The annual music industry event will kick off later this week.
Popkomm, the annual international trade show for music and entertainment professionals, will once again be invading Berlin this week.
The event, which began as a humble assemblage of music industry players in 1989, has grown into one of the world's most important music conferences. It's taken place in Berlin since 2004 and houses an exhibition where the latest in music technology is presented, a conference where key speakers talk about the future of the business and bands try to make it big in front of some of the biggest A&R guys in the world.
And while those 390 euro walk-up tickets to enter into the conference don't seem all that enticing and, sure, the official DJ Popkomm events are a tad lack luster (with a few notable exceptions), there certainly is nothing stopping the Berlin clubs, labels and promoters from upping their game. RA teams up with Whatpeopleplay at Weekend will kick things off nicely—in our minds, at least, while Todd Terje, Italoboyz, Anja Schneider, Henrik Schwarz, Ellen Allien, Heiko Laux, Ewan Pearson, Mathew Jonson, Reboot, Pier Bucci, Dubfire and Richie Hawtin will all be playing at some point over the course of the very long weekend. And those are just the headliners.
Listed below are three events each night that RA recommends hitting, but you'd be silly not to check out the full Berlin listings for the week here. For details on all of the Popkomm events which include indie/rock/metal/jazz and most other forms of music, check the official Popkomm programme here.