Beyond The Music to bring Steve Coogan and Michael Winterbottom to 2026 edition

The music and media industry forum, which runs alongside its new music showcase festival, has released its first batch of speaker announcements and opened initial seat releases for the event's centrepiece, the All Content AI Summit. The full programme takes place across four days, from 6-9 October, with the AI summit closing out proceedings on the Friday.

This year's conference carries the title Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, continuing Beyond The Music's stated aim of tackling the biggest issues facing the creative industries. The AI summit will bring together figures from music, tech, film and gaming alongside political representatives, with organisers framing the day around producing a rights-based position on artificial intelligence, dubbed the Manchester Principles, intended to balance protections for artists with room for commercial growth.

As well as Coogan and Winterbottom – who brought the city's legendary 80's music scene to life in 24 Hour Party People – the speaker list includes several senior figures from UK music and broadcasting, including Stacey Tang, Co-President of RCA Records UK and chair of the BRIT Awards Committee, Sophie Jones, the incoming CEO of the Royal Television Society, and YolanDa Brown OBE DL, artist and chair of the BPI. Craig, who was appointed Mayor of Greater Manchester earlier this year, rounds out the list of headline names.

The conference will also run a strand of sessions under the banner "The team behind…", built around the people managing some of the year's most discussed campaigns. Tommas Arnby, the executive and promoter who manages Yungblud, and Dan Lambert, who manages Kneecap, will each take part in sessions examining the work behind their respective artists. Further additions to that strand are expected before the festival.

Elsewhere on the bill, Tom Gray of the Ivors Academy will deliver an address, while Dr Jo Twist OBE, chief executive of the BPI, gives a keynote. British-Ugandan singer-songwriter Daudi Matsiko will take part in an "In Conversation" session run in partnership with the charity Music Support. Michael Adex, founder of NQ and manager of Manchester rapper Aitch, returns to Beyond The Music this year in a dual role as speaker and curator, with Sunderland songwriter Tom A Smith among those joining him on the bill.