San Francisco MusicTech Summit, taking place on October 20th at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco.
Ever since the first incarnation of music-sharing site Napster hit the web and moved the big record labels to start suing their customers, digital music has been an unavoidable topic. It's been more than nine years since then and to this day, the major labels continue to flounder around, doing everything they can to put the vices on the technologies that have rendered their traditional models obsolete. Meanwhile, a wide range of music-centric startups have popped up to leverage the internet.
Pandora and Last.fm have created amazing services for discovering new music. imeem and iLike have brought social networking and widgets into the mix. Newer entrants like Tunecore and Topspin Media are trying to help artists promote themselves and distribute their music everywhere they can. With MySpace Music, even Fox is getting into the game. One way or another, the models are shifting and SF MusicTech stands out for its ability to bring together the full range of voices to discuss this evolution.
Attendees will hear from speakers ranging from brand new startups like MixMatchMusic, which lets anyone choose from a growing catalog of song components to remix songs, to tech savvy musicians like Dawn Silva and record label execs like Ethan Kaplan, Warner Brother Music's VP of Technology. Digital media leaders from Google, Motorola and Apple will be speaking, as will lawyers who know the ins and outs of intellectual property law. If there's an interesting position on digital music to be heard, chances are you'll hear a version of it at SF MusicTech. The full list of speakers is here.
Ticket prices are currently $129 for students, $169 for developers and $239 for everyone else. VentureBeat readers who go to this page and sign up with the discount code "venturebeat" will get 10 percent off. Act fast, though. Prices go up at the end of every week.