American music magazine Billboard is presenting a new event aimed at “celebrating the passion that is changing the music landscape.” By bringing together artists, music business entrepreneurs, investors and other key parts of the industry, FutureSound hopes to instigate some meaningful conversations about the next evolution of the music biz.

One of the oldest trade magazines around, Billboard has long been the source of information and its charts have become a measuring stick when it comes to commercial success. In recent years, the very meaning of success has changed, as well as the work done and paths followed to achieve that success, and it is the new challenges that face a modern musician that need to be addressed. Seeking to align its huge user base with some of the key players, Billboard has created the FutureSound conference, a combination of keynote discussions, solution sessions, workshop roundtables & networking. Given the turbulent music industry in California, San Fransisco seems a fitting location for such an event.

FutureSound sees something of a divide still between the creative artists who want to achieve their goals, and the creative developers and entrepreneurs who invent applications and offer services for those artists. Throw in the dilemma of rights-holders and the issue of receiving payments in a digital world and you have a complex situation. Bringing all sides together and presenting different sides of the situation will hopefully find solutions and middle ground on key issues, those being: The Challenges of Entrepreneurship, Music Licensing, and Leveraging the Social Web.

Billboard FutureSound 2011

November 17-18, 2011
Terra, San Fransisco
Use promo code FBK11 and get 15% off the FutureSound registration rate
Register here.
Facebook event page.


by Lee Jarvis.

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Tunecore is an online distributor for independent musicians. In short, they can get your records up on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and more, without the need for a record deal or a major label. Since launching in 2005, they have helped thousands of musicians achieve their goals, and have become one of the good guys in the new music industry: their motto being, ‘Sell your music, not your soul’.

I regularly read their blog (and you should too), which contains all sorts of useful information and guidelines for indie artists. As part of their onward march to education and empowering the indie world, they are now hosting a seminar titled “How To Get Your Money”, and if you are involved in the music biz or looking for a music job in New York, I recommend you check it out, see what you can learn, and mingle with some bright creative and business minds.

The event takes place on Tuesday, August 16th at 7pm, and is completely free. Although it is only open to Tunecore artists, you should really look to join Tunecore anyway, hence the advance notice I’m giving you

Here’s the details…

When: August 16th, 7:00 PM EST
Where: New York City

Presented By:
Jeff Price – CEO/Founder TuneCore
Jamie Purpora – President of TuneCore Publishing Administration

What will the seminar cover?
– Discover if you have money sitting for you right now, waiting to be collected;
- Where your money is;
- How you can get it;
- What your copyrights are and how can you enforce them.

Attendees Receive:
- Free pizza
- Free TuneCore t-shirts
- Free copyright booklets

If you would like to attend:

- RSVP to: getmymoney@tunecore.com
- Please put “Attend Seminar” in the email subject.
- Please provide your full name, artist name (if different), TuneCore email address, and phone contact in the body of the email so we can make sure you’re on the guest list.
- TuneCore Artists only, please!

For those of you who are not in NYC, fear not! They will be recording the seminar and posting on their blog soon after the event. Again, that alone will be worth signing up a free account for.

by Lee Jarvis.

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This will be my first year attending the South By South West Music and Media Conference (SXSW). I’ll be heading down to Austin to represent Music Jobs and network with a heap of other musicians, small businesses and music industry visionaries. 2010 saw over 13,000 conference participants from 49 different countries, and nearly 20,000 attending the trade show. Then you have the thousands of workshops, film screenings, and unofficial parties. It all became rather daunting, and so I turned to Martin Atkins, a SXSW regular and author of Tour:smart for some advice, tips, and general positive vibes.

How many times have you attended SXSW, and how many times have you spoken / held events?

I’ve been for the last 4 years straight and presented each time for SXSW – embroidering around the event with other stuff like DJing at the Red Bull party or doing something with the Austin Music Foundation.

What kind of people attend SXSW?

Everyone goes – from new aspiring bands to agents managers labels and lots and lots of companies that want to sell stuff to you….it’s the full spectrum of plant life – it’s a great place to see all of the layers of the multicolored shit cake that is the music business.

What are your plans for this year?

The night before it all starts i’m doing Party:Smart with Austin Music Foundation and Memphis Music Foundation – some advice and some great bands – Asleep have a 15′ robot, One Eyed Doll are tremendously inspiring from all angles, and I’m going to be all over the place this time; offering free advice, hanging out, seeing some bands, seeing who is doing interesting stuff. My event (Welcome to the Music Business – You’re Fucked) is early on the Wednesday morning – 11am at the convention center. Then there is a book signing and a panel with an attorney and me (Getting Band Business Done Smart) – kind of duelling opinions about the viability of the legal position vs the street level down and dirty version (thats me!) on Friday at noon and 3:30pm respectively.

What is your favorite SXSW story / memory?

Meeting Kimberly from One Eyed Doll – she had bought Tour:Smart right when it came out and implemeted a bunch of strategies from it – making her own shirts one at a time with spray bleach! inspiring stuff for any business – it was terrific and unforgettable.

What is the biggest mistake that first-timers make?

Thinking that it is going to make a huge difference – it IS, but not immediately, and its a cumulative effect – the second time will be better than the first, the third better than the second, etc. It’s a baptism of fire and you see very very quickly just what and how much you are really up against. It’s easy on the road to think that there are three other bands at the venue you are playing at, and maybe a few other shows in town that night that you are competing with, but at SXSW there are 5,000 or 6,000 bands performing many shows – it either pushes you faster and further OR back into bed to hibernate.

Which bands / musicians are you going to try and see perform this year?

I have NO idea who is going to be there, I haven’t managed to plan ANYTHING other than a stop in Memphis on the way down. I was in a nasty car accident a couple of weeks ago and its kind of f*cked me up a little.

What are your top 3 SXSW tips?

1 – This might run absolutely contrary to anything that you really WANT to do…but, drink in extreme moderation. Things happen from 10 am- including open bars – and, unless you are English, you won’t be able to pace yourself. Or, if you can, you will totally FAIL at day 2,3,4,or 5……. it’s too important to miss half of it puking in a toilet or some lovely girl’s hair.

3 – Pay attention to the streets and everyone else’s stuff. I think it’s a much better way of making an impression, or a contact, or a friend, than trying to impress someone with your really great songs – even if they are really great you aren’t getting a soundcheck and the bass player will swallow a wasp or something ……so, yeah and dont be an asshole.

If any of our members are attending this year, or thinking of going, then let us know! We are happy to meet / mingle / share advice / talk music in general.

by Lee Jarvis.

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Looking for something to help you find Music Jobs in LA? Want to learn new skills to help get more out of your music?

Top artists and producers share their secrets at The Producers Conference, a broad set of creative clinics and interactive classes for computer musicians. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to get the inside track on advanced production techniques, song writing, mixing methods and more.

The Producers Conference, Los Angeles, USA
November 14th, 2009. 1 PM to 6 PM. Doors open at 12:30 PM.
King King
6555 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028 (map)

Get Your Ticket Now!
Tickets are $30.00.

Conference Schedule

1:00-1:10pm – Gerry Bassermann
Record: Design Concept and Interface – Creating with ‘flow’
Gerry Bassermann lays out the why, what and how behind the development of Propellerhead’s recently released Record software. Discover what makes Record so powerful yet transparent.

1:15-2:00pm – Matt Piper
Unleashing Creativity with Record
Line 6’s Propellerhead Product Specialist Matt Piper will demonstrate how he stream-lines his creative workflow while offering arrangement tips-n-tricks; covering Record’s arrange window contextual tools and navigation, comping editor, groundbreaking tempo control, multiple racks, new devices, Line 6 technology, Reason integration and enhancements, file and audio formats, new authorization paradigm, and more.

2:00-2:50 – Artist Discussion
The presenters discuss topics like: maintaining creativity during production, careers and roles in the music biz, and answer questions from the audience.

3:00-3:50 pm – Kurt Kurasaki (aka Peff)
Signal Flow and Effects in Record
Peff discusses his development work on Record, especially the creation of many of the insert effect combinators and the design concepts behind this part of the Record Sound Bank. He’ll demonstrate the processing power of the mixer channel strip in combination with these insert effects and show how to clarify and enhance music tracks.

4:00-6:00 pm – Artist Presentations

About The Presenters

Gerry Bassermann
Gerry Bassermann is Propellerheads Director of North American Markets and an accomplished musician. He holds several degrees in music composition and performance and currently owns and operates OpusNine ( a project studio in the Los Angeles Bay area). For over twenty years, he has worked for many prominent music companies, as a product designer, demonstrator and musical consultant.

Matt Piper
Matt Piper, author of Reason 4 Ignite, is Line 6’s Propellerhead Product Specialist. Piper is an accomplished musician who makes innovative use of Propellerhead software for music production as well as for live performances with improvisational groups and DJ’s in the thriving underground electronic music scene in Los Angeles.

Peff (aka Kurt Kurasaki)
Kurt Kurasaki, author of Power Tools for Reason 3.0, is a noted Reason user with credits in Keyboard and Computer Music Magazines. He also works with Propellerhead Software as a sound designer and tutorial developer. Known as Peff throughout the Online ReBirth and Reason Communities, Kurt is one of the originators of ReBirth Mods.

Joe Solo
Joe Solo is a composer, producer, and songwriter for his own company Solo Productions, Inc. Previously he served as a composer for BMG’s Killer Tracks, Fox Sports, and worked as a songwriter/composer for Paramount’s Famous Music Publishing. Solo also co-wrote two hit songs, Sweet baby and Glad You’re Here, with Grammy Award winning artist Macy Gray and is currently working on a song for her new album, to be released in 2010.

Michael Elsner
Michael Elsner’s professional career began in 1998 when he moved to Nashville,TN. He began working on projects with such artists as Michael McDonald, Sixpence None The Richer, and Jon Anderson from YES to name just a few. During the four and a half years spent in Nashville, Elsner toured with various artists and in the studio producing and/or playing on countless sessions.

Since June of 2003, Michael Elsner has been living in Los Angeles, CA, where he have played on sessions for Miramax Films, Chrysalis Music Publishing, and various television, album and film projects. Select examples of these include the Ella Enchanted soundtrack, The Ex List, The Young & The Restless, and The Bold & the Beautiful. He have signed publishing deals with a number production music libraries and Elsner’s songs have been placed in various television shows and commercials, including High School Musical 2, Hannah Montana, CBS’s Cold Case, Beyond the Break, ABC’s ‘TV’s All-Time Funniest,’ History Channel’s ‘Modern Marvels,’ Baywatch, ESPN, as well as commercials for Audi, Mazda and Rent Way.

I hope that some Music Jobs Blog readers will be interested in this event. Please report back here if you attend!

Lee Jarvis.

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