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Un-Convention 68 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE Breaking the conventions and taking music back to the people Un-Convention: Echoing the history of the development of the University, there is now an active social enterprise movement in which the University supports the establishment of social enterprises as part of its knowledge transfer activity. One such social enterprise is called Un-Convention, and it is perhaps unsurprising that with the close relationship that has always existed in Manchester between its business community, its education and culture that this latest social enterprise is based on a radical music enterprise. Ruth Daniel started to play the guitar at the age of 10 in Burnley. By the time she was a teenager she had started a band and toured around the UK, gaining a great understanding of the music industry along the way. When she moved to Manchester she founded a co-operative music label with seven other bands to escape the dominance – albeit then declining – of the London- centric corporate music industry. Fat Northerner records worked with about 60 bands across all genres. This took bands from Manchester to events all over the world. It was one of the first labels really to exploit digital technology for distribution. The conventional music industry's reaction to the digital revolution was to resist it. Un-Convention was formed to exploit its democratic nature, not resist it, and develop conversations with, rather than exploit, the fan base. The first event was held in Salford five years ago – a new place for music events – and very quickly seven other events were launched all over the UK. Events cover every aspect of the music business through collaborations with independent grass roots organisations: performance, production, recording, app development and graphic design are just a few examples. Un-Convention "factories" write, perform, record, design and release an album in 24 hours.

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