Music Matters 2009

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It was a fruitful and productive 2 day event.

Firstly, let me write this from the perspective of the music industry exec.  There were 2 consistent themes this year (and both are mostly about digital music). They are 1) Content over Context and 2) Accessibility of Music.

What this means is that at this day and age there are so many files out there, the only way to succeed as a marketer of music is to have context.  You need to give meaning to the artist and the content.  You need this to compete.  This point was brought home especially during Terry Mcbride’s session where he advised MC Jin on his career path.  It was interesting to see Terry digging deep into who MC Jin’s profile.  Then from there Terry was on the roll to devise strategy to help get MC Jin get connected to his audience (current and future audience that is)

Accessibility – Not much to say here but we can already see it coming.  Music will be everywhere. It is on your mobile and it is on your PC.  It won’t be long until you get your same playlist / profile / friends get sync across your PSP, your PS3, your car and god knows what other gadgets.

Interestingly (but obviously) I was also wearing the second hat of an artist. Besides from benefiting from Terry McBride’s session, I unfortunately did not go to Rob McDermott’s session (anyone want to blog about that?).  It was also disappointing to see that the Indie event felt out of sync to the actual event ie I wonder who really benefited at all during the showcases. (but I suppose we shouldn’t be too focused on results, afterall we should lightheartedly treat this as just another networking event).  On a serious note, my band The Repatriates will be ready to gig this July.  Will we get to perform at this event? Time will tell J

The best bit I must say is the finale which featured Jamie Cullum’s performance.  It was just plain awesome.  Pure, and awesome.

And last but not least, I got to hang out with Patrick and Terrence and finding out their views on various music related topics.  I won’t say much but I’m looking forward to seeing the community of Alive Not Dead grow in the coming years.  There are some exciting stuff on the roadmap from what I heard.

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