Sound City has announced a host of additional acts ahead of its 2016 festival, as well as a digital app, education showcases and an international strategy deal.

Eliza and the Bear, White, Elle Exxe, The Wholls, Visual Archtiects and Queen City Stoop Kids are just some of the 50-plus acts that have been confirmed to play the festival.

Catfish and the Bottlemen, The Coral, Leftfield, Hot Chip (DJ set), Pete Doherty, The Dandy Warhols, 2ManyDJs and Young Fathers are set to headline this year.

“We are tremendously excited about this year’s festival,” said Sound City CEO David Pichilingi. “We worked incredibly hard on the site to transform it into a truly jaw-dropping setting and the line-up has to be the best we’ve ever booked with all our headline acts at the top of their games – Catfish and the Bottlemen are smashing it with upcoming album, The Ride, The Coral are getting rave reviews for Distance Inbetween and have a new single out the day before Sound City starts and Band of Skulls release By Default the day before they play our main stage. It doesn’t get more current than that.”

New digital app
Just four weeks out from its 2016 festival, Sound City has also announced a new digital app, sponsored by Deezer. The app, developed by SecondScreen, will allow festivalgoers to schedule their own programme, share content and get access to exclusive material from the Sound City conference and festival. It is available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

Education a priority
Leeds College of Music, University of Westminster and Edge Hill University (a four-year partner of the festival) will all present showcases at Sound City 2016. Edge Hill’s The Label Recordings will host two showcases on The Cavern Stage, with confirmed acts including Shrinking Minds, Youth Hostel, Cavalry and more.

Pichilingi said: “We’ve still got some surprises up our sleeves with a full arts and culture programme and our much anticipated commissions to be announced in the coming weeks. It’s going to be a stunning weekend with over 200 artists performing across nine stages from 12pm till 12am each day.”

Partnering with China
Sound City also recently announced a new long-term and strategic equity partner deal with Chinese independent record label Modern Sky Entertainment.

Modern Sky Entertainment will step into the place of Ingenious Media, who are exiting their four-year partnership with Sound City. The Chinese label is now the sole global partners with the Liverpudlian festival and conference.

Shen Li Hui, founder, Modern Sky Entertainment, said: “The city of Liverpool is the birthplace of the music that influenced our growing years. Liverpool Sound City is a hugely interesting and very diverse music festival. Coming in partnership with Sound City is a great first step for Modern Sky venturing overseas. David Pichilingi has a great deal of experience and we can learn a lot from him and his team. We are very lucky to become Sound City’s strategic partner. We also believe that Sound City will be a new platform to open the European market up for Chinese music talents.”

Pichilingi commented: “This partnership is an exciting new step for Sound City. Shen Li Hui is a truly inspirational individual.  He has built Modern Sky into a huge and credible name. More importantly he has done this by working with artists in an ethical and moral way that recognises the ownership and commercial importance of their intellectual property. He has built an amazing company and we look forward to working closely together to increase brand awareness and deliver our shared vision in China, UK and internationally.”

To celebrate the partnership, Modern Sky will have a presence at Sound City and will co-host an event with Sound City at the International Festival of Business in June.

Photo credit: Michelle Roberts