IN The City, Manchester's annual music conference, has extended the deadline for unsigned bands to send in their demos.

Acts were initially told they must submit their entries by Monday, June 28 to be considered to perform at the In The City Unsigned showcases, which in previous years have acted as stepping stones in the careers of Oasis, Muse, The Darkness and Coldplay.

However, ITC organisers have confirmed that bands have until Friday, July 30 to send their 3 track CD, biography and photo to the A&R team, who will then spend August sifting through the entries before announcing a list of 50 bands to play at the conference which this year takes place from September 18 to 21,

Mark Hart, In The City's head of marketing, told ManchesterOnline: "The deadline hasn't been extended, really. It's always the end of July. We've received 1485 entries so far and having dipped into the bag it sounds like the best batch ever - but if people haven't sent theirs in, there's still time.

"This year the A&R presence is going to be higher than ever because British music is so hot on the back of Franz Ferdinand," Hart continued. "And the interest in bands from Manchester is particularly hot - and not just the usual names like The Earlies, Nine Black Alps and The Longcut, either."

The showcase gigs will be held at venues centred around the Northern Quarter on the Saturday, and Peter Street and Deansgate on the Friday and Sunday nights. However, there will be fringe events at over 50 other venues across the city featuring both well known and unknown bands.

At a meeting of In The City's promoters, Tony Wilson revealed: "The theme of In The City this year is 'music is priceless, so you need to pay for it'." However, he added that until the music industry makes it easy for people to pay for downloading music it's not surprising they steal it.

Downloading is set to be a hot topic at In The City's daytime seminars and debates, which will be held at a site with an impeccable musical pedigree - the Radisson Edwardian Hotel on Peter Street.

The new five-star hotel is built on the former Free Trade Hall site where the Halle Orchestra used to be based, where Bob Dylan was called a 'Judas' in 1966 for playing an electric guitar and where The Sex Pistols played two infamous shows in 1976 which helped kickstart the Manchester punk and new wave scene.

Unsigned bands who want to play at ITC Unsigned should send their entry to: Phil Saxe, In The City Unsigned, 8 Brewery Yard, Deva Centre, Trinity Way, Salford, M3 7BB. Tweet