‘Why visit Music and Bits? When your interest is music, in any way whatsoever, and the internet is your tool, these are the people you want to meet.’
Music and Bits is a dedicated conference program within ADE that focuses on trends, business opportunities and the latest developments in the world of online music. Sounds pretty serious, right? But we bet you’ve never had breakfast with the CEO of This Is My Jam before…
Music and Bits takes place on Wednesday 17, Thursday 18 and Friday 19 October at De Balie, a former courthouse, in downtown Amsterdam and located between the city’s two most famous music venues, Melkweg and Paradiso. This year’s Music and Bits program sees the addition of the Techlounge, located in the main hall of De Balie. This is where you can hook up with music press, producers, tech companies, entrepreneurs, developers, hackers and dedicated music enthusiasts, all in a smoothly comforting environment. In addition to that, and maybe even more important… breakfast is being served! Each day, an hour before Music and Bits starts, you can meet the speakers in an informal breakfast setting. Toasting with the CEO of This Is My Jam or breaking an egg with a Last.fm representative? You’ve probably had more boring early morning get-togethers.
Get online, efficiently
Vincent Lindeboom, one of the initiators of Music and Bits, is a strong believer in the success stories of beginning artists who find their way to fame with modern techniques. ‘It’s possible for relatively small artists to promote themselves worldwide thanks to online techniques. Apart from standard social media channels such as Facebook, there are many online tools available, which are evolving every day. At Music and Bits we want to show the latest developments, and we also want to show how to use these tools in an efficient way.’
But Music and Bits does not focus on beginning artists alone, emphasizes Lindeboom. ‘More experienced artists will find the lectures interesting as well. ‘For example, there will be a lecture on how to keep control over your web presence and how to broadcast and monitor new tracks in the best way possible.’
The complete Music & Bits program is divided into four subcategories:
Music, Arts and Design
Music and Bits takes place on Wednesday 17, Thursday 18 and Friday 19 October at De Balie, a former courthouse, in downtown Amsterdam and located between the city’s two most famous music venues, Melkweg and Paradiso. This year’s Music and Bits program sees the addition of the Techlounge, located in the main hall of De Balie. This is where you can hook up with music press, producers, tech companies, entrepreneurs, developers, hackers and dedicated music enthusiasts, all in a smoothly comforting environment. In addition to that, and maybe even more important… breakfast is being served! Each day, an hour before Music and Bits starts, you can meet the speakers in an informal breakfast setting. Toasting with the CEO of This Is My Jam or breaking an egg with a Last.fm representative? You’ve probably had more boring early morning get-togethers.
Get online, efficiently
Vincent Lindeboom, one of the initiators of Music and Bits, is a strong believer in the success stories of beginning artists who find their way to fame with modern techniques. ‘It’s possible for relatively small artists to promote themselves worldwide thanks to online techniques. Apart from standard social media channels such as Facebook, there are many online tools available, which are evolving every day. At Music and Bits we want to show the latest developments, and we also want to show how to use these tools in an efficient way.’
But Music and Bits does not focus on beginning artists alone, emphasizes Lindeboom. ‘More experienced artists will find the lectures interesting as well. ‘For example, there will be a lecture on how to keep control over your web presence and how to broadcast and monitor new tracks in the best way possible.’
The complete Music & Bits program is divided into four subcategories:
Music, Arts and Design
This theme will address the visual side of music. ‘OneFrameOfFame by Roel Wouters and Jonathan Puckey and the Arcade Fire video, shot by Aaron Koblin for example, are propelling crossovers between art, interactivity and music. We want to explore this realm to its fullest. Ranging from abstract visual art to thoughtful design, both adding to the overall experience of music. We believe that the visual side of music will be a way of differentiating yourself as an artist for years to come.’
Music and Games
Game mechanics have been around for a long time. Recently applications like Foursquare, Draw Something, and many other products, have added to their success and stature. ‘Gifted mechanics turn people into game fanatics, competing and playing with their peers, and share their accomplishments on Facebook and Twitter, even meeting new people in the process or reacquainting with old friends. How can the music industry leverage the power of game mechanics? Which apps are out there and which ones are particularly successful? And why are they successful? These are the questions we want to answer.’
Music, Context and Curation
The way people consume music is changing. We have a limitless supply of music on our computers and our phones via services like Spotify, Deezer and many others. But there’s also a downside to that, according to Lindeboom. ‘We have an abundance of recommendation engines, online curators, shared playlists and other types of filters. What will happen when your surroundings are aware of where and who you are? Now that the tablet has been around for some time, what has been its influence on the music industry and what is still to come? What type of curating is most appealing, the human or the computer-driven kind?’
Music and Business
If you want to get a business out of the ever-evolving musical ecosystem, this part of Music & Bits should interest you. ‘How do we market through social media without being
obnoxious? What can we do with all the data (social media, traffic, frequency, etc.) surrounding our music and how can we leverage that knowledge? What are new ways to fund artists and/or individual projects like video art and are they effective? This day is going to be especially interesting for label owners and artists who are looking for new ways to expand their business. Music and Bits is going to generate practical information to take home and actually use.
Hail to the consumer
It’s not only artists that should consider attending Music and Bits, music consumers in general should also find something of interest. ‘Some of the most interesting people most of whom are dedicated to filtering key information on the web, are present at Music and Bits,’ says Lindeboom. Music & Bits welcomes CASH Music (Maggie Vail, US), Whosampled? (Nadav Poraz, GB), TastemakerX (Sandro Pugliese, US), Topsin Media (Shamal Ranasinghe, US), Shuffler.fm (Tim Heineke, NL), SongPop (Mathieu Nouzareth, FreshPlanet Inc., US), This Is My Jam (Matthew Ogle, US), We Make Awesome Sh.it (Syd Lawrence, GB) and reps from Turntable.fm and Last.fm. More speakers are to be confirmed.
Tickets for Music and Bits are available in two options: a 3-day ticket (€ 100,-) and a 1-day ticket (€ 50,-). Get your tickets here.
Music and Games
Game mechanics have been around for a long time. Recently applications like Foursquare, Draw Something, and many other products, have added to their success and stature. ‘Gifted mechanics turn people into game fanatics, competing and playing with their peers, and share their accomplishments on Facebook and Twitter, even meeting new people in the process or reacquainting with old friends. How can the music industry leverage the power of game mechanics? Which apps are out there and which ones are particularly successful? And why are they successful? These are the questions we want to answer.’
Music, Context and Curation
The way people consume music is changing. We have a limitless supply of music on our computers and our phones via services like Spotify, Deezer and many others. But there’s also a downside to that, according to Lindeboom. ‘We have an abundance of recommendation engines, online curators, shared playlists and other types of filters. What will happen when your surroundings are aware of where and who you are? Now that the tablet has been around for some time, what has been its influence on the music industry and what is still to come? What type of curating is most appealing, the human or the computer-driven kind?’
Music and Business
If you want to get a business out of the ever-evolving musical ecosystem, this part of Music & Bits should interest you. ‘How do we market through social media without being
obnoxious? What can we do with all the data (social media, traffic, frequency, etc.) surrounding our music and how can we leverage that knowledge? What are new ways to fund artists and/or individual projects like video art and are they effective? This day is going to be especially interesting for label owners and artists who are looking for new ways to expand their business. Music and Bits is going to generate practical information to take home and actually use.
Hail to the consumer
It’s not only artists that should consider attending Music and Bits, music consumers in general should also find something of interest. ‘Some of the most interesting people most of whom are dedicated to filtering key information on the web, are present at Music and Bits,’ says Lindeboom. Music & Bits welcomes CASH Music (Maggie Vail, US), Whosampled? (Nadav Poraz, GB), TastemakerX (Sandro Pugliese, US), Topsin Media (Shamal Ranasinghe, US), Shuffler.fm (Tim Heineke, NL), SongPop (Mathieu Nouzareth, FreshPlanet Inc., US), This Is My Jam (Matthew Ogle, US), We Make Awesome Sh.it (Syd Lawrence, GB) and reps from Turntable.fm and Last.fm. More speakers are to be confirmed.
Tickets for Music and Bits are available in two options: a 3-day ticket (€ 100,-) and a 1-day ticket (€ 50,-). Get your tickets here.
The ADE will take place from 17 to 21 October and is organized by The Amsterdam Dance Event Foundation, an initiative of Buma.
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