⏱️ Estimated reading time: 19 min
Key Takeaways
SoAlive Music Conference & Festival (SAMC) is a music industry conference and showcase festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, that connects emerging Balkan artists with international agents, promoters, labels and export offices. By day it runs keynotes, panels and workshops at the National Palace of Culture. By night, Balkan acts play showcase sets in clubs across the city.
The 2026 edition, the fourth since the event launched in 2023, runs from 14 to 16 October 2026 in Sofia. Daytime sessions take place at the National Palace of Culture (NDK), Hall 6, and the evening showcases are spread across venues including Sofia Live Club, Mixtape 5, Culture Beat, SODA Bar and Club Mesmeric.
Loud enough to build a real noise dose. In a controlled trial at a Dutch music festival, visitors were exposed to a time-averaged 100 dB(A) over 4.5 hours, and the WHO sets 100 dB as the maximum average level for safe listening venues. At that level, the 85 dB(A) daily allowance used in UK workplace rules is used up in about 15 minutes.
Yes. In a randomised controlled trial published in JAMA Otolaryngology in 2016, a temporary hearing threshold shift after the festival showed up in 8% of ears in the earplug group against 42% in the group without earplugs. New tinnitus after the event was reported by 12% of earplug users compared with 40% of non-users.
Yes, you still hear the music, just quieter. Music SoundPRO reduces sound by an SNR of 24 dB, with attenuation rising from about 22 dB in the low and mid frequencies to around 35 dB at 8 kHz, so it is not a flat filter and the highest frequencies are reduced most. Conversation at a bar or a networking table stays understandable when the plugs are fitted correctly.
The SoAlive Music Conference has a simple pitch. For three days each autumn, Sofia becomes the place where Balkan artists meet the people who book, sign, release and export music. The days are full of panels and meetings, and the nights are full of showcase sets in packed clubs, often running past 1 am.
That second half is where our interest starts. Every person in those rooms, from the drummer on stage to the booking agent at the bar, is taking on a noise dose that adds up across the week. The description of our workshop on the SAMC programme puts it plainly: in music, hearing damage is often accepted as an unavoidable part of the job.
We are Bollsen, a European hearing protection brand whose reusable silicone earplugs are independently certified to EN 352-2. For SAMC 2026 we produced the event’s official co-branded earplug pack, and our team is running a hearing workshop on the conference programme. You can check the event, its venues and its schedule on the official SoAlive Music Conference website.
This article covers SAMC first: what it is, who goes, and what a night of showcases does to your ears. Then we tell the story of the earplug pack, explain how our Music SoundPRO earplugs work, and show how other events, venues and labels can get a pack of their own.
What is the SoAlive Music Conference?
The SoAlive Music Conference & Festival (SAMC) is an annual music industry conference and showcase festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, built to connect emerging artists from the Balkans with the international music business. Its own tagline calls it “the gateway to the Balkans’ music industry”.
The event launched in 2023, and the 2025 edition was its third, according to a founder interview in IQ Magazine. The conference was founded by Ruth Koleva. In 2025 it hosted the first official Balkans visit of EU Commissioner for Culture Glenn Micallef, and VIP-Booking reported over 800 delegates, 150 speakers and 50 showcase performances that year.
A showcase festival works differently from a normal music festival. Artists play short sets, usually unpaid, in front of an audience packed with industry professionals who might book them for a tour, sign them or programme them at their own event. For a young band from Skopje, Tirana or Novi Sad, one good 30-minute set in the right room can open doors across Europe.
When and where is SAMC 2026?
The fourth edition runs from 14 to 16 October 2026. Conference sessions take place at the National Palace of Culture (NDK), Hall 6, with some events at the Literature Club Peroto. When the talks end, the action moves to showcase venues across the city centre.
SAMC lists five showcase venues for 2026: Sofia Live Club, Mixtape 5, Culture Beat, SODA Bar and Club Mesmeric. Concerts are free for everyone, so the crowds are a mix of delegates, local music fans and artists watching each other.
Who goes to SoAlive Music Conference?
The 2026 artist open call, published by Austrian Music Export, describes an audience of over 800 international delegates. That includes booking agents, promoters, festival organisers, labels, music supervisors, cultural organisations, export offices and media. SAMC itself describes the event as a meeting point for artists, managers, labels, publishers, agents, promoters and media.
National music export offices treat it as a serious trip. SoundCzech brought a Czech delegation to the 2025 edition, and the Berlin Music Commission is running a funded delegation trip to SAMC 2026. According to IQ Magazine’s 2026 line-up report, the speakers include people from Warner Music Group, Beggars Group and Lollapalooza Berlin. The showcase artists come from across the region, including Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Turkey, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What happens after dark at SAMC?
After the last panel, SAMC turns into a three-night club crawl, with showcase sets starting from around 18:00 and running into the early hours across several Sofia venues. On the 2026 programme, Wednesday sets at SODA Bar begin at 18:00 and Mixtape 5 runs until 01:30.
Friday 16 October brings the SAMC Rave Track at Club Mesmeric, run with the Bulgarian electronic music platform Fonoteka Elektrika, with an afterparty from 00:00 to 06:00. For anyone who wants to see as many acts as possible, a typical evening means moving from venue to venue and standing near the stage for set after set.
| Venue | Role during SAMC 2026 | Example from the published programme |
|---|---|---|
| National Palace of Culture (NDK), Hall 6 | Conference: keynotes, panels, workshops | Daytime sessions, 14–16 October |
| SODA Bar | Showcase venue | Wednesday 14 October, sets from 18:00 |
| Mixtape 5 | Showcase venue | Wednesday 14 October, programme until 01:30 |
| Club Mesmeric | Showcase venue, SAMC Rave Track | Friday 16 October, afterparty 00:00–06:00 |
| Sofia Live Club, Culture Beat | Showcase venues | Evening showcase sets during the festival |
Full set times are on the SAMC festival programme. What matters for your ears is the pattern: several hours of amplified music a night, three nights in a row, usually with very little quiet time in between.
How loud does a night of showcases get?
Live amplified music can average around 100 dB(A). That is the level measured in a controlled trial at a music festival, and it is also the maximum average the World Health Organization sets for safe listening venues.
In that trial, visitors to a Dutch festival were exposed to a time-averaged 100 dB(A) over a 4.5-hour visit. The WHO figure comes from its Global Standard for Safe Listening Venues and Events, published in 2022, which caps the average sound level at 100 dB as the first of its six features. A showcase night that runs from early evening past 1 am can easily match or exceed that 4.5-hour window.
If you want a sense of how venue sizes and positions change the numbers, our guide on how loud concerts are in decibels covers it in detail. That guide on how loud concerts are in decibels compares club gigs, arena shows and outdoor stages, and explains what each level means for your ears.
How fast does the noise dose add up?
Faster than most people expect, because the decibel scale is logarithmic. Under the usual 3 dB exchange rate, every 3 dB increase doubles the sound energy, so the safe time halves. The UK Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 set a lower action value of 80 dB(A), an upper action value of 85 dB(A) and an exposure limit of 87 dB(A), averaged over an 8-hour day.
At 100 dB, you use up the full 85 dB daily allowance in roughly 15 minutes. Two hours at 100 dB adds up to about 8 times that daily dose, and a full evening of showcases can go well beyond it. Bulgaria, as an EU member state, works to the same 80, 85 and 87 dB(A) values under EU Directive 2003/10/EC, which is where the UK figures also came from.
Those rules protect people at work, so they apply to the bar staff, sound engineers and security teams at the venue. Delegates and fans are not covered in the same way. Nobody measures their dose, and nobody hands them a hearing check on Monday morning.
Who in the music industry is most at risk?
The people at most risk are those exposed night after night for years: musicians, DJs, sound engineers and venue staff. Industry delegates who spend a few weeks a year at showcases and festivals are building the same kind of dose, just more slowly.
The research on musicians is consistent. A systematic review of hearing loss in musicians cites a meta-analysis of 41 studies covering 4,618 musicians, which found hearing loss in the 3–6 kHz range in 63.5% of pop and rock musicians and 32.8% of classical musicians. Those are the frequencies where noise damage usually shows up first.
Sound engineers carry their own risk. A 2021 study of live-music sound engineers by McGinnity and colleagues, published in Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, found that 30% reported constant tinnitus and 41% reported reduced sound tolerance. Use of hearing protection was low, and many engineers said it got in the way of doing the job.
| Study | Group | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Ramakers et al. 2016, JAMA Otolaryngology (randomised trial) | Adult festival visitors, 4.5 hours at about 100 dB(A) | Temporary threshold shift in 8% of ears with earplugs vs 42% without; new tinnitus 12% vs 40% |
| Systematic review, PMC11865227 (meta-analysis of 41 studies) | 4,618 musicians | Hearing loss at 3–6 kHz in 63.5% of pop and rock and 32.8% of classical musicians |
| McGinnity et al. 2021, Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health | Live-music sound engineers | 30% constant tinnitus, 41% reduced sound tolerance, low use of protection |
| WHO Global Standard for Safe Listening Venues and Events, 2022 | Venues and event audiences | Maximum average of 100 dB; making hearing protection available to audiences is one of six features |
If you work behind the desk, our guide to hearing protection for sound engineers deals honestly with the “I need to hear the mix” objection. And for bar teams, stage crew and security working the showcase rooms, our guide on earplugs for concert and venue staff explains what UK employers have to provide.
What about delegates who are only there for three days?
Three days at SAMC is rarely three days a year. Agents, promoters and label scouts often move from one showcase festival to the next through spring and autumn, then fill the gaps with club nights and gigs at home. Over a career, those weeks add up.
The early warning signs are familiar to most people who go out to hear live music: ringing ears on the walk back to the hotel, or a dull, muffled feeling the next morning. Audiologists call this a temporary threshold shift. It usually fades, but repeated shifts are a sign the ears have been pushed too far. If ringing or muffled hearing lasts more than a day, see your GP or an audiologist.
Why would a music conference hand out earplugs?
Because hearing is the one asset every person in the room relies on for their career, and the WHO lists making personal hearing protection available to audiences as one of the six features of a safe listening venue or event. An earplug pack in the delegate bag puts that recommendation into practice.
The evidence that earplugs work at loud music events is strong. In the randomised trial by Ramakers and colleagues, published in JAMA Otolaryngology in 2016, festival visitors were randomly given earplugs or none. Afterwards, a temporary threshold shift showed up in 8% of ears in the earplug group against 42% in the group without, and new tinnitus was reported by 12% against 40%.
There is a cultural point too. Musicians on forums often say the hard part is not finding the perfect earplug but making it a habit, wearing them at every gig and rehearsal until it feels normal. When a conference the industry respects puts earplugs in delegates’ hands, it sends a quiet signal that protecting your hearing is part of being a professional, not a sign of being fragile.
For fans heading to bigger outdoor events after SAMC, the same logic applies over longer hours. Our guide to the best earplugs for festivals covers full-day and multi-day exposure, including when to wear them and how to keep them clean between sets.
What is Bollsen’s role at SAMC 2026?
Our partnership with SAMC has two parts: we produced the event’s official co-branded earplug pack, and our team is on the 2026 conference programme with a workshop on hearing for music professionals. Both come from the same idea, which is that hearing protection should feel like part of music culture.
The workshop is called “Sound Advice: Hearing Survival for DJs, Artists and Music Professionals”. It runs on Thursday 15 October 2026, 11:30–12:30, in the Workshop Room, and you can find it on the SAMC 2026 conference programme. The session covers what years of clubs, studios and soundchecks do to your ears, and treats hearing as the one instrument nobody can replace.
It is led by our founder and CEO, Alen Kurbegovic, and our Head of Operations, Armin Kurbegović, who has also played bass music as a DJ in Ljubljana for over 10 years. That second detail matters to us. The people talking about hearing at SAMC know what a long night behind the decks feels like the next morning.
Our team will be in Sofia for the whole of SAMC, from 14 to 16 October, meeting artists, audiologists and other music professionals. If you are attending, come and find us after the workshop.
Our SAMC × Bollsen earplug pack, 14–16 October 2026 in Sofia.
How was the SAMC earplug pack designed?
The SAMC pack started with our design team creating several concept directions in SAMC’s visual language, then moved to a final design built on SAMC’s own supplied artwork for the box and the keychain tube. The result is an orange “SO ALIVE Music Conference” box and a black aluminium tube carrying the event’s logo.
The concepts explored different ways of bringing Sofia into the design, with working names such as “Vitosha Signal”, “Serdika Layers” and “Dark Stage”. In the end, SAMC’s own artwork was the strongest fit. It ties the pack directly to the event’s branding, so it feels like official merch rather than a generic giveaway with a logo added.
The final SAMC × Bollsen pack: SoundPRO earplugs, a black aluminium keychain tube and the orange SAMC box.
What is in the SAMC × Bollsen pack?
Each pack contains a pair of Music SoundPRO earplugs, our transparent reusable plugs for live music, plus a black aluminium keychain tube carrying the SAMC logo. Everything comes in the orange co-branded box.
The keychain tube is the part we care about most. Earplugs only help if you have them with you, and a tube on your keys or bag strap means the plugs travel to every venue without a second thought. That small design choice does more for real-world protection than almost any spec on the box.
What is Music SoundPRO and how does it sound?
Music SoundPRO is a passive, reusable earplug made from hypoallergenic silicone, with a two-lamella conical shape and an independently certified noise reduction of SNR 24 dB under EN 352-2. It is designed for concerts, club nights and anyone who works around live music.
The honest answer to “how does it sound?” is that you still hear the music, just quieter. Lab testing shows attenuation of about 22 dB in the low and mid frequencies, rising to around 35 dB at 8 kHz. That means SoundPRO is not a flat filter: it takes the most off the high end, which is also where noise damage usually starts.
Each pair lasts up to 100 uses and comes with an aluminium case with a keyring. At £29.95, that works out at around 30p per use. The plugs are transparent and sit flush in the ear canal, so they are hard to spot on stage or across a table.
Will SoundPRO block out conversation at the bar?
No. At a showcase, a lot of the real work happens in conversation between sets, and SoundPRO reduces the whole room by roughly 24 dB rather than cutting you off. A person speaking close to you is still understandable when the plugs are fitted correctly.
SoundPRO has no vent or acoustic channel. It is a solid silicone plug with two lamellae that seal at the entrance of the ear canal. That shallow seat keeps the occlusion effect (the boomy sound of your own voice) milder than with deep plugs, though it does not remove it completely.
How do you get a good fit?
Reach over your head with the opposite hand, gently pull the top of your ear up and back, then ease the plug in with a small twist until the room drops in volume. If sound still leaks in, the seal is not right, so adjust rather than push harder. A poor seal lets sound slip past the plug and costs you protection.
If you are not sure about sizing, our AI ear measurement uses two photos of your ears to match you to the right size. For a wider look at the options for gigs, rehearsals and studio work, our hub on earplugs for music brings all of our music hearing guides together in one place.
What should you do before your first night at SAMC?
Plan your hearing like you plan your schedule. Put earplugs on your keys before you leave the hotel, wear them for every set rather than only the loudest ones, and take a break in a quiet space between venues when you can.
Position helps too. Standing directly in front of the speaker stacks adds a lot to your dose, while moving a few metres to the side or back can make a clear difference without changing what you see. The WHO standard also lists quiet zones as one of its six features, so use any quieter bar or courtyard to give your ears time off.
Finally, listen to your ears the morning after. Some ringing or a muffled feeling after a night out is a warning, not something to accept as normal. If it does not fade within a day, book a hearing check with your GP or an audiologist.
SAMC exists to help Balkan artists build long careers, and long careers depend on hearing that lasts. Whether you are playing a showcase, scouting talent or dancing until 6 am at the Rave Track, a pair of earplugs on your keyring is the simplest way to protect the instrument you cannot replace.
If you want your own pair, Music SoundPRO comes with our 40-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free at your next gig. Find your earplugs, and if you are in Sofia from 14 to 16 October, come and say hello at our workshop.
His connection to hearing protection stems from personal experience with sound sensitivity during live events and work in noisy environments, an issue that made him more aware of the long-term risks of unmanaged noise exposure. Today, as both a communicator and a user of BOLLSEN products, he is passionate about raising awareness around the importance of proactive hearing care.
At BOLLSEN, he develops data-driven marketing campaigns, writes SEO-focused articles, and manages communication channels that connect customers with practical knowledge about hearing protection. His work ensures that BOLLSEN’s message—prioritizing health, performance, and sustainability reaches a global audience in an engaging and trustworthy way.
Passionate about writing since childhood, Timotej combines creativity with a strong analytical approach, continuously testing new ideas in digital marketing, performance advertising, and social media. He believes in learning through innovation and collaboration, balancing leadership with openness to new perspectives.
Beyond his professional role, Timotej is committed to a healthy lifestyle and finds inspiration in fitness, sports, and quality time with friends. His personal passion for well-being aligns with BOLLSEN’s core values, making his work not only a career but also a cause he deeply believes in.