Business to the Music: Future Music Forum

Barcelona is known for the February event of the World Mobile Congress. But that’s not the only annual event hosted in this dynamic city.  Every industry has to innovate, so does the music industry. But in which direction? Today a spotlight on Future Music Forum, which will be held this September 18th and 19th for the fourth time.

Future Music Forum is an international music conference gathering the leading minds in the world of music to exchange views on how music is being shared in today’s digital age and discuss new development taking place in music technology. It explores the questions: ‘how is the music industry growing’ and ‘who is pushing it forward’. Hence, how should we look at digital music innovation? During two days, presentations, panel discussions and workshops will be held in the Estrella Damm factory. Digital startups, music technology developers, digital music entrepreneurs, digital marketers & advertisers, among others are the target group. But , music lovers heading towards La Mercè, this might be a good start before the festivities start. A little business to the music.  

Future Music Forum has been Niall Doorley’s passion project for years. This Irish man, who is already living in Barcelona for 9 years, could not imagine having the event somewhere else. “Barcelona is great place to feature international events, due to the logistics (great airport), the affordable prices for venues and most important: everybody loves to come to Barcelona.” He is passionate about music and wants to know what innovations followed up Edison’s phonograph discovery in 1877. But even more interesting, what is going to be the next thing after video, streaming,…?

How about the music industry in Barcelona? “Something is growing!” Niall Doorley exclaims. The innovation district of @22 includes more and more music companies. With support of the Wayra incubator a boost is seen in digital music apps. InqBarna successfully launched Splyce and in no time got a top 10 Music apps position.

Back to Future Music Forum, where InqBarna will hold a pecha kucha pitch on the 19th of September. The program is packed with presentations on the digital aspects of music; tech & music insight 2013, music discovery 2.0, opportunities of streaming, digital A&R in Spain, Gigfunding, mobile innovation and much more. During the event, you can also expect some announcements related to trends as Big Data, Dashboards and Crowd Funding. Both Music Metric and Next Big Sounds have a surprise to share.

But it isn’t all about digital music trends. The second day is mostly focused on marketing, monetizing and advertising. An important point of view is investment. What will be the next hit? From this perspective, Music X Ray will explain their value proposition.  And how to find the funds? DJ Dave Seaman will share his kickstarter success story and discuss the opportunities crowd funding is providing.

Whether it is jazz, rock, hiphop, classic, dance or something else – music is a common factor among all of us. Haven’t we all been put to bed with a lullaby? Or humming our favorite tune in times of joy? It is an ingredient for our inspiration, creativity and from this our innovation. A quote from Osho says:  “To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”  Hence, if you are curious about how the future of music will look like and how it might influence your own work? Perhaps you should visit the Future Music Forum. You can register here.

Image credtis: Gighive