Music Ally Connect 2024: Agenda

IN ASSOCIATION WITH:

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DAY 1: MONDAY 22 JANUARY 2024

9.30am

Welcome and introduction

9.45am

Keynote interview with Michael Nash, EVP & Chief Digital Officer, UMG interviewed by Paul Brindley, CEO & Co-Founder,
Music Ally

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10.15am

Panel discussion: AI and Music Creation: legal, licensing and enforcement issues

AI is the hottest topic of 2023 in music and many other sectors, and so many questions about its potential impact remain unclear. This panel will clarify the current legal, regulatory and enforcement landscapes, and predict how they will evolve.

• Explaining the current legal situation regarding training AIs on copyrighted music around the world, and the legal rights that might be required to protect musicians.
• Outlining the existing licensing relationships with AI music platforms, and exploring what’s needed to achieve more comprehensive licensing.
• Discussing the challenges in enforcing rights in a landscape where the technologies and services are evolving so rapidly.
• Giving an honest view of the music industry’s ability to capitalise on future developments in AI music-creation technologies, as well as to protect its rights when necessary.

Chair: Sophie Goosens, Partner, Reed Smith
Speakers: 

• Lauri Rechardt, Chief Legal Officer, IFPI
• Damon Minchella, Musician/Consultant

10.55am

Panel discussion: AI and Music: understanding the benefits for our industry

AI technologies can be used to create music, but they have many other uses for our industry and its musicians. Metadata, catalogue management, music discovery, business tools… This panel will look at what’s happening now, and what might happen next.

• Exploring the various ways AI technologies are already having an impact on the industry beyond music creation.
• Discussing whether the music business should be wary of relying too much on AI while the technologies are evolving so rapidly.
• Examining what new areas of business are most likely to be impacted by AI in the future, and what that means for humans working in the industry.
• Providing recommendations for how rightsholders and artist teams can ensure they’re in the best position to forge partnerships with new startups and platforms.

Chair: tbc
Speakers: 

• Michael Petychakis, CTO, Orfium
• Lydia Gregory, CEO & Co-Founder, Figaro 
• Irfaan Premji, Founder & CEO, Blurb.fm

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11.35am Break

12.05pm

Music Ally Connect Partner presentation: Success Redefined: Yot Club Case Study
Stars Redmond, Senior Marketing Manager, Amuse

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12.15pm

Keynote track interview with Karibi Dagogo-Jack, Head of Music Partnerships, Roblox, interviewed by Vickie Nauman, Founder, CrossBorderWorks

12.35pm

Panel discussion: Music and Gaming: What are the Real Opportunities?

From simple soundtrack syncs to guitar-controller rhythm titles, music and games have always gone together. This panel will discuss the opportunities in 2024, from the big platforms like Roblox and Fortnite to the creative (and lucrative) world of mobile gaming.

• Explaining what music companies and artists can build and do in Roblox and Fortnite, and what the business case is for these experiences.
• Exploring the business models for music in mobile games in 2024, and how partnerships and licensing deals in that sector are structured.
• Digging below the metaverse hype and outlining the other game and virtual-world platforms that could be valuable for musicians and the music industry in the future.
• Discussing what the music industry may be able to learn from games-industry business models as our own products and services evolve.

Chair: Vickie Nauman, Founder, CrossBorderWorks

Speakers:

• Tony Barnes, Co-Founder, Karta 
• Otisha Sealy, Head of Gaming, UMG 
• Simon Hade, Co-Founder, Beatstar 
• Sam Sawyer, Chief Content Officer, 7digital

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1.15pm Lunch

2.20pm

Music Ally Connect Partner presentation: Lauren Apolito, EVP, HFA-Rumblefish 

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2.30pm

Keynote track presentation – Data in music publishing: maximising opportunities for the present and the future: Emilio Morales, Managing Director, Rimas Publishing

2.40pm

Panel discussion: How can publishers use data more wisely?

Data lies at the heart of the publishing business: integral to royalties collection and distribution, but also increasingly valuable on the creative side, from A&R to sync. This panel will explain data’s current role in publishing, and how it may develop in the future.

• Analysing how music publishers currently use data to help their business, across both creative and administrative functions.
• Exploring what needs to be done to improve the quality and integrity of publishing-related data.
• Discussing whether publishers are making enough use of the data that they currently have available, and what more they could do with it.
• Predicting where the most exciting and innovative developments in publishers’ use of data might come from in the coming years.

Chair: tbc

Speakers:

• Eric Baptiste, CEO and Co-Founder, Qwantum Rights Solutions
• Bill Colitre, VP & General Counsel, Music Reports
• Speaker, SACEM
• Claire McAuley, EVP, Global Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music

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3.20pm

Music Ally Connect Partner presentation: Indie Chawla, Head of International Relations, the MLC

3.30pm Break

4.00pm

Keynote interview: Scott Cohen, CEO, JKBX interviewed by Gina King, Partner, Supernode Global

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TRACK FOUR: A Greener Music Industry

4.20pm

Panel discussion: Plotting the path to a more sustainable music industry

Net zero goals are fuelling innovation in every industry, including music. From greener touring and more-sustainable merch to everyday emissions, there’s a lot being done – and a lot more to do. This panel will explain what’s happening, and where we go next.

• Putting the case for a greener music industry: why we need to act, and what the benefits are for our businesses if we do.
• Discussing success stories: case studies that show how music companies and artists took action, and what the impact was.
• Acknowledging some of the challenges in becoming more sustainable as a business, and exploring how to tackle those barriers.
• The role of artists: exploring how they are addressing the climate emergency now, and what support might they need from the industry in those efforts.

Chair: Jake Beaumont-Nesbitt, Director Innovation & Education, IMMF

Speakers:

• Claire O’Neill, CEO, A Greener Future
• Tom Nieuweboer, COO, !K7 Music
• Alison Tickell, Director, Julie’s Bicycle

5.00pm Ends

5.05pm

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DAY 2: TUESDAY 23 JANUARY 2024

9.40am

Keynote Track – One-on-one discussion on artist remuneration: with Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO, Deezer, interviewed by Annabella Coldrick, Chief Executive, Music Managers Forum.

10.00am

Panel discussion: Streaming fraud: what it is and how to combat it.

Fake streams, bot farms, streaming manipulation… Streaming fraud is a growing concern for the music industry, but do we understand enough about how it works and how to tackle it? This panel will answer both questions with practical guidance.

• Quantifying streaming fraud: the most common forms of it, and how big a problem it really is financially for the industry.
• Discussing what streaming services are doing to help combat the problem – and what more they could be doing in the future.
• Exploring the role that the rest of the music industry, including rightsholders, can take in helping DSPs to crack down on fraud.
• Predicting how streaming fraud may evolve in the future, and what the industry needs to do now to be prepared for that.

Chair: tbc

Speakers:

• Morgan Hayduk, Co-CEO & Co-Founder, Beatdapp
• Priyanka Khimani, Founder, Khimani & Associates
• Kate Le Gassick, General Counsel, Warner Music International

10.45am

Keynote interview tbc

11.05am Break

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11.35am

Keynote track presentation: The story of the global music industry in 2023

Helena Kosinski, VP, Global, Luminate

11.50am

Presentation: China: pioneering new business models

Tinko Georgiev, VP, International Business, Kanjian Music

12.05pm

Panel discussion: Japan’s evolution in the streaming era

Japan is still the world’s second-largest market for recorded music, but outside its region it’s also one of the least well-understood. Having been slow to adopt streaming, the pace of change is picking up. This panel will explain how Japan’s market is evolving in 2024 and going forward.

• Discussing the current state of the Japanese music market and how it is developing.
• Tackling the question of whether Japan is still an underdeveloped digital market.
• Outlining the opportunities for non-Japanese music companies in this country.
• Exploring the greatest opportunities for exporting Japanese music in the coming years.

Chair: Takuya Yamazaki, Founder/Managing Partner, Field-R

Panelists:

• Speaker, The Orchard
• Takayuki Suzuki, CEO, ParadeALL
• Jay Kogami, Editor, Music Ally Japan 
• Tamoko Moore, International Liaison, Billboard Japan

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12.50pm Lunch

2.00pm

Music Ally Partner presentation: Vasja Veber, Co-founder, Viberate

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2.10pm

Panel discussion: The future of video

Short video is huge, thanks to the rise of TikTok and the huge investment in YouTube’s Shorts and Meta’s Reels. Music is intrinsic to all three, so what happens next? How will short-video platforms evolve, and what are the other developments in music video?

• Discussing how the music industry’s licensing deals with short-video platforms could and should evolve in the future.
• Analysing how the bridge between short-video services and music streaming can be strengthened and improved.
• Mulling the next trends for the users of these services, from generative AI technologies to music creation tools.
• Predicting what the future might be for traditional music videos in this landscape.

Chair: Marlen Huellbrock, Head of Marketing & Audience, Music Ally

Speakers:

• Claudia de Wolff, VP, Content & Programming, Vevo
• Dan Chalmers, Head of Music EMEA, YouTube
• Speaker TikTok

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2.55pm Break

3.20pm

Music Ally Connect Partner presentation: IRCAM amplify

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3.30pm

Panel discussion: Innovation: what do music rightsholders want from startups?

Music rightsholders often complain that startups don’t always understand the real complexities of the music business – and its problems that need solving. In this session, we’ll be asking the music industry what it wants from innovation and startups.

• Analysing what startups do well (and not so well) when engaging with rightsholders and the wider music industry.
• Breaking down the most pressing problems facing the music industry, and how it would like startups to help tackle them.
• Outlining how the healthiest relationships between startups and rightsholders work, and how that can transfer to new partnerships.
• Discussing the new technologies that are of most interest to rightsholders, as well as those that are perhaps overhyped.

Chair: tbc

Speakers:

• Kristen Cullen Bender, SVP, Digital Innovation Strategy & Business Development, UMG
• Simon Wheeler, Director, Global Commercial Strategy, Beggars Group

4.10pm

Music Ally SI:X Showcase and Presentation

Presentations from the six winners of Music Ally’s 2023 startup initiative, chosen by our partners Amazon Music, ASCAP Lab, The Raine Group, Red Bull Media House, Reed Smith and Universal Music Group.

• Christian Ringstad Shultz, CEO & Co-Founder, Masterchannel
• Stephen Rimmer, Founder & CEO, Tickets for Good
• Claudia Moross, Founder & Creative Director, 12on12
• Christian Wegmann, CEO, Flame2Fame
• Speaker, Music Tomorrow
• Konstantin Yevishkin, Founder & CEO, StanPass

5.00pm Ends

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