It is no longer accurate to say that the music industry is dying. Sure, it is struggling and fighting a hard battle against its many demons, like piracy and TV channels closure, etc, but the spirit to both make music and appreciate it is thriving.

The underground is an exciting place, emerging from the obscurity and exclusivity of those who actively seek to find it, to headline-making acts like the seven acts who earned a separate showcase at one of the largest music festivals in the world, SXSW.

Now, we have another praise-worthy initiative, a music festival of our own. Called Lahore Music Meet, the ongoing event is like the literary festival for musicians.

In addition to workshops, live performances, a display of music instruments (music mela) and storytelling, the event includes an extensive range of panel discussions ranging from the business aspects of music like corporate patronage, self-marketing and new models of distribution to genre-specific concerns like classical music in the modern age, the future of indie music and the scope of metal music in Pakistan.

Reflecting the industry’s self-starter spirit, LMM is also the brainchild of a group of students from Lahore, namely founders Natasha Noorani, Zahra Paracha, Hasan Abbas, Noor Habib, Creative Director Ayesha Haroon and Director Programmes Sarah N. Ahmed.

Kudos to the young team for their passion to the cause; everyone can guess the time and energy that takes into pulling off a two-day event of such a scale.

For their efforts to generate a dialogue about the future and celebrate the current success of the music industry, the LMM team is Instep’s Hotstepper of the Week!