The great and the good of Asia's music and entertainment industry, including our very own Colin Miles, descended to Singapore’s Clarke Quay for the 7th annual Music Matters conference, held 23-26 May. InternetQ was there to meet music experts from Asia and the rest of the world; so this proved a great opportunity to network, catch-up, exchange ideas and of course, tell people about our social music service, Akazoo. The event attracted more than 1,200 participants from close to 400 companies from 30 countries (a much bigger turnout than last year). There were more than 170 speakers, 100+ journalists, 33 sponsors and 81 media and industry association partners.
The event offered a great stage for telling InternetQ’s social entertainment story which focuses on music to an influential audience. Colin Miles, moderated a MEF panel on Mobile Apps which had a wide-ranging discussion as to the importance and impact of Apps, how far they might go and their monetisation strategies. The cut-and-thrust included a real-time debate between Joe Jasin, Vice President, Corporate Development, Polaroid and the MD of Getty images who was sat in the audience -- as well as a cultural diversion on how Apps can help goat rearing in Bangladesh!
This five-day event is already recognised as the highlight of the conference calendar in Singapore. Primarily because it has truly lofty Hollywood level production values, a stellar cast list of high profile Anglo-American music industry speakers and, it is clearly an event that brings the best of Asia to the surface, in particular (this time around) with Korea & it's K-POP contingent, led by rapper DunkenTiger. Events rolled seamlessly from day into night - with more than 40 bands performing live across venues in Singapore.
This year's keynote speaker list included heavyweights such as John Meglen, president and co-CEO, Concerts West/AEG Live; Bob Lefsetz, the World's Most Read Music blogger; Troy Carter, manager of Lady Gaga and CEO and Founder, Atom Factory and Erik Johnson, Vice President, Facebook. Lefsetz was on typically lively form during his keynote address/interview. “The best and the brightest do not go into the music industry, because they do not make money,” he opined. He was equally confrontational with Spotify Chief Content Officer Ken Parks saying he hates having to access Spotify through Facebook because of the social network’s lack of privacy. “You have to change your settings each time you log on to hide your song choices.” It all added to the vivacious debate.
The show also included insightful presentations in the Gaming Matters Stream on how to monetise the business successfully, as well as some interesting announcements like the creation of the Singapore Music Society “a non-profit entity that supports artistry, business and production by developing skills, advocacy and opportunities.”
Music Matters for Akazoo! To learn more about InternetQ's proprietary social entertainment platform, click here.