Taken from The Great Escape website:
More details have been announced today about CMU Insights @ The Great Escape 2016, the conference that sits at the heart of the TGE Convention. Taking place at Dukes @ Komedia on the Thursday and Friday of the festival, this is a totally different kind of music conference, putting the spotlight on four key themes: data + transparency; CDs + merch; YouTube + video; and diversity + health.
Each strand is packed with timely talks and conversations, with training elements, original research, case studies and lively debate. Today we reveal details about some of the speakers set to appear in two of our CMU Insights strands: ‘Transparency! Data! Blockchain! Let’s make buzzwords happen!‘ and ‘What if YouTube actually is the future?’
Making buzzwords happen
‘Transparency’ has been the big buzzword in the music community this year, while another buzzy term – the ‘blockchain’ – has been increasingly held up as the technology that could make digital music more transparent and more efficient. Leading the debate around the blockchain has been PledgeMusic founder Benji Rogers, who will keynote at The Great Escape this May to outline his vision of how new technologies could power a prolific music database that could in turn make digital payments quicker and fairer.
He will be joined by digital music experts Sammy Andrews and Andy Edwards, both also vocal proponents of the need for more transparency and the role technology can play. They will map out what needs to happen to fix the issues around music data and digital royalties, and then debate the issues with a panel of managers, lawyers, publishers and label chiefs, who will discuss the role different stakeholders must play, and why they should bother.
Ensuring everyone is fully up to speed with the jargon, CMU’s Chris Cooke will provide a Beginners Guide To The Blockchain, while earlier in the day he will be joined by music lawyer Nigel Dewar-Gibb of Lewis Silkin to explain how digital data and revenue currently works its way through the system, identifying where the blockages lie, and identifying what questions need to be asked of digital services, labels, publishers and the collecting societies.
The power of music video online
Hosted by digital entrepreneur and Tracks2 co-founder Brittney Bean, our video-focused strand will explore both the licensing challenges and the commercial potential of YouTube, explain why music video is now about more than the ‘music video’, and identify what kinds of video content really work online, on YouTube and well beyond.
Vevo’s Tom Connaughton will delve into how artists, labels and promoters can create video content that really engages and excites fans, whilst Rebecca Lammers of Laika Network, Claire Mas of Communion Music Group, and Chloé Julien of BandSquare will demonstrate how the music industry can really maximise the value of video online.