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10 Dec

SF MusicTech Scores Big

Brian and Shoshanna Zisk

The 7th. SF MusicTech Summit came back to town on Monday, December 6th. at the Kabuki Hotel. It was another great gathering of the various players in the music industry who drive its innovation, creativity and growth in this constantly evolving space. Topics discussed and debated included entertainment, product development, wireless and hand held, start ups, legal issues and, so much more. The very first SF MusicTech had maybe 300 people whereas now, there are over 800 attendees and over 27 sponsors! There was barely enough room for all the sponsoring logos to fit on the Sponsor plaque. The team responsible for securing all these sponsorships include the “music gods” Brian Zisk and his lovely wife Shoshana along with their partner-in-crime Todd Tate. They all have a deep history of performing and working in the music industry and are now seeking to keep the music alive through the collaboration of those that are seeking to make music and those that are seeking to make money. I also gained better understanding of what made the SF MusicTech Summit a “must” attend by talking to a few of the sponsors and vendors.

Michael Hobson of HRT

High Resolution Technologies (HRT) would normally have exhibited at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas which is way larger than the Summit, but due to their employer Michael Mercer’s recommendation they chose the SF Music Tech Summit. Not only was HRT the largest sponsor of the show but they spoke on a panel and took the opportunity to announce their new product’s launch, The iStreamer which allows you to deliver high performance digital audio playback directly from an iPad, iPhone or an iPod.

Sonic.net provides Internet connectivity to the technology start ups in the community. This is their 2nd. year being a vendor and a sponsor with the summit. Tiffany Lawson, an Account Manager with Sonic.net was eager to be a part of the Summit in part due to how easy it was to work with Brian Zisk, the Executive Producer. “Zisk was great to communicate with, he is always on the same page and he genuinely cares about making the conference a success for you.”

Gianluca delli Carri of MusiXmatch hails from Italy with corporate offices in London. MusiXmatch provides a way to distribute lyrics. Usually they would attend evnts such as Music Hack Day where they would engage with developers. Based on a partner and a past, colorful attendee Robert Kaye of MuicBrainz, they chose to commit to the event.

Peter Jung of Vocoo

Not to be outdone in terms of going the distance to attend SF MusicTech Summit, Peter Jung, Manager of Vocoo.com that provides your voice over background of the hottest songs for iPhone, Android, PC, YouTube, FB and more, came from Seol, Korea! Based on the recommendation of their PR firm, ICR, they came in the hopes of meeting other companies. In fact, it appears that MusiXmatch is now in talks with Voocoo about providing their expertise in lyrics. That, my friends, is worth the airfare and certainly justifies the ROI of the event to any manager questioning its worthiness to attend.

If you are involved in the music scene in any way, do your self a favor and attend the next SF MusicTech Summit in the spring of 2011 to learn, meet new and old friends and do business. You can’t go wrong.

Go here for more pictures and for Past SF MusicTech Summit Events and check them out on Twitter at #SFMusicTech.

21 May

The SanFran MusicTech Summit: Round Four

by Julie Blaustein

Welcome to the SanFran Music Tech Summit

The SanFran MusicTech Summit at the Kabuki Hotel in San Francisco this past week was perhaps sprinkled with voodoo magic to ensure all the attendees, logistics and sponsors involved would show up and do their thing. Rather, its success was truly due to the magic of Brian and Shoshana Zisk who oversaw every detail of the conference along with Todd Tate who secured over 20 sponsors (including Bub.blicio.us). Perhaps it was also due to lessons learned as this is their fourth Summit produced in less than two years. Over 600 attendees came together including entrepreneurs, lawyers, activists, artists and musicians seeking to make money and make sense of the rapidly changing world in the music industry. Many in the audience could have easily been one the incredible speakers representing the industry.

The following statement sums up the continued quandary that the music biz finds itself in and continues to face. As stated in January of 2008 in the arstechnica site, “…music isn’t on its deathbed yet; in fact, people are listening to more artists than ever before, on more white earbuds than ever before, in more places than ever before. They’re just not paying as much.” Its the SanFran MusicTech Summit that provides the ideal place for all the players to come together to seek out the solutions.

Laura Evenson, a first time attendee of the Summit and Director of Communications for ImageSpan, shared with me her thoughts about how inspiring the the conference has been during these tough times. “With the fragmentation of content and revenues online, everyone is talking about how the costs of current manual licensing and billing processes grow so burdensome that it’s tough to make any money. Despite the uncertainty many people are expressing at this Summit about where the industry is going, the optimism expressed by many others here is infectious. It’s inspiring to see so many people sharing their vision for how to survive the transformation of the music industry, and even thrive as we all move forward.”

The sessions spanned topics ranging from Social Networking Technologies to Improve Monetization, Music Activism, The Future of the Music Industry, Mobile Apps and, oh, so much more. CLE credits were offered along with their program that included an interesting discussion of the future of music licensing on the Internet. According to the official site , the most popular sessions attended were Social Networking & Music, The Future of The Music Industry and Monetization – Idealism in Practice. As I was also taking pictures during the Summit, I noticed there was standing room only in the rooms, indicating additional interest in the many other sessions offered. I even overheard attendees lament that it was hard to pick which session to attend. Networking abounded throughout the day in the hallways, during lunch and at the sponsored breaks that provided coffee, sweets and other vitals to keep folks alert and energized.

There was plenty of Social Media coverage of the Summit including photo coverage by me, Mona the Cocktail Photographer, Ustream who live video streamed the sessions, along with many others. Overall the sessions were lively and full of heated discussions such as during the Social Networking & Music Session when the moderator, Dave Allen of Nemo Design tied his question to a company’s transparency. He appeared to put Geoff Ralston, CEO of LaLa on the spot when he inquired about patents that he had applied for recently. At first it appeared Geoff was not going to be transparent with the audience, but he then elaborated his view in full detail, revealing that it was part of a group of 15 patents that had the DRM title in it that caused the stir.

As usual, the Summit’s grand finale was a packed banquet room full of networking, food and all types of beverages. Food was served, High Flyer poured wine, panty melting Love Potion #9 was offered and positive moods were in abundance. Another great day in San Francisco full of learning, negotiating, partnering, music and lots of new friends for all.