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Until April 1st, 2019 a Gold Pass (all showcase performances) is just $39! The Gold pass gets you access to every live performance at every venue during ECMC–over 75 performances at stages and venues throughout scenic and walkable Downtown Norfolk. A Platinum Pass (full conference) is just $69 through April 1st, 2019. The Full Conference Pass grants access to all of the public Conference activities including seminars, workshops, listening parties, networking & mentoring events, and featured and keynote speakers like John Rash and Matt Starr AND you also get access to every live show! Stay close to the action! Our host hotel is the Norfolk Waterside Marriott. Get our group rate here! If you use our rate you can also get a Platinum Pass for just $20 extra.

Here Are the Latest updates!

Warped Tour Founder Kevin Lyman Speaking at ECMC

Lyman has reimagined the live show and festival experience, shaped popular culture, and rocked corporate branding. Kevin founded the Vans Warped Tour in 1995 and curated and ran the groundbreaking festival throughout its 24-year run. In addition, Kevin has produced or promoted such live music experiences as Taste of Chaos, It’s Not Dead Festival, the Alternative Press Music Awards, Pilgrimage, Mayhem Festival, and Country Throwdown, among others.

His punk rock intrepidness, his steely commitment to philanthropic pursuits, his savvy business instincts, and his on-the-pulse aesthetic sensibility have guided him on a successful and winding career that has spanned 37 years. Today, Kevin embraces a new era of unbound creative and business opportunities with The Kevin Lyman Group, a premiere event production and strategy firm. “This is a rebirth, and I am looking forward to new opportunities and fresh challenges,” he says.

Central to Kevin’s work have been his core principles. “Punk rock is about challenging the norm and changing the world,” he says. “What’s guided me in this quest has been my philosophy which includes music, education, philanthropy, and bringing people together.”

Ice T is Coming to ECMC, Interviewing Seymour Stein!!

Ice T is one of the most iconic figures active in American music and television today. He began his career in the 80s and soon caught the eye of Seymour Stein of Sire Records. Ice T’s unique world view, street cred, musical range, and rebellious ethic catapulted him to the forefront of not just the rap world but the heyday of alternative rock.

Ice T’s The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech…Just Watch What You Say forever established his legitimacy with the punk/alt community and defined the civil rights bond between rap and rock communities. Ice T took on Tipper Gore and the PMRC head on…”Yo PMRC here we go. War”. The album also featured outspoken free speech advocate and Dead Kennedys front man Jello Biafra.

Ice T’s  rap career has been one of the longest in the industry and he is arguably almost as well known for his metal band Bodycount. The band rocketed to national prominence in the early 90s for their no-holds-barred challenges to musical convention and authority.

It’s no surprise that such a revolutionary and genre-bending artist caught the attention of Stein, the man credited with launching the Punk & New Wave movement in the U.S.

The two will be together again May 11 to cap off conference events at ECMC 2019! Ice T will discuss with Stein the latter’s career, their shared history, and the future. This is a rare conversation between two absolute Legends of Modern Music and is NOT TO BE MISSED.

Sire Records Founder Seymour Stein to Appear at ECMC 2019!

Sire Records founder Seymour Stein is coming to the East Coast Music Conference in 2019. Stein, whose influence on modern music is as great as it is diverse, will be sharing his experiences and insights in an interview format at the beautiful Roper Theatre on the Downtown campus of TCC, Granby Street in Norfolk. A signing of his latest book, Siren Song, will follow.

Stein is arguably America’s greatest record man. Not only has he signed and nurtured more important artists than anyone alive over the course of his sixty years in the music business, but he’s still the hippest label head, travelling the globe in search of the next big thing.

Since the late fifties, Stein’s been wherever it’s happening: Billboard, Tin Pan Alley, The British Invasion, CBGB, Studio 54, Danceteria, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, the CD crash. Along that winding path, Stein discovered and broke out a skyline full of stars: Madonna, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, The Cure, Ice-T, Lou Reed, Seal, Squeeze, and many others.

Whoa! Another Top 10 for ECMC? YEP!

It’s hard to believe, but after just the inaugural year the East Coast Music Conference has been named to a second Top Ten list! In November the Musically Speaking Podcast named ECMC a Top Ten Music Conference for 2019! Thanks to Musically Speaking for the props! We truly appreciate them and all of you.

College Magazine Names ECMC a “Can’t Miss Music Conference”!

College Magazine, a leading national publication for students with over 925,000 readers, has named ECMC to it’s list of “10 Can’t Miss Music Conferences”. We’re so humbled by this distinction and to have been placed among such amazing company. It’s not everyday you’re listed with SxSW and NAMM!

We want to thank all of the musicians, fans, industry pros and everyone else who helped make the first year of ECMC great! We’ll see you in May!

ECMC Artists The Foxfires Earn Licensing Deal & Major Article !!

In 2018 The Foxfires made the trip from New York to ECMC. The band played an outdoor gig that was blazing hot in a couple of ways. Fans loved them and other artists sang their praises. However The Foxfires came for more than the gig (as every performing artists should!) The band took full benefit of the more than 30 conferences, panels, and speakers.

Like many artists, The Foxfires took advantage of the talks given by Curtis Clark of Homemadesoul Music. Curtis is himself an accomplished musician of many years experience who began a second career in the publishing and licensing

world. Cutis and Homemadesoul have many artists signed to their roster and place music all over the world. At ECMC 2018, Curtis’ sessions were packed. In one case not only was every seat filled, but people sat on the floor, the tabletops, and stood along the wall. We were just waiting to be told we’d have to throw some people out. Fortunately that didn’t happen (and this year we have a bigger space for Curtis!).

The Foxfires were in one of Curtis’ overflow sessions and, if you read the headline, you know where this is going! The Foxfires struck up a conversation with Curtis. He immediately recognized their talent and knew, based on his vast experience, what markets to take them to. A deal was struck and now The Foxfires, thanks to their hard work and drive to build a better career, are getting paid for licensing their music. Would it have happened if they hadn’t come to ECMC? Probably, they’re pretty great! But we like to think we made it happen sooner and more easily.

And if that weren’t enough, our booking partner, Sonicbids, got wind of this story and blasted it out to a couple of hundred thousand SB users. Check it out here! The opportunities at ECMC are pretty much endless, and this year The Foxfires will be among several artists coming back to share their experiences. So we’ll see you in May right?

ECMC Named a Preferred Promoter by Sonicbids

In early November Sonicbids rolled out a new program to their few hundred thousand loyal users called Sonicbids Preferred. ECMC is proud to be one of just a handful of promoters and events in the world to receive this distinction so far. The Preferred designation comes with a special badge online to let artists know that these are the best of the best promoters and events on Sonicbids. We are very proud and humbled to have received this distinction and it comes as a result of the feedback of artists who’ve worked with us. We are not perfect, but we want to be, at least when it comes to taking care of the artists who come to ECMC to learn and/or perform. We’ll keep working to make ECMC better and better so you can keep coming to spend some time with us and make your music career better and better! Check out our fancy new badge here! Thank you Sonicbids!

 

Big News!! Big News!! Sparky Quano Returns to ECMC!!

We’re excited to announce that Sparky Quano will be making a return trip for ECMC 2019!! For those who missed him last year, Sparky is a one man guitar orchestra from Tokyo. He took ECMC 2018 by storm with his music and his personality. Sparky was everywhere, making friends and leading us to name him the unofficial ambassador of ECMC. He, along with many other artists, really exemplified the vibe of love and community that makes ECMC special. Come check out his amazing guitar skills this May!

Well Respected Rock Drummer and Career Coach for Musicians, Matt Starr, Featured Speaker at ECMC 2019!

Matt Starr is a Rock Star drummer who has recorded and toured with members of KISS, Guns n Roses, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi and others. In the studio Matt has recorded with producers Jimmy Bralower (VP A&R Atlantic Records, Mick Jagger), Toby Wright (Metallica, Alice In Chains, Korn), Mike Chapman (Blondie, The Knack), Dave Bianco (AC/DC, Tom Petty, KISS), and others.

Being a Rock Star is not about being famous or even being a musician, it’s about Exceptionalism. “Everyday I live my own words.”, says Matt. “If this didn’t work, you would have never heard of me, because I’d be stuck where I was. My approach works for anyone with a dream.”

Matt has spent the past several years sharing his story and teaching The Rock Star Code around the world through keynote addresses, group workshops and one-on-one coaching sessions.

The Virginia Premiere of the Film Negro Terror, A Presentation by the Film Maker and a Performance by the Band!

ECMC 2019 will host the Virginia Premiere of the punk documentary NEGRO TERROR!

Negro Terror is an all African-American punk band from Memphis, Tennessee and the subject of John Rash’s new documentary  on the band.

John Rash is a professor at Ole’ Miss and in addition to the film premiere he’ll be speaking on why he made Negro Terror and reasons for making documentaries about other bands that may not be household names just yet. The film was made in conjunction with the Southern Documentary project which “produces works of documentary storytelling from the perspective of studying the American South.”

In addition to his work with The Southern Documentary Project and teaching at the University of Mississippi, Professor Rash has taught at Duke University in North Carolina and worked for the University in Kunshan China where he also did additional documentary and commercial film work. He holds an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Art from Duke University.

To see the film, attend John Rash’s presentation and get access to every live show for just $69, click here!