On Thursday 5 November as part of Music Summit, which is part of Web Summit, Cliff Chenfeld from New York label Razor and Tie and Dave Chumbley from Primary Talent International will take part in a discussion titled ‘Are Record Labels Still Relevant?’.

The discussion asks: with more people now discovering music via social media, how do record labels remain relevant? 

The panel discussion is one of thirteen events taking place during the one-day summit at the RDS, and which also includes speakers Matthew Ogle from Spotify, Chris Kaskie from Pichfork, Denzyl Feigelson from Apple, John Amato from Billboard, Simon Taylor from the National Concert Hall and Steve Angello from Swedish House Mafia.

Topics covered include, ‘What “discovery” really means’, ’Making music media matter’, ‘Classical music in a digital age’ and ‘Transparency, music’s next big battleground’.

For the full Music Summit schedule see here: https://websummit.net/schedule

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Meanwhile, on 7–8 November at the inaugural Metropolis festival (also at the RDS), author Gareth Murphy, who recently made the case in these pages for the importance of labels, will host a ‘Future of Music’ discussion with Darius Van Arman of US indie label Secretly Group. 

The discussion is one of several taking place at Metropolis: Ruth Bradley will take part in a panel on music and film; Nelson George and Rob Doyle explore music and literature; and M&E Design and The Project Twins will talk about music and graphic design. Le Galaxie, Mark Ronson, Booka Brass Band and Kormac’s Big Band are just some of the acts performing at the festival. See the full-line up here: http://metropolisfestival.ie/music/

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Finally, here’s a round-up of what some Irish labels are doing: Ergodos have just released an album of chamber music by Kevin Volans, a fiddle duet by Frankie Gavin and Malachy Bourke and an album of cello music by Christopher Fox; Ensemble Records are launching an EP by pianist and composer Conor Walsh on 31 October; Reekus Records will shortly release a new EP by cult band The Blades; Raelach Records will soon release an album by fiddle-player Claire Egan; Heresy Records has just released an album by composer Roger Doyle and will shortly release Falling Into Now by pop chanteuse Constance Hauma; Rubyworks have recently released the debut EP by Otherkin; Cló Iar-Chonnacht have just released Across the Sound by Oisín and Conal Hernon and The Legacy by Ronan Browne and Peter O’Loughlin; Gael Linn have recently released new albums by singer Gráinne Holland, and traditional musicians Éamonn O’Riordan and Tony O’Connell; and Diatribe have released The Three Forges by the Cork Gamelan Ensemble.

To hear tracks from some of these albums, visit our Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/journalofmusic