Creativity + AI: Music

Presented in partnership by Creative Manchester, Digital Futures and the Turing Innovation Catalyst (TIC) Manchester, the CreaTech 2025 series of events aims to support the development of a network of industry professionals working in CreaTech and related industries, CreaTech being the intersection between Creativity and Technology.

The 2025 events build on an initial series of CreaTech Network Events hosted in 2024, which brought together people in Greater Manchester working in CreaTech, exploring potential opportunities for innovation, and to facilitate partnerships between the university and the wider Greater Manchester Business Community.

Throughout this series AI will be the focus and approached via three different themes. The pace of development of this technology is rapid and leads the creative sector into previously unchartered territory, which may prove as much a threat as it provides opportunity to the future of the creative and cultural industries.

At this event the focus will be on AI and Music, exploring how creative businesses can take advantage of emerging technologies and create opportunities for innovation and knowledge exchange. A panel of expert speakers will explore applications, challenges and opportunities of AI in the Music industry.

The event will feature short talks from expert speakers, an insightful panel discussion, and will bring together researchers, educators, students, policymakers, and businesses from the creative and cultural industries sector in Greater Manchester to share knowledge and experiences.

About the speakers

Ricardo Climent is Professor of Interactive Music Composition at the University of Manchester and Director of the NOVARS Research Centre. NOVARS promotes and explores the intersection of music and scientific research, including a focus on AI and machine learning for music and sonification — developed in collaboration with experts from the Alliance Manchester Business School and Computer Science. Ricardo’s AI-driven projects include B is for Bird (2016), using synthetic data for species classification; Virtuoso Project (2018) and Sonic Tales of a Windsurfer (2024) combining machine learning and human biometrics; AI Beatboxer (2022) with beatbox champion Giorgos Gargalas; and Harpōon (2026), exploring whale sounds, whale-bone percussion, and soprano voice in a game engine environment. In 2021, he co-founded UnSupervised, a machine learning for music collective uniting composers, musicians, computer scientists, and audiovisual artists across NOVARS, the AMBS, CS and PRiSM (RNCM). His research lies at the crossroads of physical and digital creativity, creating immersive musical experiences through game engines.

More at unsupervised.uk and ricardocliment.com.

Dave O’Brien is Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries at the University of Manchester. Since completing his PhD on urban cultural policy in the Department of Sociology at the University of Liverpool, he has written extensively on key issues in the cultural and creative economy. These include the use of culture in urban regeneration, how policymakers use evidence, the stratification of cultural consumption, and inequalities in cultural work. He is the co-author of Culture is bad for you, the Panic! report, the Creative Majority and the Making the Creative Majority report. He has twice been an advisor to the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee inquiries, and has recently worked with the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee on their At Risk: Our Creative Future report.

Pete Woodbridge is a Creative Technologist working at the intersection of games, film, music and immersive experiences. Currently the R&D Innovation lead for the MusicFutures AHRC Creative Cluster at the University of Liverpool. His former roles include R&D Director at the Mediacity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub, where he led on incubating new products, services and collaborations with realtime and AI technology, including setting up the DreamLab Incubator. He has previously held software development roles in a number of technology and games studios and has worked on innovations with Aardman Animations, BBC, ITV, Monster, NBC and many more. Find out about his work here.

Rob Oldfield is the co-founder and CEO of Salsa Sound, a Manchester-based startup bringing to the market AI-based software tools for immersive audio mix automation and quality control applications for live audio production and distribution. Rob’s background is as an academic at Salford University where he obtained his PhD and worked as a research consultant before founding Salsa Sound in 2017.