Founder of Pandora
Almost a decade ago, Tim Westergren and his colleagues launched one of the most disruptive online music projects the music industry had ever had to cope with. A revolution in both technology and user experience, Pandora become the leading online music streaming service and recommendation engine for music lovers around the globe. With that, Pandora was also at the forefront of royalty disputes with major content owners.
Co-Founder and CEO of Spotify
Daniel Ek is a serial entrepreneur. A child technology marvel, he started his first company at the age of 14 and has since created, led and sold several companies at the cutting edge of new media and tech. His most recent project, Spotify, a legal streaming music service, has taken the world by storm.
Speaker and Author of Tour:Smart
Martin Atkins, a veteran ‘progressive’ drummer, has recorded and toured with Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Killing Joke, PigFace, and Public Image Ltd., among other post-punk/industrial acts. He has emerged from his highly-charged Rock ‘n’ Roll lifestyle to guide the next generation of artists through educational programs, speaking engagements, and how-to literature on the subject of independent artist promotion and touring.
Founder and Editor of Hypebot
Hypebot is the most respected music industry blog. Read religiously by music business professionals, independent artists and music enthusiasts, no other blog provides such coverage, information and analysis on music business trends. Bruce Houghton is a regular speaker and moderator at prominent music conferences.
Founder and Publisher of Digital Music News
Digital Music News is a leading news and information resource for the music industry. Paul Resnikoff has become well known for his executive writing style and “Resnikoff’s Parting Shot”, a colorful commentary on current events.
Nine Inch Nails
In May 2008, Nine Inch Nails released the The Slip as a free digital download accompanied by a note from Trent Reznor, “This one’s on me”, as a courtesy to NIN’s loyal following. The album was downloaded over a million times before the end of May 2008. Many of the music industry’s most disruptive paradigms, including the “Free” and “Direct-To-Fan” concepts, can be traced back to Trent Reznor’s independent marketing activities.
Author and Entertainment Lawyer
One of America’s top entertainment attorneys, Don Passman is the author of the non-fiction bestseller “All You Need to Know About the Music Business”, which has sold more than 300,000 hardcover copies in print.
Author and Associate Director of Marketing at Berkleemusic.com
Mike King is an Associate Director of Marketing at Berkleemusic.com, the online extension of Berklee College of Music. Prior to Berklee, Mike was the marketing/product manager at Rykodisc, where he oversaw all marketing efforts for label artists, including Mickey Hart, Jeb Loy Nichols, Morphine, Jess Klein, Voices On The Verge, Bill Hicks, The Slip, Pork Tornado (Phish), Kelly Joe Phelps, and Frank Zappa’s estate.
Co-Founder of ReverbNation
ReverbNation, the online indie music giant, provides a suite of online marketing tools to its community of more than 500,000 artists, managers, promoters and venue owners.
CEO and Co-Founder of Nettwerk Music Group
Terry McBride is a two-time recipient of the Pollstar Industry Award for Personal Manager of the Year for his work with Sarah McLachlan (1997) and Avril Lavigne/Coldplay (2002), and recipient of the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the 2003 Juno Awards, recognizing an outstanding individual who has contributed to the growth and advancement of the Canadian music industry.
Founder and former President of CD Baby
Winner of the 2003 World Technology Award, Derek Sivers founded CD Baby “by accident” in 1998 and turned it into the largest seller of independent music on the web, which he sold a decade later to Disc Makers.
CEO of Topspin Media
Ian Rogers, also known as the “fourth Beastie Boy” for his close ties to the group, co-founded personal music sharing software provider, Mediacode, which was sold to Yahoo! where he served as General Manager of Yahoo! Music before joining the ranks at Topspin Media in April 2008.
Vice President at Berklee College of Music
Responsible for launching the world’s largest online music school, Berkleemusic.com, Dave Kusek is the co-developer of the revolutionary Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), co-inventor of the first electronic drums at Synare, and founder of Passport Designs, the first music software company. In 2005 he co-authored the critically acclaimed book, “The Future of Music” with Gerd Leonhard.
Speaker, Advisor and Co-Author of “The Future of Music”
Self-proclaimed media futurist and “occasional heretic”, Gerd Leonhard has spent over twenty-five years in the technology and entertainment industries, and founded the first online music licensing marketplace, LicenseMusic.com, during the dotcom boom.
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