Speakers

Andrew Dubber
Reader in Music Industries Innovation, Birmingham City University, Great Britain.

The Future of the Music Business and other Fictions

Predictions of coming changes to the music industry are worse than useless. If history has shown us anything it's that disruptive technologies and the 'unknown unknowns' are what shape technology and business opportunities. Nobody could have predicted SMS, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, P2P or even email—and nor could they have predicted consumer behaviour based on them. But we have enough on our plates trying to understand and manage the present of the music business before we go around being fortune-tellers, making imaginary things up to prepare for, no matter how convincing our projections and trends may be. The best music business strategy is to understand and adapt to the real contemporary environment as it actually is. Only then will we be able to invent, rather than predict, the future.

Biography

I'm a Reader in Music Industries Innovation at Birmingham City University, the author of The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online, and co-author of the forthcoming book Understanding the Music Industries. I also do a lot of public speaking, writing and consultancy.

I'm a board member of Un-Convention and on the board of advisors for Bandcamp.com, Meetsound.com and Roqbot.com. I'm also the co-founder of MusicThinkTank.com and MusicAsCulture.org.

My particular interests are the ways in which music organisations can innovate and be entrepreneurial in the digital age; and also the ways in which music makes meaning for people and exists as an important part of culture and heritage—not simply as a commercial endeavour.

My personal blog can be found at andrewdubber.com

Gerd Leonhard
MediaFuturist and Author, Switzerland

The Future of Music: Mobile, Video, Social, and...Paid?

As over two billion Internet users are shifting towards mobile devices to get their music anytime, anywhere, and as access to music is just a click away for many so-called digital natives, the entire model of how artists, writers, composers and the respective businesses will generate income is changing very quickly. Very few traditions and tried-and-true models will remain untouched. When the digital copy is 'free' how will anyone make money with music? With more and more music published on the Internet every single day, and the noise levels constantly increasing on social networks, how will anyone still get attention for their music, and build their audience? Should telecoms and ISPs (or even Google?) be responsible for the music that is being shared on their networks, and if not, what needs to be done to get the creators paid? How will music production and music education change, and how exactly will the 'mobile & social' Internet be a boon for the creators and the industry?

Media futurist, author and musician Gerd Leonhard will present both the top-level, 50,000-foot view and his recommended 'Music 2.0' strategies as well as point towards precise action items and tactics for future success.

Biography

The Wall Street Journal calls Gerd 'one of the leading Media Futurists in the World'. He is the co-author of the influential book The Future of Music (2005, Berklee Press), as well as the author of Music 2.0 (2008) and the blog-book The End of Control (2007).

Gerd's background is in music; in 1985 he won the Quincy Jones Award and subsequently graduated from Boston's Berklee College of Music (1987). Since 2002, following a decade as digital media entrepreneur and start-up CEO, Gerd travels around the globe and speaks at conferences, events and think-tanks on the Future of Media, Content, Technology, Business, Marketing & Advertising, Branding, Telecom, Communications and Culture.

Gerd is considered a leading expert on topics such as social media, mobile content and m-commerce, innovation and entrepreneurship, user-generated content and peer production, copyright, licensing and intellectual property rights issues, next-generation advertising, marketing and branding, digital content strategies and the development of next-generation business models in the content, communications & technology industries.

Gerd is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (London), a member of the World Future Society, and resides in Basel, Switzerland.

Further information:
www.mediafuturist.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gleonhard
Videos: www.gerdtube.net and www.gerdtube.com

Prof. Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
Professor of Music, University of Limerick, Ireland

Keynote address: A Vision for Music in Ireland

As a composer, performer, broadcaster and educator, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin is one of Ireland's best-known musicians. He is inaugural Chair of Music and Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance which he founded in 1994 at the University of Limerick. Through his work as an educator, he has been the single most important catalyst in the integration of Irish traditional music and Irish traditional dance into the Irish third-level education system.

As a performer he is noted for his development of a uniquely Irish traditional piano style. He has over ten CD recordings on release of his own compositions and arrangements performed by the Irish Chamber Orchestra, resident artists at the Irish World Academy. He has given concerts across the world including the National Concert Hall (Dublin), Barbican Centre (London), Chicago Symphony Hall, Skirball Centre (New York), and TATA Theatre (Bombay).

In 2005 he was awarded an Honorary D.Mus from the National University of Ireland at his alma mater, University College Cork, for his contribution to music in Ireland. He is Chair of the board of Culture Ireland and a member of the board of the Contemporary Music Centre.

Further information:
www.mosmusic.ie
CMC composer page

Bill Whelan
Composer, Ireland

Ireland and the Global Culture Market: A Creator's View

In the face of a growing expectation among the general public that music should be free, how will musicians' and composers' work be protected in the future? As global confusion grows within the music business about how to deal with copyright in the digital world, those who initiate creative works are in the eye of a storm concerning their future and that of the next generations of creators. For Ireland, as a country exporting music of all kinds into the global marketplace, these issues are crucial.

Biography

Bill Whelan has worked extensively in theatre and film. His compositional work in film includes Dancing at Lughnasa, Some Mother's Son and Lamb. His production and arranging credits include U2, Van Morrison, Kate Bush, Richard Harris, Planxty and The Dubliners. As composer of the music for the internationally-successful show, Riverdance, he was honoured with the 1997 Grammy Award for 'Best Musical Show Album'.

He was appointed composer to the W.B. Yeats International Theatre Festival at Ireland's national theatre, the Abbey Theatre in 1989, writing original music for 15 Yeats plays. His adaptation of HMS Pinafore received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. The Seville Suite was commissioned for Ireland's National Day at Expo '92 in Seville. The Spirit of Mayo followed in 1993 and was performed by an 85-piece orchestra in Dublin's National Concert Hall. The Connemara Suite, a trilogy of pieces written for chamber orchestra, premiered in New York's Carnegie Hall in March 2005.

He is a member of the Boards of Berklee College of Music in Boston, the University of Limerick and the Irish contemporary group, the Crash Ensemble. He is currently working on a new theatre work which has been commissioned by the New York Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Centre.