Ecosystem & Policy: Building a Music Scene That Lasts

Music scenes don’t get built by themselves. Behind every thriving ‘music city’ is a web of decisions spanning policy, investment, infrastructure, and community. While the decision-makers may not always be put under the spotlight, they are the foundation of a successful ecosystem.

At Music Summit Malta, we’re pulling these people together, from safeguarding advocates and studio founders to policymakers and platform builders, all working through the same question from different angles: what does it take to build a music ecosystem that lasts?

Day 1

01 / 03 / Day 1

Micro-Cities: How Music Spaces Model Access, Inclusion and Safety at Scale

Some of the most important experiments in nightlife and live music happen not in major capitals, but in small, tightly-knit scenes where venues, promoters and communities know each other directly.

Moderated by Tina, a recognised face in Malta’s electronic music community, this session explores what these "micro-cities", Malta included, can teach larger markets about building spaces that are genuinely accessible, inclusive, and safe, and whether the intimacy that makes small scenes work can be deliberately engineered into bigger ones as they scale up.

Tina is joined by Pia Micallef, a Maltese policy specialist and co-founder of MeToo Music – #ForTheMusic, who has spent years building safeguarding initiatives against harassment and abuse for major promoters and festivals across Europe and the Americas, including the award-winning MeTooEP movement.

Rob Burn brings the perspective of physical infrastructure as founder of Ten87 Studios, one of London's leading independent studio communities, and more recently Radial, a new sound-first live venue built with Arts Council England and Greater London Authority funding.

Michelle Daurat, Chief Executive of Sunderland Music City CIC, brings two decades of place-based cultural leadership, having helped drive Sunderland's transformation into an internationally connected Music City.

Finally, Dan Tsu, founder of Levelling The Field, The Beat Bank, and Lyrix Organix, brings a direct track record in access and youth-led social action, having built inclusion-focused programming at Glastonbury and beyond.

Safeguarding, infrastructure, strategy, and access: these are all necessary to build a scene that holds up at scale.

02 / 03 / Day 1

Building Creative Economies That Last - How governments, industry and entrepreneurs create sustainable music ecosystems

Successful music industries are rarely built by individual organisations alone. They emerge when governments, educational institutions, entrepreneurs, investors, and cultural organisations align around a shared vision.

Moderated by Matthias Strobel Hohmann, President of MusicTech Germany, this panel gathers several of the industry’s key figures.

Chairperson of Silicon Valletta, Simon Azzopardi, brings 20 years of experience building tech and startup businesses across the EU, UK, and US, along with a direct read on what Malta's tech ecosystem needs to grow.

Nikki Camilleri, a Forbes 30 Under 30 music executive and founder of consultancy mana, brings industry-side experience from Warner Music, Believe, Glastonbury, and now BMG, alongside her ties to Malta as an advisor to AISO Academy and Music Summit Malta.

Cultural Diplomacy and Partnerships Executive at Arts Council Malta, Ġorġ Vella, will speak through the policy lens, with his research background in the politics of rave culture giving him a rare bridge between institutional cultural policy and the grassroots electronic scene he's embedded in as a DJ.

This panel spans 3 pivotal pillars that make up a good music ecosystem — tech, industry and policy — which determine if an ecosystem lasts, or falls behind.

Day 2

03 / 03 / Day 2

Presenting: Highlights of the local ecosystem

Opening Day 2, this session, moderated by Aidan Somers, draws on examples from Malta and leading international markets, exploring how creative economies develop over time, how policy can encourage innovation and what practical steps smaller markets can take to compete globally.

Somers is joined by Tristan Perrin, co-founder of Pulse, the media and events platform he built from the ground up across Malta, Budapest, Lisbon, and Porto through hands-on experience.

Jeanine Rodgers Scerri, an established local music journalist who runs her own platform, Musika Underground Malta, and hosts the local music TV show Backstage.TV, brings a journalist's perspective on how Malta's music scene is actually perceived and covered.

Learn from the people who live and breathe the local music scene, and set the tone for Day 2 with an honest look at where the Maltese ecosystem stands.

Meet the people who are making it happen. Head over to Music Summit Malta on the 8th and 9th of October 2026, and stay ahead of the curve.