Wednesday 6th July 2011
Programme
10.30: Julian Wall, Director Independent Member Services & International Events, BPI
Introduction & Welcome Address
10.35-11.00: Keynote Address: Music In The Cloud
Rob Lewis, Executive Chairman and co-founder Omnifone.
Omnifone is the leading independent provider of cloud based music services and in 2007 secured the first international licensing for unlimited music services and leading independents. Rob will talk about ‘music in the cloud’ generally, the development of Omnifone and how he sees the development of this new exciting area of business for music based companies.
11.00-11.45: Panel: Digital Tools & Services
Moderator – Paul Brindley (Music Ally)
Panellists – Dave Haynes (SoundCloud); Nick Holden (get-ctrl); Jack Melhuish (Atlantic Records); Shamal Ranasinghe (Topspin); Michael Schneider (Mobile Roadie)
The panel will explore what practical tools & services independent companies can utilise in their digital marketing programmes. The UK singles market is now nearly 99% digital and album sales are close to 20% digital and rising fast. In the last 12 months several digital milestones were reached with the downloading of over 500 million tracks and 50 million albums in the UK. The digital area is undoubtedly where the greatest changes and innovation is happening in music with a flow of new services and models entering the market. The panel - comprising of individuals from companies that are working energetically and innovatively in this area and moderated by Music Ally’s Paul Brindley - will be discussing and informing the audience what practical options small and independent companies can utilise to develop their business.
John Craig (First Night Records); Scott Cohen (The Orchard); Michael Infante (One Media Publishing Group PLC), Harry Maloney (The Independent Record Company)
12.15: Lunch
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Keynote Address
Rob Lewis, Executive Chairman, Omnifone
Rob Lewis is Executive Chairman and co-founder of Omnifone, the leading independent provider of cloud based music services for consumer electronics vendors, ISPs, automotive and mobile companies globally. Responsible for high level global relationships with the company’s key stakeholders, Lewis secured the first international licensing for unlimited music services with all four major music labels and leading independents in 2007 and is responsible for the rollout the company’s multi-award winning MusicStation® powered unlimited music services across 22 countries with the likes of Sony, HP and Sony Ericsson.
At CES 2009 Omnifone announced a partnership with Gracenote to bring cloud based interoperable unlimited music services to multiple device platforms including mobile, PC, in-car and in-home devices winning a ‘Best of CES’ award for an interoperable in-car entertainment system with MusicStation unlimited music service. In 2008 Omnifone won Best Mobile Music Service at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards, Best Mobile Internet Service at the Mobile Industry Awards, the Juniper Research Future Mobile Award’s Gold Award for Mobile Music, the Red Herring Global 100 Award and in 2007 the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Music Service Meffy.
In 2010 Lewis was elected as a Global Board Director of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) and is a 2009 Ernst & Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year and was named PwC UK Technology, Innovation & Growth Awards 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year. Lewis was also named a Mobile Entertainment magazine Top 50 mobile content executive and a Mobile magazine Power 50 executive in 2008, as well as a Billboard magazine Top 10 Mobile Music Executive in 2007.
Lewis previously founded Business & Technology Magazine (sold to Dennis Publishing) and along with Omnifone co-founders Phil Sant and Mark Knight, founded internet software developer Cromwell Media (sold to InterX for £850m in 2000). He was also the founder and CEO of Silicon.com (later sold to CNET Networks) and its sister companies, Paris-based Silicon.fr and Munich-based Silicon.de. Omnifone is headquartered in Island Studios, London, with its Asia Pacific HQ in Hong Kong.
www.omnifone.com
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Digital Tools & Services Panel
Paul Brindley: Music Ally (Moderator)
Paul Brindley is the co-founder and CEO of Music Ally, the leading London-based music business information and strategy-company. With a background as a musician (he played bass guitar with The Sundays from 1988 to 1998); freelance writer and research consultant, he wrote New Musical Entrepreneurs, a report into the impact of new technology on the UK music industry for the prestigious Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank in March 2000. Paul was also a government advisor on digital music and for a while worked in the private office of Rt Hon Tony Blair MP. Paul is a regular media commentator and speaker on all matters music and digital.
Dave Haynes: SoundCloud
Dave Haynes is VP Business Development for the wonderful SoundCloud, a cloud-based music platform that allows music creators and professionals to easily distribute, share and stream audio over the web. Earlier this year, SoundCloud passed the 3 million user count. With over a decade’s experience in the music industry, Dave works at the forefront of the latest trends in digital music and as well as his SoundCloud work is an active participant and contributor at B2B events across the globe evangelizing new business models and digital innovation.
Nick Holden: get-ctrl
Nick Holden is the 'Big Cheese' at get-ctrl (CEO is too formal). get-ctrl is a platform for artists, managers and labels to build and host an official website which acts as a hub for their on line presence. It uses the content that is uploaded such as background images, tracks, gigs and news stories to build and automatically update iPhone apps, Facebook tabs and social networks. Data is then gathered from those feeds to bring a comprehensive understanding of digital interactions across multiple platforms in to one place.
Jack Melhuish: Atlantic Records UK
Jack Melhuish is Director of Digital for Atlantic Records UK, Music Week's label of the year. In his role Jack is responsible for running all areas of Atlantic's digital and mobile strategy for their artists including digital marketing, social media engagement, online advertising and new partner initiatives. He has directed award winning campaigns for a wide range of acts including Plan B, Paolo Nutini, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Lykke Li, The Streets, Rumer, James Blunt and more. A particular area of focus for Atlantic is the identification and early adoption of new technologies that aid discovery and interaction between artists and fans.
Prior to becoming Digital Director at Atlantic Jack was a member of the labels digital marketing team where he specialised in confounding colleagues with talk of APIs, engagement rates and the importance of early 90s drum and bass.
Shamal Ranasinghe: Topspin
Shamal is a co-founder of Topspin. Before Topspin Shamal was involved in data mining efforts at Yahoo! Music and headed up product management at Musicmatch releasing versions 8 through 10. Topspin is a technology platform for artists, labels, managers, marketers and brands to promote themselves and distribute their products online. Since coming out of stealth mode in June 2008, a number of artists have chosen Topspin to market music directly to their fans including Paul McCartney, Beastie Boys, David Byrne and Brian Eno, Arcade Fire, Eminem, Linkin Park, Lady Gaga, and the Pixies. More information at www.topspinmedia.com
Michael Schneider: Mobile Roadie
Mobile Roadie allows anyone to create and manage their own iPhone and Android app quickly and inexpensively. Co-founded by Michael in 2009, to date over 2,000 apps for musicians, athletes, sports stars and others have been created using Mobile Roadie. In 2011 Sony Music Entertainment formed a partnership with Mobile Roadie to develop interactive apps for their artists; featuring music, news, videos, photo galleries, tour schedules and ticketing options. Other artists and music businesses currently using its platform include Madonna, Taylor Swift and The Beatles. Michael has a very active history in developing internet based businesses and has been the recipient of a number of business awards.