SMIA announces Summit 2025 and development of Scottish Music Industry Roadmap (2026-30)
The Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) has announced the return and evolution of its annual conference with the SMIA Summit 2025 – a major two-day event taking place at The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow on Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September.
Building on last year’s digital pilot, this year’s in-person Summit – delivered in partnership with Creative Scotland, Glasgow Life, Glasgow UNESCO City of Music and UK Music – will bring together 200+ artists, industry professionals, stakeholders and policymakers for two days of connection, knowledge-sharing and strategic planning. Each day will feature thematic panel discussions and structured roundtables, with all contributions helping inform the Scottish Music Industry Roadmap (2026–30) – a strategic action plan that will guide sector development from 2026 onwards.
Panellists include Scottish artists Liam Shortall (corto.alto), Conor Goldie (Vlure), Emma Pollock (The Delgados, Chemikal Underground Records & Chem19 Recording Studios) and Stina Tweeddale (Honeyblood, also Scotland Coordinator for the Music Venue Trust), alongside key sector representatives across various areas of the industry. These include Denise Allan (677 Media Management, representing Glasvegas), Hamish Fingland (Bounse Management, representing Walt Disco, Lucia & The Best Boys and Jacob Alon), Leo Fakhrul (Mamba Sounds – tech/A&R), and Aarti Joshi (Coach, Presenter, Artist Manager and Marketing Consultant), with the full speaker line-up available at www.smia.org.uk/summit-25
With limited venue capacity, the in-person Summit is a curated, invite-only event, designed to ensure diverse representation from across the SMIA’s membership and wider music industry stakeholders. However, today also marks the opening of registration for the SMIA Summit: Digital, launching the week beginning Monday 6 October and free to all SMIA members. Designed to ensure accessible and inclusive engagement, the digital edition will feature professionally filmed panels from the in-person Summit, presented “as live”, alongside interactive virtual roundtables – providing valuable insight and connection for anyone working in, or aspiring to work in, Scotland’s music industry.
Register now for the digital SMIA Summit 2025 at www.smia.org.uk/summit-25
The SMIA Summit 2025 comes off the back of a major development for Scottish music and culture earlier this year. Following the announcement of Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Funding portfolio for 2025–28 and the largest-ever culture sector investment by the Scottish Government, Scotland’s music community enters a new phase of opportunity and challenge.
While 46 music-focused organisations secured multi-year support – more than doubling previous figures – feedback gathered by the SMIA revealed the lasting impact of delays, uncertainty and financial pressure on organisations and individuals alike. Many highlighted the urgent need for coordinated sector development, long-term vision and meaningful support.
The Scottish Music Industry Roadmap (2026–30) – shaped by insights from the Summit followed by wider consultation – will respond directly to this need. The Roadmap will launch in April 2026, underpinning the SMIA’s advocacy throughout 2026–27 and beyond.
Robert Kilpatrick, CEO and Creative Director of the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA), said:
“Following a tough and turbulent few years, we’ve entered a new chapter for Scotland’s music industry and broader cultural sector. To maximise impact and opportunity, it’s important that we come together, share perspectives and co-design the solutions and innovations our sector needs.
The SMIA Summit will connect voices from across the industry, creating the space for meaningful dialogue and collaborative thinking. Insights from these conversations will directly inform the development of a Scottish Music Industry Roadmap, ensuring it reflects the realities and ambitions of our community and provides a clear and unified sector vision for the years to come.
Whether you’re joining us in person or online, your contributions are vital. As the national membership and development organisation for Scotland’s music industry, the SMIA is committed to being a strategic vehicle of support – uniting people, ideas and resources to strengthen and sustain our sector for the long term.”
Alan Morrison, Head of Music at Creative Scotland, said: “The Scottish Government’s uplift to the culture budget, which led to the SMIA and several other organisations receiving stable three-year support through Creative Scotland’s Multi Year Funding programme, has created an exciting new landscape of possibilities for the arts in Scotland. Timing is excellent, therefore, for the first in-person instalment of the SMIA Summit. This important event offers a unique opportunity for the Scottish music sector to join forces and address the challenges arising in the music industry now and in the future. By sharing the hard-won perspectives and first-hand knowledge of those at the heart of the sector – the artists, managers, bookers and many others – we can build a strong combined approach that places Scottish music at the forefront of global industry thinking.”
Katie Duffy, Head of Arts and Music at Glasgow Life, said: “Glasgow was the UK’s first UNESCO City of Music and it is known globally as a cultural hotspot, so it feels fitting our city has been chosen to help shape the future of Scotland’s music scene by hosting the 2025 Scottish Music Industry Association Summit. Our city is the cultural and production powerhouse of Scotland, with four of the country’s five national performing arts companies based here and 41% of Scotland’s actors, dancers and broadcasters, and 38% of the country’s musicians, calling Glasgow home. Glasgow boasts a wide-ranging cultural offer and has more than 100 creative organisations and over 20 museums and galleries, which were part of the reason it was named the UK’s top cultural and creative city by the European Commission in 2019.
We are grateful to have been given the opportunity to share the successes and aims of Glasgow’s Culture Strategy 2024-2030 as part of the Summit programme. Glasgow Life is also looking forward to working with artists, creatives and industry representatives to produce a roadmap for Scotland’s music sector which will strengthen its value at home and on the world stage.”
The SMIA Summit 2025 will feature four key panel discussions, each followed by focused roundtables. The topics span the full breadth of sector development, from skills, equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (EDIA) and fair work to creative sustainability, regional investment and global strategy.
Panel titles include:
● Levelling the Stage – Prioritising Skills Development For a Fairer, More Inclusive Music Industry
● From Survival to Sustainability – Securing Creative Futures in Scotland’s Music Industry
● Local Sounds, National Strategy – Aligning Place-Based Practice with Sector Development
● Scotland’s Music Industry on the Global Stage – Sharing the Soundtrack and Stories of Our Lives
Angus Robertson, Cabinet Secretary for Culture at the Scottish Government, will also speak at the Summit, formally concluding the programme on day one.
These conversations will bring together artists, sector leaders, community organisers and policymakers to explore how Scotland’s music industry can be made fairer, more resilient and more ambitious in a rapidly changing world.
Registrations are now open for the SMIA Summit: Digital, launching the week beginning Monday 6 October. Free to all SMIA members, the digital edition ensures accessible, inclusive participation – whether you're an artist, student, freelancer, entrepreneur or established industry professional.
The event will include:
● Professionally filmed panels from the in-person event, presented online “as live”
● Virtual roundtables, enabling SMIA members across Scotland to share views and shape future strategy
● Opportunities to connect, reflect and feed into the development of the Scottish Music Industry Roadmap (2026–30)
Sign up now at www.smia.org.uk/summit-25. SMIA membership is free and open to anyone working in – or aspiring to work in – Scotland’s music industry.