Primavera Sound Barcelona 2025 is just around the corner, and we can’t wait (🤫 yes, the whole SubmitHub team will be there 🤩). While we’ll definitely soak up the festival’s music, we’re equally excited for PrimaveraPRO – the festival’s professional conference side. It's a way for us to meet fellow music industry folks and get inspired by the latest ideas in music and tech (and one can’t have enough of that, if you ask us). This year’s conference lineup looks quite awesome, and we’ve decided to share five talks that we’re particularly eager to attend.
Ok, the number one pick we’re particularly excited about is, naturally, Music Marketing in 2025: How to Cut Through the Noise. Who better to know that new songs drop literally every minute, and that learning fresh strategies to stand out as a musician is invaluable..? (yup, that’s why we add new features for you every other week 😉)
So, yeah, as a team dedicated to helping artists get their music out there, we know how challenging it is to cut through the static, and we’re hoping to pick up on some fresh ideas, new approaches, and inspiration for more features (to come later this year) from Ryan Peterson & Felipe Martínez from Stellar Music there 🤩
Another session you’ll find us at is Is Authenticity Dead? Crafting Narratives for a Lasting Audience Connection. The title alone sparks a bit of debate: in this time of curated social media personas (and, lately, more and more AI ones to that), how can artists stay real and still really make their fans feel connected and engaged? We can’t help but love this topic because storytelling is a big part of music promotion, from the About and quick pitch to the social content and playlisting approaches… and genuine connections are what turn casual listeners into loyal fans. We’re eager to hear Andrew Mishko’s and Arina Logacheva’s (Ohlogy) take on balancing authenticity vs. the narrative.
A Fundamental Issue: How Do People Perceive Music’s Value? would be another talk we’ll certainly attend. What is music worth to listeners today? That’s exactly the question we’re trying to find out the answer to ourselves, and the answer is, mostly, a balancing act. As streaming and easy access have changed how people engage with songs, fans are simply not valuing music the way they used to – and the answer(s) by (not only) Will Page & Hanna Kahlert (MIDiA Research) can affect a lot, from pricing and promotion to the emotional impact of music in 2025 and beyond.
So, uhm, yeah, the title of the next one: Blind Algorithms: The Invisible Bias in Music Metadata – The De-Automation of Equality, Metadata with Perspective for a Fairer Industry, might be a mouthful. BUT. It tackles a really pressing, although not very obvious, issue: the algorithmic bias in music discovery. As the world of music becomes increasingly algorithm-driven, we’re aware that hidden biases in fact do affect which artists get heard – and we’re more than curious to explore how metadata (the information behind each track) might be unintentionally favoring some songs over others.
Let’s see what Roser Batlle Roca (Music Technology Group), Cori Chinnici (BMAT), Javier Lorbada (music pitcher), and Thais Ruiz de Alda (DigitalFems) have to say about this – we’ll make sure to keep you posted!
Ok, let’s close the top 5 debates you’ll meet us at – the last (but not least) one we’re keen to attend is… drumroll, please… Cap a una sector musical més sostenible: models i estratègies (Towards a More Sustainable Music Sector). We all know that the music industry’s environmental impact is a growing concern, from touring emissions to festival waste. We’re simply excited to hear about new ideas and strategies for making our industry greener and more sustainable, and with that, making the world a better place. After all, we all want the music we love to thrive in a healthy world for years to come, right? And so, we couldn’t be more excited to catch Laia Sucarrats Clotet (Festival Cantilafont), Judith Pi i Riubrugent (Palau de la Música Catalana), Alexis Rossell and Giada Calvando (Chloe Sustainability) – no, not only because we need to to dust off our Spanish – and many others at PrimaveraPRO 2025.
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If you’re attending the conference or the festival, please come say hello – connecting with other music industry folks is one of the best parts of these events (if not THE best part 😉).
Also worth noting: PrimaveraPRO continues to spotlight emerging local artists from Catalonia, with a diverse lineup of acts playing free showcases at the CCCB (from GUINEU and okdw to Remei de Ca la Fresca and xicu). We’re excited to catch some of them live and experience firsthand how the Catalan scene keeps evolving.
And if you can’t make it, stay tuned; we’ll definitely share some of our favorite insights when we’re back.
See you in Barcelona!