workshops in collaboration with pointblank, covering production, DJ technique, social media and immersive audio. Theatre 3 at Horizon brings the DJ and producer sessions, including a keynote from Orbital's Paul and Phil Hartnoll, 30 Years of Hospital Records with Chris Goss and Solah, and an A&R panel with representatives from Critical Music, Armada, Ninja Tune and Big Love. Theatre 4 at The Carousels is the industry track, covering publishing, sync, label contracts, AI, vinyl, PR and rights.

If you are going, the full schedule is at brightonmusicconference.co.uk.

The Industry Programme: Theatre 4

The business programme runs across Thursday and Friday at The Carousels in collaboration with Skiddle. The sessions most relevant to labels, managers and rights holders:

Thursday

Publishing deal fundamentals for artists and managers with AFEM, Defected and Material Music at 10am. Sync opportunities in advertising, TV, film and games at 11am. The Beatport Industry Hour including the Top 10 Best Selling Genre reveal at midday. Turning Beats into Business with PRS for Music at 1pm, covering how copyright and metadata enable artists to get paid across streaming, sync, DJ sets and radio plays. AI Slop at 2pm, a direct conversation about fake AI-generated music on streaming platforms and what it means for legitimate rights holders. How to Break Through with Beatport and Xelon at 3pm. Prepping for the Future in association with rightsHUB at 4pm. Label Q&A with Armada Music at 5pm.

Friday

Supercharging regional electronic scenes with Skiddle at 10am. Breaking the Glass Ceiling with shesaid.so at 11am. Creativity with Guts on bold strategies for electronic music promotion at midday. PR Deep Dive at 1pm. Label Contracts with Creative Law and Judge Jules at 2pm. A comprehensive session on vinyl production and sustainability at 3pm. What's Actually Happening With AI and Music with PRS for Music at 4pm. The NTIA Electronic Music Report closes the programme at 5pm, moderated by NTIA CEO Michael Kill with Alan Fitzpatrick, Beatport COO Emile Birks and others.

rightsHUB at BMC26: Prepping for the Future

rightsHUB CEO Lee Morrison takes the moderator seat for the 4pm session on Thursday, bringing together four operators who are actively building and scaling music businesses right now.

On the panel: Kayleigh Ramchand-Bentley, who runs both Distiller and Various Artists Management. Gemma Fox of Fox Music Consultancy. Graham Sahara, whose Sahara Music Group operates a portfolio of labels across electronic, dance and global music. And Joel Xavier of Strategic Music Management, representing a roster that includes Adventures of StevieV, RosT, Freejak, Josh Hunter, P.O.U, Rue Jay, Marvin Sykes, Reiss Ruben, Charlotte Moss, Desyfer and KICE.

The session focuses on how to structure a music business for growth when the landscape keeps shifting. New technologies, new routes to market, new deal structures. The panellists will share what they have faced, what is working and what they see coming next.

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The industry continues to evolve at a frightening pace. Keeping up with the latest technologies and routes to market can be daunting, so this panel is here to hear directly from the people using these new solutions and to discover how they can help you grow and secure your business for the future.

Music, Purpose & Action: From the Dancefloor to the Summit

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (LNADJ) is a registered charity that harnesses the power of the global dance music community to create positive change. From building freshwater wells and schools to supporting children with special needs in Tanzania, LNADJ turns the energy and generosity of the music industry into lasting, real-world impact.

Also at BMC this week, rightsHUB founder Lee Morrison joins the LNADJ panel on Thursday at 5pm at Players, Brighton.

One track can change a mood. One moment can change a life. One movement can change the world. This session explores how music goes far beyond the dancefloor and into real, tangible impact around the world, from grassroots action turning into global change, to the role we all play in shaping a more conscious, connected music industry.

Alongside Lee, the panel features Charlene from Neighbours, James Holdsworth, Neil Kemp and Seamus Haji, moderated by Ellie Talebian. The session closes with an exclusive preview of Ain't No Mountain High Enough, documenting the record-breaking Kilimanjaro challenge helping raise awareness and support for children with special needs in Tanzania.

If you are at BMC, come and find us.

The UK Electronic Music Industry in Numbers

The NTIA's fourth annual Electronic Music Report, published in February and presented at BMC on Friday evening, puts the picture in context. The UK ranks second in the world for electronic music artist development, with 13 artists in the global top 100 DJs and 72 in the top 500. The sector generated £2.47 billion in economic activity in 2025. Since March 2020, the UK has lost 36% of its nightclubs, leaving just 823 venues nationwide. The average grassroots venue now operates on a 0.48% profit margin, with operators averaging £26,000 per year while working 60-hour weeks.

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Global dominance. Domestic fragility. The Friday session will unpack what that means for the industry's future.

Catalogue Deals: The Market Is Moving Fast

The Red Hot Chili Peppers sold all master recordings from Blood Sugar Sex Magik onwards to Warner Music Group in a deal worth more than £220 million, financed through Warner's joint venture with Bain Capital. Their publishing rights, sold separately in 2021, also changed hands this month when Sony Music Publishing acquired the Recognition catalogue covering 45,000 songs.

Same artist. Two separate rights positions. Two separate transactions. Five years apart. This is what rights separation looks like in practice, and why knowing exactly what you own, in which configuration, is the foundation of any serious catalogue conversation.

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The due diligence coming into these deals is forensic. Clean, structured rights data is not preparation for a future sale. It is table stakes for operating professionally today.

AI Disclosure Is Now Built into the Delivery Pipeline

Spotify rolled out AI song credits in beta in April, with DistroKid as the first distribution partner. When an artist or label declares AI involvement in vocals, lyrics or production at upload, that declaration travels via DDEX metadata and is displayed alongside the track credits in the Spotify mobile app. Apple Music has launched a parallel Transparency Tags system, now required as part of delivery for labels. EU AI Act enforcement on transparency begins in August 2026.

The underlying infrastructure is DDEX, the same standard that governs how rights data flows across the industry. Metadata is no longer only about discoverability and attribution. It is how content provenance and compliance obligations are managed at platform level.

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If your metadata practices are inconsistent, you are not just losing visibility. You are becoming unreadable to the systems the industry now runs on.

UK Government Backs Away from AI Copyright Exception

In March, the government abandoned plans to allow AI firms to use copyrighted works without permission, dropping the broad text and data mining exception following an industry campaign backed by Sir Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Sir Elton John and others. No AI Bill is expected in the May King's Speech.

The debate is not settled, but the direction of travel favours rights holders who have their catalogue properly documented. The Friday AI session at BMC will address where this lands practically for labels and publishers.

Feature Spotlight: DataDoktor

AI disclosure, metadata standards, catalogue valuations, and getting paid properly. Every conversation at BMC this week connects back to one thing: knowing what you own and being able to prove it.

DataDoktor is rightsHUB's automated catalogue quality control tool. It scans your entire catalogue against DSP and music recognition technology requirements, flags missing or inadequate data, and tells you exactly what needs updating and why. One scan. A clear action list.