Change the Beat makes its London debut at fabric with panels, exhibition and club night

Change the Beat, the global music non-profit founded by Sydney Blu, made its London debut at fabric on October 15, bringing together more than 40 artists, music professionals and organisations. Spanning 12 hours, the event combined panels, networking, the Women Who Shaped Electronic Music photo exhibition and a club night in fabric’s Main Room. The event focused on creating greater access and representation for women and gender expansive artists while giving emerging talent the chance to meet people working across labels, agencies, festivals and nightlife.

Industry Panels Focus on Building a Career in Electronic Music

Hosted by Sunita Dhaliwal of The Everyday Agency, the daytime sessions featured three panels exploring the practical realities of building a career in electronic music. Discussions covered how DJs can get booked in London, what artists need to know about signing with an A-list dance label, and how management and agency representation works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Taking part were Alex Holland of Broadwick Live, Martha Bolton of Not Bad For A Girl, Pete Jordan of Junction 2 and LWE, Steven Braines of HE.SHE.THEY, Andy Henderson of Southern Fried and Knee Deep In Sound, and Chris Goss of Hospital Records. They were joined by Miles Shackleton of Toolroom, Daniel Curpen of Anjunadeep, Frances Shillito of Night Department, Kal Jhugroo of CAA, Shanae Dennis of The Team and Lucy Harrower of Frame Artists.

With Katie Knight, Sydney Blu and Finlay Johnson moderating the discussions, emerging artists heard directly about bookings, A&R, labels, management and agency representation. The conversations focused on how these areas work in practice and what artists need to understand when trying to build long-term careers.

Women Who Shaped Electronic Music Celebrates 18 Pioneering Artists

The daytime event also included the Women Who Shaped Electronic Music photo exhibition, recognising 18 women whose work has left a lasting mark on the scene. Featured artists included ANNA, Annie Mac, Crystal Waters, DJ Minx, DJ Paulette, DJ Rap, Eli & Fur, Honey Dijon, Ida Engberg, Lottie, Lisa Lashes, Maya Jane Coles, Nicole Moudaber, Sam Divine, Sister Bliss of Faithless, Smokin Jo, Superjane and Ultra Naté.

By placing those artists alongside conversations about access and representation today, the exhibition also showed how women have helped shape different parts of electronic music over several decades. Their work across DJing, production, radio, live events and club culture gave the event a wider look at the history behind many of the conversations taking place that day.

The Event Continues Into fabric’s Main Room

As the daytime sessions came to an end, the focus moved to fabric’s Main Room for a club night featuring TSHA, Kitty Amor, Sydney Blu, Emily Nash and N1NJA. Bringing the conference and club night together allowed the event to connect conversations about representation and artist development with the music itself.

Proceeds from the night will support Change the Beat’s international artist development programme, which provides education, mentorship and career support for women and gender expansive artists. The organisation is also working towards its pledge to help 300 artists secure label opportunities by 2028.

Change the Beat Continues Its International Growth

Sydney Blu originally founded the organisation in 2021 as 23by23, with support from Native Instruments and in partnership with Beatport. Since then, Change the Beat has grown into an international artist development platform with more than 1,200 members, offering education, mentorship, workshops, masterclasses, showcases and live events across the UK, US, Canada and Europe.

Artists who have taken part in its work have later released music through labels including Armada, Drumcode, Anjunadeep, Anjunabeats, Toolroom, Insomniac Records, HE.SHE.THEY, Dirtybird, mau5trap and REALM. Change the Beat has also won the Beatport Parity Prize for nonprofit excellence in dance music and received a 2024 Organisation of the Year nomination from Women in Music Canada.

For Sydney Blu, bringing Change the Beat to fabric marked an important moment after several years of developing the organisation internationally. She described the London event as a chance to bring an industry conference, a celebration of pioneering women and a club night together in one day, while confirming that plans are already underway for 2027.

Following its first London event, Change the Beat is preparing for further international dates next year as it continues supporting women and gender expansive artists across the electronic dance music scene. The fabric debut showed how its education, artist development and live events can come together in one place, while giving its community direct access to people working across different areas of the music business.