MusicFutures Creative Cluster · 2025 – 2026
MusicFutures
Building a £7.2 million programme so that artists, researchers and companies across the Liverpool City Region could get on and innovate.
MusicFutures brings together artists, researchers, entrepreneurs, SMEs and industry partners to position the Liverpool City Region as a global hub for music innovation. It was awarded £6.75m of AHRC funding plus industry co-investment over five years from 2025, working with 27 regional and national partners across universities, industry and regional stakeholders.
My role sat at the centre of it: innovation strategy, technical research and development, funding programmes and cross-sector collaboration. The emphasis throughout was creative technology, immersive experiences, realtime production and AI-driven workflows, and how the next generation of music experiences gets made, distributed and paid for.
Alongside the programme I led data-mapping research into the UK creative industries. The headline finding, that Liverpool is the UK's most musical big-city economy with an AI sector rapidly catching up, was covered by the University of Liverpool, Insider Media and The Business Desk.