SF MusicTech Summit XV May 20, 2014

Below is the agenda from Summit 15:

LUNCH BREAK

3:00 – 3:30Afternoon Break
Sponsored by MailChimp

Below are the speakers from the 16th SF MusicTech Summit on May 20, 2014.

Speakers on May 20, 2014

Us the Duo3 years ago, two emerging solo artists from opposite sides of the country randomly collided, fell in love, and combined their talent into Us The Duo. A few successful YouTube videos (23+ million views) encouraged these songwriters to write their own music together, leading them to produce their first self-titled album, Us. After its release, Michael & Carissa got married and have been traveling and playing music together ever since.

These two have gained quick exposure in the last four months. They released their 2nd album, No Matter Where You Are, which peaked at #22 on the iTunes pop charts, and #19 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Chart. Us The Duo has made a name for themselves on Vine, with their 6-second musical covers and arrangements – gaining over 3 million followers in four months.

Their successes have led to press and media attention from Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Business Insider, Buzzfeed, and iHeartRadio. Good Morning America also became fans of Us The Duo, and they performed live throughout the show on February 20th. Us The Duo recently signed to Republic Records and rereleased their album “No Matter Where You Are” on May 6th. Follow on Twitter: @ustheduo

Robert AckerStealth Company, CEORobert Acker most recently lead the Aha team with 14+ years of pioneering leadership in the connected car industry. He’s been developing and launching technology-based consumer products and services since he wrote the original business plan for XM Satellite Radio in 1997.

Before founding Aha in 2008 (acquired by Harman in 2010), Acker was most recently SVP of marketing at Dash Navigation, the company that developed the first internet-connected GPS device. There he led marketing, advertising, product management and public relations for the award-winning device that Walt Mossberg predicted could “radically improve in-car navigation.” Prior to Dash, Acker served as VP of music services at RealNetworks where he oversaw the leading on-demand music service Rhapsody and the company’s music download store. As the first full time employee at XM Satellite radio, Acker served as VP of marketing and VP of product development and planning where he negotiated the company’s first strategic partnerships, created the XM brand, set pricing, launched the service and developed the company’s award-winning radio lineup.

Acker is often quoted in publications such as The New York Times, BusinessWeek and Automotive News, and has been a featured speaker at many top tech industry events, including CES, Web 2.0 Summit, Where 2.0, CTIA and Telematics Detroit. He began his career at aerospace start-ups and worked as an engineer at Boeing Satellite Systems. He holds both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from MIT, and a MBA from the Harvard Business School. Follow on Twitter: @acker / aharadio

Jeff AnnisonNew York Rock Exchange, ChairmanJeff is Chairman of the New York Rock Exchange, a music startup that partners with artists to sell collectible songshares to fans.

Prior to founding the New York Rock Exchange, Jeff was a cofounder of MobiTV, the world’s first live mobile television service. Jeff led engineering and product development during a period when the company scaled from 3 to 300 employees, won an Emmy Award for Innovation in Television, and grew to over 25MM paying subscribers.

Prior to MobiTV Jeff designed toys for Hasbro and theme park rides for Universal Studios. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA.

Outside of work, Jeff is a dedicated husband, father, gamer, and amateur auto racer. Follow on Twitter: @J2Jeff

Kevin ArnoldOpenAura, Inc., Founder / CEOKevin Arnold is a San Francisco-based music and technology entrepreneur with diverse interests who tends to bite off a bit more than he can chew. His first taste for building things started when he founded San Francisco’s internationally renowned Noise Pop Festival back in 1993. Today, Noise Pop Industries (NPI) manages a busy calendar of local cultural events year-round, culminating in the Treasure Island Music Festival. In 2012 NPI added the local events guide Do415 to its family, helping Bay Area nightlife denizens answer the question of what to do in San Francisco.

Nurturing his repressed inner technology geek, Kevin first learned the mysteries of databases during a stint at Oracle during the 90’s Bay Area tech boom, then quickly jumped into the bubbling digital music sector at local startup Listen.com. As Director of Data Services for Listen, Kevin was able to combine his love for music and technology by guiding the growth and development of Listen’s music metadata systems, data integration tools, and music royalty data warehouse for the Rhapsody digital music subscription service.

Building upon this experience, in 2003 Kevin founded IODA – the Independent Online Distribution Alliance – to help independents find their way in the new world of digital music. He grew the fledgling startup into one of the largest digital distributors of independent music in the world, combining his dedication to independents and unique understanding of the digital music landscape to benefit IODA’s global client base.

After completing the sale of IODA to Sony Music Entertainment in 2009 and the subsequent merger with the Orchard in 2012, Kevin joined the Global Digital Business group at Sony Music as Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor. With a mandate to focus on core problems facing the evolution of the industry, Kevin developed new business concepts that ultimately resulted in the creation and spinout of a new company, OpenAura, Inc..

Dean BolteOmnifone, Managing Director of the AmericasLA-based Dean Bolte is managing director of the Americas for B2B digital music service provider, Omnifone. His company develops, licenses and manages cloud-based digital music services, allowing service providers to deliver music across most devices globally. Such service providers include SiriusXM, Sony Music Unlimited, rara.com, Spotify and Guvera. Omnifone also works with rights owners to enable them to monetise assets via global digital services, in a way that is both commercially viable and readily embraced by consumers. Dean’s background includes building US-based operations with companies in the online kids and family gaming space including Smith and Tinker, Imagination Entertainment and the Walt Disney Company. Previous events Dean has spoken at in 2013 include SF Music Tech Summit, Digital Hollywood, Bandwidth Conference, NARM Music Biz and Music Expo. Follow Dean on Twitter: @omnifone / @deanbolte

Andrew BorgeltNorthern Nights Music Festival, Co-FounderHailing from Northern California, Andrew has established himself as one of the Bay Area’s premiere independent event producers. With a degree in Global Studies and Spanish from UC Santa Barbara, Andrew’s life experiences in both Northern and Southern California, coupled with extensive world travel throughout Europe, Central and South America, have been integral in creating his global perspective and fostering his love of music, festivals and events. From this passion, Andrew worked his way into the music industry, ultimately leading him to co-found, BLAP Productions. This San Francisco based production company is the culmination of Andrew’s passions and talents and has created the foundation for his reputation and ability to foster strong relationships with musical artists and has forged partnerships with key industry players, while never forgetting it’s about the experience curated.

BLAP Productions was founded in 2010 by a group of friends who shared a passion for music with a visionary pulse and natural eye to produce an event that has never been seen before. One of the unique distinctions of BLAP Productions is the musical versatility and range of venues they strive to showcase. Whether it’s a local grassroots pop-up event at Dolores park, an upscale yacht event on the San Francisco Bay or Co-producing Wintersalt (a local EDM festival) at Fort Mason Festival Pavilion; Andrew’s vision and conviction to bring good quality music and experience to all kinds of people has never faltered and has been the life blood of his motivation, pushing him from one project to the next.

The culmination of both BLAP Productions and Andrew’s vision can be realized in their creation of Northern Nights Music Festival, a 3 day festival hosted on the original grounds of Reggae on the River next to the Eel river on the Mendocino / Humboldt County Line.

Northern Nights Music Festival offers an organic appreciation for music and a high level of respect and support for like-minded production companies, performers and promoters. The mission of NNMF is to produce the premiere destination festival that offers a unique opportunity to fully embrace a truly California experience, while supporting emerging underground music industries, and feature sought out produces, DJ & musicians from regions around the globe. Follow on Twitter: @blapproductions / @nnmfestival

Les BorsaiMusigram Corp., SongLily, CEO / Les Borsai ConsultingLes Borsai’s 21-year career in the music and entertainment industry has included every facet of artist management, publicity, marketing, co-op, advertising, and distribution. His Los Angeles-based company, gridMob, quickly emerged as a top iPhone app developer when it introduced “iOKi.” a franchise game, combining the best of music and gaming into an interactive, social media karaoke game with storefront to purchase additional songs. Borsai executed deals with EMI, Sony/ATV, Universal Music Publishing Group, Disney Music Group and Warner/Chappell. To date, gridMob apps have surpassed 10 million downloads.
Les Borsai Consulting was founded in 2010 with the mission of defining new business models for content acquisition from record companies and music publishers. While most mobile companies were still offering revenue shares to game and app developers, Les changed the model and convinced the record companies and publishers to accept flat fees for the use of their compositions. Clients have included Neowiz Games, Restoration Hardware, Conduit, UJAM, Dysonics, Membran Entertainment Group, Audiosocket, Monstrous, Biobeats, Peercover and Ripple.

Les is also the co-founder of Songlily, a revolutionary website offering record labels the ability to marketing popular music to game and app developers and giving developers the ability to obtain sync licenses on with a click through agreement and a flat fee payment.

Today, his primary focus is providing consulting services to entertainment, record, distribution and gaming companies. His role includes new business development, content acquisition, branded products, strategic marketing, ad monetization and anything related to mobile. Follow on Twitter: @lesborsai

Phil BosuaLIFX, CEOPhil Bosua launched LIFX on Kickstarter in Sept 2012 and the project received $1.3M of pledges in six days. Since then LIFX has received orders for more than 100,000 units and Phil continues to build a world class team in the Bay area around the light bulb reinvented. Follow on Twitter: @LIFX / @philbosh

Tony BrookeSilent Way, Media Asset Manager / Metadata GeekTony Brooke is a media asset manager in San Francisco who is working to fix the credits problem in the digital music supply chain. He is a full member of DDEX, on the Recording Academy’s national credits committee, and a Governor of the Recording Academy’s San Francisco Chapter. He completed significant research into audiovisual metadata and media asset management as part of his Master’s degree in Library and Information Science. He has been an audio engineer specializing in remote multitrack recording since 1992, with over 90 releases in his discography (including two Grammy-nominated albums) and 500 clients.
Ask him how to improve your metadata to increase sales, and you will get an earful. Look for the tall guy. Follow on Twitter: @tonybrooke

Gary BrotmanQualcomm Connected Experiences, Director, Product ManagementGary Brotman drives strategic product, business and marketing efforts for the Qualcomm Connected Experiences AllPlay Smart Media Platform. He is a digital media veteran with more than 15 years of experience designing and marketing media software, hardware and services that push the boundaries of technology to enrich culture. The majority of Brotman’s career has been dedicated to helping consumers, artists and businesses discover, experience, promote and distribute digital media. Prior to his work at Qualcomm, he held leadership positions at Topspin Media, Yahoo! Music and MusicMatch and has designed campaigns and online businesses for many major-label and indie artists including Eminem, David Byrne, Peter Gabriel, Adam Freeland and Van Hunt. Follow on Twitter: @GaryZero

Elliot Cahn, Esq.Elliot Cahn ManagementElliot Cahn started his music career as a singer and guitarist. While at Columbia University he and some friends started a band called Sha Na Na (named after a scat line in the ’50’s hit “Get A Job”). The band found international fame after playing at the Woodstock Festival, and Elliot toured and recorded with them for 4 album cycles. Elliot left the band and played with ex-Sha Na Na member Henry Gross for another year, before moving to Bay Area and continuing his education at the University of California Berkeley where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree, Law Degree, and a Master’s Degree in Jurisprudence & Social Policy.

After finishing school, Elliot worked as the director of the litigation support program at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI International), where he specialized in advising attorneys on jury selection in high stakes trials, taught at the law school of the University of Santa Clara, and returned to the music business in 1975.

Over the past twenty-three years, Elliot has served as attorney for Primus, Papa Roach, Rancid, Exodus, The Offspring, Luce, Charlie Hunter, Ocean Park Music Group, and producers Mark Needham, Jim Scott, and Bryan Todd, as well as a number of independent record labels, publishing companies, merchandise companies, and film producers. He has managed the careers of Green Day (through the Dookie album which sold fifteen million albums worldwide and won a Grammy for best rock album), Testament, Fisher, guitarist Justin King and R&B songstress Goapele.

Elliot was the CEO of a joint venture label with MCA Records and has music supervised two major studio films: Kevin Smiths’ Mall Rats and Angus.

He has appeared on music panels for conferences run by South By Southwest, CMJ, The Austin Music Foundation, California Lawyers for the Arts, Music Tech Summit and the Westcoast Songwriters Association, and is a frequent guest lecturer at colleges and law schools around the Bay Area.

Cindy W. Charles, Esq.Cindy Charles Consulting, President / Women in Digital MediaCindy Charles, President of Cindy Charles Consulting, has been working in the digital media space since 1997. She is currently doing business affairs and business development consulting in the digital media space for clients who currently include or have included Yahoo, RIM, Lively, Spotify, MOG/Beats Music, Smule, Topspin, Soundhound, EchoNest, Nintendo, Sugar Inc., Pulselocker, NARM, Focus@Will, iJukebox, MediaNet, and others. Until recently, Ms. Charles was Senior Vice President, Law and Business Affairs for MediaNet. Previously, Ms. Charles held a variety of positions for MTV Networks over a six year period including Vice President of Law and Business Affairs for MTVi, an interactive division of MTV Networks, and prior to MTV Networks, Ms. Charles was General Counsel for WarnerVision Entertainment. Ms. Charles also served in legal positions at Worldvision Enterprises, the Screen Actors Guild and various law firms.

Minna ChoiMagik*Magik Orchestra, Music DirectorMinna Choi is music director living in San Francisco. She is the founder and director of the Magik*Magik Orchestra as well as choir director for City Church San Francisco. Over the past five years with Magik*Magik, she has written over 600 string arrangements for over 80 artists including: Death Cab for Cutie, Santana, The Dodos, John Vanderslice, Two Gallants, Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers, Christina Vantzou, Zoe Keating, Rogue Wave, Geographer and Thao. She has conducted several film scores including: LOOPER starring Bruce Willis, Young Ones starring Elle Fanning and Kill the Messenger starring Jeremy Renner. In 2012 she directed a string ensemble for a national tour with Death Cab for Cutie and in June 2014 will lead a chamber orchestra in Berlin for How to Dress Well. More info: www.minnachoi.com. Follow on Twitter: @magikmagik

Ted CohenTAG Strategic, Managing PartnerIntegrating his widespread digital authority in music, mobile, IPTV and product & service development, Ted Cohen is the Managing Partner of TAG Strategic. In an industry that’s been slow to embrace change, Cohen is the exception to the stereotypical music-exec rule. Of course, when you start a career on the road with Alice Cooper and Van Halen, you’re more primed for the unexpected.

Known throughout the technology and music industries as being “part ambassador and part evangelist,” Cohen was instrumental in crafting the licensing agreements upon which the Rhapsody subscription service and the iTunes Music Store were built.

In his previous role as Senior Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music (home of artists including Coldplay and the Rolling Stones), Cohen led next-generation digital business development worldwide for this “big four” record company, which includes labels such as Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. During that time, EMI led the industry by embracing and exploiting new technologies and business models such as digital downloads and online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio.

Julian ColbeckMusicians Guild, Business DevelopmentJulian Colbeck became a professional musician in London when he was 19, signing to Charisma Records, home to Genesis and The Nice. Over the next 25 years Julian recorded and toured with Charlie, John Miles, Yes/ABWH, Genesis’ Steve Hackett and many others. In 1984 Virgin Books published Keyfax, Colbeck’s keyboard/synthesizer buyers guide, which would run on to five further editions. Julian has also authored seven other music books including a biography of Frank Zappa, and The Art & Science Of Sound Recording (Hal Leonard, 2014) with long-time friend and associate Alan Parsons.

In 1994 Colbeck founded Keyfax Software to promote his original invention of MIDI Samples and subsequently the world’s first MIDI Performance Controller, Phat.Boy. Keyfax NewMedia went on to become a leading independent provider of MI and Pro Audio support, creating the groundbreaking Yamaha synth and technology websites Motifator.com, DTXPerience, MLANcentral and TenoriOnUSA and more than 20 full length instructional DVDs.

In 2008 Colbeck began work on The Art And Science Of Sound Recording video series, written with Alan Parsons. The 10-hour ‘ASSR’ series took three years to complete and has now been developed into a leading online educational syllabus for Music Production and Audio Engineering schools, in place throughout the US and as far a-field as Sweden and Colombia.

As co-founder of Musicians Guild in 2014, Julian hopes his long-held vision of a world where music and musicians are fully given their due as keepers of possibly the world’s most precious natural resource will actually be realized.

Seth CombsSol Republic, Co-founder / CMOAfter graduating from the University of San Francisco, Seth launched a franchise in San Francisco, growing it to a multi-million dollar business through direct response copywriting and direct marketing campaigns. With a passion for marketing messaging, Seth went on to study Copywriting at Miami Ad School in San Francisco before taking his expertise to help companies such as Comcast, Kodak and Bayer on developing messaging and digital marketing campaigns to build their brand.

In 2007, Seth joined Monster Cable, the leader in Consumer Electronics accessories, where he pioneered their brand into the digital space. Seth launched several marketing campaigns, working with Simplay, Buena Vista and Pioneer to raise awareness of the Blu-Ray platform and HDMI, growing this business to be an industry leader in 18 months.

In 2008, Seth put together the digital and messaging strategy and was part of the team that launched Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, working with Universal Records and Insterscope growing the business to the largest headphones company in three years.

In 2011, Seth co-founded and launched SOL REPUBLIC, leading the team as CMO. Partnering with over 214 DJs, Musicians, Producers and athletes, from Michael Phelps to Steve Aoki, along with activating over 25,000 music fans known as SOLdiers Of Sound, SOL REPUBLIC has become the fastest growing headphone brand around the globe. Follow on Twitter: @SOLREPUBLIC

Chip ConleyFEST300, Founder / Editor-in-ChiefHotel guru. Armchair psychologist. Traveling philosopher. Author. Speaker. Teacher. Student. Chip Conley has lived out more than one calling in his lifetime. No one has led the development, creation, and management of more boutique hotels than Chip Conley, founder and former CEO of Joie de Vivre (JDV). At age 26, Chip’s mission was to “create joy” by building a company that USA Today called “the most delightfully schizophrenic collection of hotels in America.” During his nearly 24 years as CEO, JDV grew to become the second largest boutique hotel company in America. (Chip is no longer an owner or leader of Joie de Vivre’s management business – now part of Commune Hotels – but remains a partner in several hotel properties.)

Chip shares his unique prescription for success in PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, based on noted psychologist Abraham Maslow’s iconic Hierarchy of Needs. The New York Times bestseller, EMOTIONAL EQUATIONS: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success, is Chip’s latest book where he takes us from emotional intelligence to emotional fluency – placing meaning at the top of the balance sheet. His previous books include The Rebel Rules: Daring to be Yourself in Business, and Marketing That Matters: 10 Practices to Profit Your Business and Change the World. Chip presents his theories on transformation and meaning – in business and life – to audiences around the world and he’s been a featured speaker at TED.

Honored with the 2012 Pioneer Award – hospitality’s highest accolade – The San Francisco Business Times named Chip the Most Innovative CEO – and JDV the 2nd Best Place to Work in the entire Bay Area. Chip received his BA and MBA from Stanford University and holds an Honorary Doctorate in Psychology from Saybrook University, where he is the 2012/2013 Scholar- Practitioner in residence. He served on the Glide Memorial Board for nearly a decade and is now on the Boards of the Burning Man Project, the Esalen Institute, and Youth Speaks.

In 2013, Chip launched Fest300 where he shares his passion for world festivals. And, he joined Airbnb as Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, where he’s sharing his proven methods with hosts in nearly 200 countries. You can follow his adventures on his Fest300 travel blog.

Josh ConstineTechCrunch, WriterJosh writes tech and music news for TechCrunch. He is an experienced public speaker, having moderated fireside chats and panels at over a dozen conferences including SXSW and TechCrunch Disrupt. He specializes in critical analysis of social and communication technologies. His goal is to bring readers deep insight into the ramifications of breaking news from startups and tech giants alike. His beats include Facebook, Google, social networks, advertising, music, dating, and social good. He loves writing in-depth launch profiles of new startups.

Constine’s past on-stage interviews include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Soundcloud CEO Alex Ljung, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, and a hilarious panel with founders of Rap Genius.

Prior to TechCrunch, Constine designed a Stanford University Master’s program in Cybersociology to study how humans interact through technology. He researched privacy, anonymity, meme popularity cycles, and how tech is changing interpersonal relationships. He currently lives and plays in the Mission district of San Francisco. Follow on Twitter: @JoshConstine

Jack ContePatreon, Co-Founder / CEOJack Conte is a musician, filmmaker, half of Pomplamoose, and founder of Patreon, a sustainable crowdfunding site dedicated to helping content creators make a living. As a musician and filmmaker, Jack’s catalog of videos on YouTube has amassed over 100 million views. He spends half his days in a converted dog kennel that now acts as a recording studio in Sonoma County and the other half at the Patreon Command Center, Patreon’s Noe Valley office. He also loves working with robots.

Matthew CoxWarner Music Group – Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Manager, Business Development/Consumer ProductsMatthew Cox is the licensing manager for digital media business development and consumer products for Warner Music Group. Follow on Twitter: @nothincreative

Jan D’AlessandroBackplane, EVP Business DevelopmentJan D’Alessandro is EVP Business Development and General Counsel for Backplane, the technology platform, co-founded by Lady Gaga, that facilitates the creation of communities uniting people around shared interests, affinities and movements. Other partners using Backplane to foster deep connections include Nike, Coca-Cola, Cirque du Soleil, the Mandela Family, Tony Hawk, MLBPA and others. Jan is a seasoned internet industry executive who has held leadership positions at AOL, Yahoo, Topspin Media and The Find. She ran West coast business affairs for AOL from 1995 to 2002 where her responsibilities included developing AOL’s music strategy, including the acquisitions of Spinner and Nullsoft, leading many content, commerce and technology deals, and launching the philanthropy portal, networkforgood. Prior to joining Backplane, Jan was the Head of Business Development for Yahoo Sports, Entertainment and Lifestyles. Prior to joining Yahoo, Jan was Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel for Topspin Media, Inc. where she led all negotiations with labels, distributors, technology, marketing, management companies, brand advertisers and anyone else interested in helping artists and fans find each other in the digital world.

Ethan DiamondBandcamp, Co-founder / CEOEthan Diamond is the CEO and co-founder of Bandcamp, an online music store. As of March 2014, fans have directly paid artists $65 million using Bandcamp, and $2.9 million in the last 30 days alone.
Follow on Twitter: @bandcamp

David DownsBillboard, San Francisco Examiner, Freelance JournalistSan Francisco-based Freelance Journalist David Downs has covered the arts and technology for WIRED, Rolling Stone, New York Times, The Onion, and many other fine publications. He currently reviews music apps for Billboard Magazine and covers San Francisco’s electronic music scene for San Francisco Examiner. Follow on Twitter: @davidrdowns

David DufresneBandzoogle, CEODavid Dufresne is CEO at Bandzoogle, the most powerful platform for musicians to build their website, engage their fans, and sell their music and merchandise directly. Bandzoogle works with tens of thousands of bands and musicians to help them create a strong base for their online strategy. David’s background is in the Canadian venture capital industry, where he worked at firms investing in web, mobile, enterprise software and video game startups. He’s an obsessive music fan, occasional DJ, hall-of-famer soccer player, and dad of two young daughters. Follow on Twitter: @DavidDufresne / @Bandzoogle

Eric FerraroFathom Law PC, PrincipalEric Ferraro is the Principal at Fathom Law. Eric has over 20 years of experience in corporate, securities and intellectual property law. He advises entrepreneurs, emerging growth and middle market companies in all aspects of business formation, governance, corporate finance, commercial and IP transactions and mergers and acquisitions. He also represents angel and venture capital investors, private equity firms, investment bankers and broker-dealers in connection with regulatory matters, investment and finance transactions.

In addition to his legal experience, Eric is a former digital media company founder and is an active angel investor and member of SF Angels and Keiretsu Forum. This diverse expertise enables Eric to offer his clients a unique integrated counseling approach that balances legal protection and corporate best practices with business, technical, investment and strategic considerations.

Eric is regularly recognized as a Northern California Super Lawyer in Business and Corporate law. He serves on the advisory boards of numerous notable technology companies. Eric is the co-creator of the popular PitchForce venture competition, the chair of the annual MobiTech mobile technology conference, and a regular panelist and mentor at a wide range of technology events and accelerators.

Mike FiebachFame House, CEOMike Fiebach is the Founder and CEO of Fame House, a quickly growing company focused on direct to consumer strategies, digital development & marketing for the music and entertainment industries. Fame House grew as an independently-funded, one-person company, to a multi-city, 25+ person operation in 2 and a half years, and was acquired by the publicly held SFX Entertainment (NASDAQ:SFXE) on October 21st, 2013 (See story).

Currently, Fame House is a 35+ person agency, and operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of SFX Entertainment. Clients include: Interscope, Universal Republic, Atlantic Records, Eminem, Tiesto, Pretty Lights, DJ Shadow, Loco Dice, The Crystal Method, and Richie Hawtin, as well as various SFX-owned companies, including Mysteryland, Q-Dance, and Disco Donnie Presents, among others.

Prior to Fame House, Mike worked for DJ Shadow as his Project, Marketing, and Merchandise Manager. Additionally, Mike managed an indie record label, and was an adjunct professor for digital music marketing at SFSU. Follow on Twitter: @famehouse / @mfiebach

Kristine FlahertyK.FlayK.Flay (Kristine Flaherty) is a recording artist currently based in San Francisco. After 2 mixtapes & 3 EPs, her first full-length album, Life As a Dog, will be released independently this June. Follow on Twitter: @kflay

Andrew FurmanczykFurmanczyk Academy of Music, Founder / VersalBorn 1986 in Canada, Andrew Furmanczyk started piano lessons in 1992 at 5 years old, and from an early age Andrew had a passion for music. By the time he was 17 years old he was performing several hours per week around his city and had dreams of becoming a traditional concert pianist. Before he could apply for university and eventually fulfill his dream, he contracted a viral heart condition that threatened his life and completely altered his direction.

With Andrew’s dreams of being a concert pianist over, he eventually decided to use his experience and knowledge of piano and share it on YouTube in 2006 for free. Andrew created a series of videos called ‘How to play piano’ and later expanded to teach ‘Learn Free Music Theory’. Andrew’s goal was to teach the concepts and principles of music in a simple to understand and yet in-depth way to expand the global music community by teaching anyone who had a passion to learn regardless of their finances.

Andrew’s “Furmanczyk Academy of Music” YouTube channel now has over 200,000+ subscribers and 30,000,000+ views and consistently ranks among the top results for any Google search of learning piano or music. In January 2014, Andrew redesigned his website howtoplaypiano.ca to incorporate a new learning platform based in SF called ‘Versal’. Versal allows Andrew to take musical education further by adding interactive JavaScript gadgets into his courses and enables him to teach more complex material.

Looking forward, Andrew’s next goal is to expand the course material to encompass all music education, so that anyone can learn music. As a side effect of this open access, Andrew hopes that these courses will increase the overall music literacy rate of humankind, and be a contributing factor to an improved world for everyone. Follow on Twitter: @versal / @AFurmanczyk

Lindsay GablerThe Recording Academy, Sr. Marketing Manager, Social MediaLindsay Gabler is the Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media for The Recording Academy (GRAMMY Awards). Her focus is Social TV as well as exploring new technologies to engage with fans and build the GRAMMY brand. The 54th GRAMMY Awards became the ‘Most Social Event in Television History’ and to this day remains one of the biggest social media events of the year. Before landing at The Recording Academy, Lindsay was Community Manager at Universal Music Group Distribution. She was also named to Billboard’s Twitter 140 in 2011 and 2012. Follow on Twitter: @lndsygblr / @theGRAMMYs

Mate GalicNative Instruments, CTO / PresidentAs Chief Technology Officer, President and Deputy CEO, Mate Galic directs the technological research, product design and hardware/software development of Native Instruments. As a DJ, producer, label owner and journalist, he was one of the most prolific figures in Europe’s burgeoning electronic music scene of the ’90s. When Mate came across Native Instruments’ groundbreaking debut software synthesizer “Generator”, he was immediately electrified by its vast creative implications, and joined the company as shareholder and evangelist to eventually become a driving force behind various milestones in the NI product portfolio. His personal mission is to further advance a paradigm of music technology that is both profoundly innovative and versatile while being accessible and inspiring to musicians of all backgrounds, with products that fully utilize the ever-increasing power of computer technology to continuously realize the company claim “The Future of Sound”.

G-EazyHometown: Oakland
Age: 24

The “James Dean of Rap” has toured the country selling out rock clubs and playing arenas opening for Lil Wayne, Drake and others. Sold Out 40+ Headline “Must Be Nice Tour” in 400-1000 Cap Rooms.

Album Must Be Nice peaked at #3 on iTunes Hip Hop Chart & #10 on Billboard Heatseekers Chart. Selected by Billboard Magazine to perform at their official Billboard Music Awards After Party 2013. Support on Lil Wayne’s 40+ city America’s Most Wanted Music Festival 2013 with 2 Chainz, TI and Hit-Boy.

New album, These Things Happen, will be released on June 23rd. Follow on Twitter: @g_eazy

Alexis GilesMOX, VP Business Development & Legal AffairsAlexis is passionate about connecting the music and tech communities in interesting and innovative ways. Alexis currently heads up business development and legal affairs for MOX, concluding strategic relationships, masterminding content acquisition, partnerships and industry relations, along with a team of music obsessed ninjas. MOX is what MTV would be if it launched in 2013: an online interactive music television channel. Previously – Alexis co-founded DJZ (now Crossfader) with Seth Goldstein, and before that was a 7 year Googler. At Google from 2005 as a lawyer in London – following Google’s acquisition of YouTube in 2006, she led the YouTube commercial legal team for 4 years where she focused on closing major broadcast and music deals and developing the product for international markets. In 2010, Alexis moved to San Francisco to work for the New Business Development team, developing strategic relationships for Google and incubating new Google products and services, including outreach and partnerships with the entrepreneurial and startup community. Follow on Twitter: @ARGiles

Fred GoldringMusic Aficionado / Aficionado Media LLC, Chairman / Co-FounderFred Goldring is a veteran top deal-making transactional entertainment and media lawyer, strategic adviser, entrepreneur, and investor. He is also a Member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities appointed by President Obama, and an Emmy, Clio and NAACP Image Award winning Executive Producer with will.i.am of the iconic “Yes We Can” music video.

He is Chairman & Co-Founder of Music Aficionado launched in late 2013) an upscale comprehensive music destination on the web for mass affluent adults 35+. Fred was a Co-Founder of Big Champagne (sold to Live Nation (LYV) in 2011), Co-Founder of Digital Turbine (sold to Mandalay Media (MNDL) in 2011) and has been a strategic adviser to Gibson Guitars, Hasbro, McDonald’s, National Geographic Entertainment, Leap Frog, Tapulous and MP3.com, among others.

Previously, as a founding partner of the law firm Goldring, Hertz, & Lichtenstein LLP, Fred represented many of the most important and biggest selling recording and performing artists in the world such as Beyonce, The Black Eyed Peas, Alanis Morissette, Seal, Boyz II Men, Will Smith, Mark Wahlberg, Herbie Hancock, and many others. Fred was critical in the signing of many of his firm’s clients’ original record, TV and film deals, and he also helped them to make the significant leap into other areas of the entertainment business. He is currently of counsel to SF-based firm Counsel, LLP.

Fred has been widely recognized as being amongst the first people in the music industry to recognize, evangelize and embrace the seismic technological shift that has become the digital music revolution. He has been a frequent speaker, commentator and author on the subjects of entertainment, marketing, media, technology, law and politics in numerous publications including The New York Times, Huffington Post, Billboard, San Jose Mercury News, The Hollywood Reporter, and many others.

Fred is the former Chairman of Rock the Vote, and is a member of the Board of Advisors of Jawbone, and the Coach K Leadership and Ethics Center at Duke University’s Fuqua Business School. He is a graduate of Duke University and The University of Miami School of Law, and a member of the New York and California Bars. Follow on Twitter: @fredgoldring / @labluedevil

Gary GreensteinWilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, PartnerGary Greenstein is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where his practice focuses on intellectual property, licensing, and commercial transactions, with specialized expertise in the digital exploitation of intellectual property. He regularly represents companies in transactions with record labels, music publishers, and program suppliers. He advises companies on complex intellectual property matters and frequently assists in the development of new business models. In addition, Gary advises investors on due diligence in the digital media area and companies in all stages of their development cycle.
Prior to joining the firm, Gary served as the first general counsel at SoundExchange, Inc., and as the vice president of business and legal affairs at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Before joining the RIAA, Gary was an associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Arnold & Porter, where he represented, among others, the Officer of the Commissioner of Baseball, Universal Music Group and the RIAA.

Prior to his legal career, Gary was the Director of Planned Giving at The Wilderness Society and a fiduciary real estate asset manager at The Boston Company. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennslyvania and J.D. from the George Washington University Law School. Follow on Twitter: @wilsonsonsini

Nick GuarinoUniversal Music Enterprises, Director, Film & TV MusicNick Guarino is the Director of Film & TV Music for Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) and is responsible for licensing the company’s master recordings in advertising. Since 2004, Mr. Guarino has negotiated the placement of many of the most recognizable recordings for the world’s biggest brands. Working with the largest catalog of recorded music, now having grown considerably with the acquisition of EMI in 2012, Mr. Guarino licenses not only today’s top hits but masters from throughout Universal’s rich history. Mr. Guarino also leads UMe’s business development efforts in finding opportunities for its music in the realm of mobile and social apps. With an extensive background in licensing to traditional video games and consumer products, he has successfully experimented with new licensing models to bring UMe’s music to emerging technologies. Prior to joining UMe, Mr. Guarino was the Marketing Manager for Universal Studios Operations Group and served as an Associate Producer at SOFA Entertainment, the owner of The Ed Sullivan Show library. Mr. Guarino earned a BA in Communications at Virginia Tech.

Bill HajjarSenzari, CEO / FounderBill is the CEO and Founder of Senzari and CEO of Senzari’s subsidiary, Wahwah Networks. He has more than 15 years of international experience in the mobile telecommunications field, working in both sales and business development positions at both public and startup companies. Bill is a graduate of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

Chris HarrisonPandora, Vice President of Business AffairsChris is Vice President of Business Affairs for Pandora where he focuses on the licensing and acquisition of music content. Prior to joining Pandora, Chris worked for commercial music service provider DMX where he held a number of positions, including General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer. While General Counsel, Chris led DMX’s successful efforts to obtain adjustable fee blanket licenses from performing rights societies ASCAP and BMI, which licenses and associated fees were affirmed by the Second Circuit in 2011. As Chief Operating Officer, Chris was responsible for DMX’s day-to-day operating activities, including revenue and sales growth; expense, cost and margin control; and monthly, quarterly and annual financial goal attainment. Chris also managed DMX’s residential service (SonicTap on DIRECTV) and Latin American operations. As COO, Chris led DMX’s implementation of the Pandora for Business commercial music service. Follow on Twitter: @Pandora_Radio

Jacob HauskensFortumo, VP of Sales & Business DevelopmentJacob Hauskens is North American VP of Sales & Business Development at Fortumo. He is focused on furthering relationships with existing customers including Microsoft, EA, Barnes & Noble and Rovio, as well as establishing new partnerships. Prior to joining Fortumo, Jacob led Sony VAIO’s PC messaging and monetization platform while at Sony Electronics. In addition to holding leadership positions at Sony Electronics and collaborating with companies such as Google, Microsoft, Symantec, and Intel, Jacob has worked as the Director of Business Development for Rocket Lawyer and as an analyst at Bank of America Securities. Follow on Twitter: @fortumo

Ari HerstandAri’s Take, Musician, BloggerMost people now know Ari Herstand as the guy who helped them fly with their instruments. His Carry Your Instrument On The Plane – It’s The LAW blog post went viral and has been viewed over 250,000 with over 40,000 Facebook Likes. In just under two years, Herstand’s music business advice blog, Ari’s Take, has been nominated by the LA Weekly as the best music blog in Los Angeles and has become a go to resource for DIY musicians.

Ari Herstand is a DIY musician who has played over 550 shows around the country, has opened for Ben Folds, Cake, Matt Nathanson and Ron Pope, and has had his music featured in countless TV shows. As an actor, he has co-starred in TV shows including 2 Broke Girls, The Fosters, Sam & Cat and Touch.

Before acting and blogging, Herstand spent a full year working on his newest release, Brave Enough, in his former home of Minnesota. Teaming up with his long-time engineer and close friend, Paul Marino, the two organized an all-star band, including Herstand’s “favorite drummer on the planet” Dave King (The Bad Plus), to create his 3rd full-length record.

Herstand is best known for his live looping: combining the trumpet, beat boxing, keys, acoustic guitar, percussion and vocals to create a full, sonic live experience.

He recently joined the Digital Music News team as a staff writer. Herstand brings the musician’s perspective to most current topics.

Brave Enough is out digitally everywhere streamed or sold. The vinyl and CD can be purchased on ariherstand.com

Follow Ari on Twitter: @ariherstand / aristake

Rusty HodgeSoma FM, General Manager and FounderRusty Hodge is the Founder and General Manger of SomaFM.com, a listener-support, commercial-free internet radio service based in San Francisco broadcasting on the internet for over 12 years.
As the only full-time employee of SomaFM, he does everything from choosing much of the music played on the station, working with labels and promoters, audio production, web and app development, shooting photos and videos of bands, and managing the operations of the streaming servers and music playout systems.

Before SomaFM, Rusty was involved in a number of internet startups and consulted with TV, Radio and movie studios about their internet strategies. He first got involved in streaming audio at KPIX-TV in San Francisco in 1995 and was in charge of TechTV’s streaming when it was founded in 1998.

Rusty launched SomaFM in 1999 because he “couldn’t find anything I wanted to listen to on the radio”. SomaFM’s goal has been to produce captivating, unique music programming that’s hard or impossible to find in more-mainstream media. Follow on Twitter: @SomaFMRusty & @somafm

Ethan JacksMediaBridge Captial Advisors, Managing PartnerEthan Jacks has been involved in M&A and corporate finance for over 30 years. As a corporate lawyer and partner in firms including McDermott, Will and Emery, Ethan represented buyers, sellers and investors in high-tech industries, with a focus on media and communications. In 1991, Ethan left private law practice to become co-founder and senior executive at Molten Metal Technology, a groundbreaking environmental technology company which commercialized MIT-developed intellectual property, raised over $400 million in growth capital, and grew to a public market valuation of over $1 billion.

Ethan moved to digital media pioneer Avid Technology in 1999, and for over 7 years served in several senior executive positions, including EVP of Corporate Development, Chief Legal Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Ethan helped drive Avid’s strategy to grow both organically and through aggressive M&A, leading a total of 12 acquisitions of private and publicly held companies that fueled growth in Avid’s film, video, audio and 3D sectors. In that period, Avid’s revenue doubled to $1 billion, and its market valuation grew from $400 million to $2.5 billion.

Since 2006, Ethan has served as an venture capital investor and investment banker. Prior to co-founding MediaBridge in 2012, Ethan led the Digital Media Practice at Covington Associates in Boston, along with his partner John Bowen. As an investment banker, his earlier transactions includes the sale of film color leader DaVinci Systems to BlackMagic Design, and the sale of pro-audio console leader Euphonix to Avid Technology. Recently he led the $7million private equity financing of London-based Sohonet by FF&P, the $30 million sale of CA based wireless video innovator Teradek to UK based The Vitec Group plc, and the $12 million private equity financing of Cambridge MA based audio software leader iZotope by ABS Partners. Ethan holds a B.S. from MIT, an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Brewster KahleThe Internet Archive, Digital Librarian
Brewster Kahle is the founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. He is also the Chairman of the Internet Credit Union. An entrepreneur and Internet pioneer, Brewster invented the first Internet publishing system and helped put newspapers and publishers online in the 1990′s. Keywords: MIT, Thinking Machines, WAIS, AOL, Alexa Internet, Amazon.com, Internet Archive, Wayback Machine, Open Content Alliance, European Archive, EFF, Public Knowledge, AAAS, NAE. Follow Brewster on Twitter: @brewster_kahle

Chris KantrowitzGobbler, Founder / CEOChris is a serial entrepreneur in gaming, technology, and music. At age 14, he founded his first company– a game testing business for clients like Sony Imagesoft. After university, he co-founded 3D Groove, online gaming technology company that powered the first online 3D games at sites like shockwave.com and nickelodeon.com. In 2003, he started ODVD games, whose premiere title, “Shout!”, a pop culture interactive DVD trivia game,was distributed globally by Hasbro and is returning in 2011.

In 2006, Chris combined his passion for creative and technology and co-founded Frank the Plumber, a leading concert design and production company creating digital and live experiences for such artists as Akon, The Strokes, Lady Antebellum, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Katy Perry and Madonna and brands like Ford, Apple and AOL.

Most recently, he founded his second technology company, Gobbler. Gobbler is a platform as a service creative cloud. Gobbler is currently integrated into Avid Pro Tools, Cakewalk Sonar X3 and is used by Box.com. Follow on Twitter: @gobbler / @chriskantrowitz

Philip KaplanDistroKid, FounderPhilip Kaplan is the founder of DistroKid, a company that musicians use to get their music into iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and other online music stores. He’s also the founder of Fandalism, a social network for musicians. Fandalism launched in January 2012 and has 600,000 members. Philip was previously founder & CEO of AdBrite, an internet advertising company with $30M+ annual revenue. He founded and sold several other companies including TinyLetter (acquired by MailChimp in 2011) and tech blogFuckedcompany.com.

He also co-founded Blippy, a venture-backed social shopping company. Philip was entrepreneur in residence at VC firm Charles River Ventures, and is the bestselling author of F’d Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts (Simon & Schuster). He’s an active angel investor and advises several companies. For fun, Philip plays heavy metal drums and lives in San Francisco, California, USA.
Follow Philip on Twitter: @pud

Robert KayeMusicBrainz, Founder, Lead GeekRobert is the founder and lead geek for MusicBrainz, and Executive Director of the MetaBrainz Foundation, the non-profit organization that pays the bills for MusicBrainz. After studying Computer Engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo he joined Xing Technology where he shaped the MP3 efforts and then spent time for the dot com boom on EMusic’s FreeAmp team. While at EMusic he started working on MusicBrainz, the open music encyclopedia and fell in love with Open Source software.

Robert is also an active hardware hacker, creating art projects for Burning Man and Nowhere. He is the co-founder of Party Robotics where he co-created Bartendro the open source cocktail robot. He lives in Barcelona and cooperates with the Music Technology Group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Follow on Twitter: @musicbrainz / @MayhemBCN

Rose KirklandLive Nation, Sr. Talent BuyerRose Kirkland is the Sr. Talent Buyer for Live Nation in San Francisco. She promotes concerts at Shoreline Amphitheater, Concord Pavilion, Craneway Pavilion along with San Francisco’s newest theater The Masonic which opens September 2014. Rose, a San Francisco native started Interning at Bill Graham Presents (now Live Nation) in 2005 while finishing up her degree in Communications at SF State. She was hired right before graduation in 2006 and has been with the company ever since. She has an eclectic taste in music which comes in handy as she books a variety of acts from Marc Anthony to Broken Bells, along with all the dance music in the market. Rose co-promotes most of her EDM shows with Insomniac, the leading promoter in dance music. Recently Rose and Insomniac have been focusing on developing the Craneway Pavilion as one of the Bay Area’s go to venues for Electronic Music. They have found success in this effort with performances from Dada Life, Alesso and a three day event called Audio on the Bay. Looking forward Rose is focused on the opening of The Masonic – a 3200 capacity venue in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood which will exclusively be booked by Live Nation.

Julie KnibbeDeezer, Developer Platform LeadJulie Knibbe is Developer Platform Lead at Deezer, a geek passionate about music. She spent 4 years working on the launch of the Windows and Windows Phone stores at Microsoft, both in tech and marketing. She’s now in charge of the Deezer API and the relationships with the developer communities at Deezer, ensuring that they develop the best apps taking advantage of the Deezer music streaming services and database.
Follow on Twitter: @julieknibbe / @deezerdevs

Ezra KucharzCBS Local Digital Media, PresidentEzra Kucharz is President of CBS Local Digital Media, where he is responsible for conceiving and executing the Company’s local online media strategy, utilizing the combined assets and digital operations of CBS’s two dozen trusted television stations and CBS RADIO’s 126 stations, offering visitors a truly “local” experience. CBS Local websites include the latest news, traffic, weather, sports and music information, business directories and local discounts. Kucharz has additionally spearheaded the creation of several locally targeted mobile applications relating to news, sports and lifestyle.

Kucharz joined CBS from FiLife.com, an IAC and Dow Jones personal finance joint venture, where he served as President and General Manager of the financial question and answer platform.

The United States Tennis Association hired Kucharz in 2001 as its Managing Director, Advanced Media. During his tenure he was charged with implementing the strategic vision for the new USTA business unit and directed the operations of the USOpen.org website.
In 1995, Kucharz founded one of the first online digital sports media companies, Total Sports. He also has served as executive producer of several online sporting events including the Final Four, College World Series and U.S. Open.
Kucharz earned his bachelor’s degree from Boston University in biomedical engineering and worked for NASA following graduation. He later earned master’s degrees in engineering management and medical informatics at the University of Houston and Duke University, respectively. Borrell Associates Inc. named Kucharz the esteemed recipient of their 2012 Borrell Award of Merit. Follow on Twitter: @cbslocal / @ekucharz

Ron KuperSonos, Director, Music Partner ExperienceRon is a music technology veteran with more than 20 years of experience building technology, teams, platforms and partnerships.

He is currently responsible for the interconnected mix of embedded, mobile, desktop and SaaS technologies that power world-class streaming music user experiences in Sonos. Ron spearheaded the Sonos Music API (SMAPI) initiative, a web services architecture for integrating Sonos with streaming music providers, including a creating a platform for on-boarding and supporting 40+ Sonos music partners worldwide and hosting high availability services on Amazon EC2.

Prior to Sonos, Ron served as VP/CTO for Cakewalk Music Software. At Cakewalk, Ron was the architect of the multi-track audio engine in SONAR, and an advocate for plug-in architectures to enable third party DSP development. He plays guitar and performed in several bands around Boston back in the day. Ron holds an MS in Artificial Intelligence from MIT. Follow on Twitter: @ron_kuper

Leo LipszteinGoogle Inc., Product CounselLeo is a product attorney at Google, focusing on legal issues relating to uses of music across Google’s products. He advises on matters relating to music licensing, general copyright, data privacy and other IP and technology-related legal issues. Prior to joining Google, he was an associate in Morrison & Foerster’s Technology Transaction Group.

Elmo LovanoJammcard, Founder, CEOElmo Lovano, Founder/CEO of Jammcard, is a professional musician, producer, musical director, concert promoter, and entrepreneur whose output has included work with artists Skrillex, MYPET, Christina Perri, Dirty Murdered Birds, Rob Roy, Paul Oakenfold, Young the Giant, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Angus and Julia Stone, amongst others, as well as Grammy winning producers such as Rob Cavallo, Joe Chiccarelli, and David Hodges.

In 2008, he founded Camerata, a weekly live music and art event in Hollywood to promote and expose his talented, undiscovered friends, and give them a platform to perform. After 200 consecutive weeks, Elmo put Camerata on hiatus to join a 2-year world tour with Christina Perri and was named one of Rhythm Magazine’s Top 10 Drummers to Watch in 2012. Elmo is endorsed exclusively with Remo, Vic Firth, Sabian and Pearl Drums.

In 2013, Elmo started two bands, MYPET and Pluto Quartet, as well as Jammcard, a mobile and desktop app for the music community that is set to launch in summer 2014. Much like Camerata, Jammcard is being designed to help and foster the music community to ultimately empower musicians worldwide. Follow on Twitter: @elmolovano

Patrick MahoneySF MusicTech Fund, Managing DirectorPatrick has partnered with Brian Zisk on various projects over the past 15+ years including the Green Witch Internet Radio (sold to CMGI), Chesspark (merged into Chess.com) WuChess (with RZA of the WuTang Clan), Collecta (raised $6.5 million) and now the SF MusicTech Fund. Follow on Twitter: @pfm

Larry MarcusWalden Venture Capital, Managing DirectorLarry’s focus is digital media and consumer services. He was named to the 2012 Billboard Power 100 and Twitter 140. Larry was a founding investor in Pandora (NYSE: P) in early 2004 when Walden 
led the rebirth round to focus the company on launching a consumer-facing 
service and was a Director from 2004 through it’s IPO. Larry is a Director at SoundHound, (sound and voice search), BandPage (platform for bands online), Aarki (mobile monetization), Boombotix (Ultra-portable speakers) and a Board Observer at PowerCloud Systems. He also led Walden’s investment in Terayon (acquired by Motorola) and Telekenex. He is a member of the Advisory Council for Industry Ventures and serves on the non-profit Board of the JazzSchool in Berkeley, CA.

Prior to Walden, Larry was a digital media sell-side Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown where he lead the top performing IPOs of 1998 and 1999 (Terayon and CBS MarketWatch), as well as the IPOs of Maxis, Edmark, and Netflix (initial S-1 IPO filing) among other equity and debt financings (Broderbund, Sierra On-line, Excite@Home, Spectrum Holobyte, CBS Sportsline). Prior experience includes Robertson Stephens & Company, Digidesign and General Management in computer services retail.

Education: Larry received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

Larry enjoys collecting vintage dead hardware, golfing and playing music. Hear him on Pandora by seeding a station with Megan Keely, Corinne Marcus or the Flying Other Brothers. See the music he loves at his Pandora profile here. Listen to his bands on Facebook via BandPage: Megan Keely, Corinne Marcus & The Kindred Spirits, Open Source Band.

Larry has been a guest lecturer at Haas Graduate School of Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School. He has been a speaker and panelist at numerous conferences including Dealmaker Media’s Under the Radar, SF MusicTech, Billboard, AlwaysOn and Digital Hollywood among others.

Follow Larry on Twitter: @cyberlar

Steve MartocciSplice, Co-founderSteve Martocci is a co-founder of Splice, a technology platform for music creators which streamlines the fragmented process of creating and sharing music, freeing musicians to spend their time and energy on the creative process. Previously he was a co-founder of GroupMe, a group messaging service that in August 2011 was acquired by Skype, which was subsequently acquired by Microsoft in October 2011. Prior to GroupMe, Steve was a lead software engineer at Gilt Groupe and founded Sympact Technologies and Bandwith.us.

Steve helps lead SummerQAmp, a nationwide initiative to create tech jobs for American youth and train a new workforce in high-tech skills. Steve is actively involved in the New York tech startup scene, serving as a Techstars mentor, onSwipe advisor and an investor in companies including Codecademy, SmartThings, TransferWise and Timehop. Steve graduated from Carnegie Melon University in 2004 with a B.S. in Information Systems and currently lives in New York City. Follow on Twitter: @smart / @splice

Kathleen McMahonSoundHound, Vice President, Sales & MarketingBack in 2000, McMahon got her feet wet in mobile by diving right in where it started the hottest – in Tokyo – while Silicon Valley was still consumed with the Internet Era. She then moved to Europe, which was a beat ahead of U.S. in terms of mobile, to continue wireless innovation, joining Shazam in its early days and growing it into one of the most recognized global mobile services.

And now, as Silicon Valley dominates the mobile landscape with iOS and Android, McMahon is making a mark in the Valley, this time with SoundHound Inc. Over the past four years, she has driven explosive growth at SoundHound taking the music search and discovery app to over 200m users worldwide and expanding its value as one of the most engaging apps of all time. She is responsible for the consumer business and driving revenue growth and user delight. As one of the few people in the industry who has twice been behind launching and growing a massive mobile user base and branding a behavior that becomes a verb, McMahon understands how to navigate the opportunities and challenges to the mobile landscape.

McMahon has always been one step ahead of the mobile evolution, so what’s next? It’s likely to involve the next-generation of voice search, part of SoundHound Inc.’s homegrown technology, and the SoundHound team’s determination to change the user paradigm by moving our daily experiences with connected devices beyond touch interfaces to making sound and voice the primary means of searching, and making sure that experience is delightful.
Follow McMahon on Twitter: @SoundHound / @KatieMc___

Jenn MillerAudiosocket, COOJenn Miller is an entrepreneur and music industry executive who is pioneering technologies that allow artists new ways to monetize and protect their work. As the COO & Co-founder of Audiosocket, she works with an incredible team of engineers, musicians and business people to develop vision, culture, community and strategy. Prior to starting Audiosocket in 2009, Jenn spent seven years running a national extreme sports organization. In her first year as Executive Director, she led the company from red to black and then re-vamped the entire organization, top to bottom, leaving behind a thriving business for her predecessors. In 2008, Jenn started her own rights management company which is where she and Co-Founder Brent McCrossen met and began to collaborate and give birth to Audiosocket. Jenn is active in the start-up community and has served on the Boards of The National Film Festival for Talented Youth and Circletime Kids. Follow on Twitter: @audiosocket / @myfeetintheair

Erik MooreBase Ventures, Founder / Managing DirectorErik Moore is the founder and Managing Director of Base Ventures. He was among the first to invest in Zappos in 1999, which Amazon purchased for $1.2 billion. For 15 years, Erik worked as a Merrill Lynch bond trader by day and an angel investor by night. Erik ultimately realized he could do more to change the world and spur innovation by investing in young entrepreneurs full-time.

Erik brings to Base Ventures—a passion for ensuring that great ideas see the light of day, an impressive investment track record, business experience as the co-founder of Flick Launch, and the connections to open doors and make dreams come true.

He also did some work in the music industry as a manager of Allen Anthony, the first non-rap artist ever signed to Jayz and Damon Dash’s label, Roc-A-Fella Records.

Erik earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College, an MBA from the Wharton School, and concurrently, an MA in French from the University of Pennsylvania. Erik is deeply involved in his community. He serves on the board of the East Bay College Fund, mentors at-risk youth and much more. Follow on Twitter: @basevc

Chris MouliosMake Audio Apps, FounderChris Moulios is a senior software engineer for TuneIn radio in Palo Alto. He holds 18 audio related patents and in the 90’s designed the concepts and algorithms for what is now Sony Creative Software’s ACID. More recently Chris spent 9 years at Apple Computer. There he dedicated his expertise toward advancing the audio technology in Final Cut Pro, Logic, Garageband and iMovie.

Chris is currently most excited about a set of open source developer tools he just made public. The project is called Make Audio Apps. Chris hopes to collaborate with others in a quest to streamline the development of musical apps. He thinks the right set of tools will spurn innovation by reducing the time it takes to try out new ideas.

And even though he spends most of his time behind the scenes writing code, once a month Chris DJs in San Francisco under the name subOctave at the highly successful indie video night “Fringe.” Staying true to his geeky roots, he uses his own custom software to mix audio and video with his partner DJ BlondieK. Follow on Twitter: @makeaudioapps

Lars MurrayColumbia Records, VP DigitalLars Murray has been in the digital media and entertainment fields attacking new projects and initiatives, opening new revenue streams and venues for exposure, since the dawn of the web.

Most recently, in March 2014, he has been directing Columbia‘s digital campaign for Pharrell Williams. He conceived and coordinated 24HoursofHappiness, a Global Digital campaign to celebrate the United Nations International Day of Happiness, in conjunction with the UN Foundation, Pharrell’s production company iamOTHER, and YouTube. The campaign generated over 211 million social impressions in 36 hours.

In 2013 he directed digital marketing for Daft Punk‘s Album RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES, driving exponential growth in social and viral activity for the single and the album.

A digital music “O.G.,” whose first online initiative was for a dialup BBS, he has created groundbreaking and successful products, promotions and businesses for more partners, clients and artists than he can count. Follow on Twitter: @larsmurray22

Evie NagyFast Company, Staff WriterEvie Nagy is a Staff Writer at FastCompany.com, newly based in the Bay Area after almost a decade in New York, writing features and news with a focus on Fast Company’s Most Creative People. She was previously an editor at Billboard and Rolling Stone, and has written about music, business and culture for a variety of publications. She’s also writing a book about Devo and co-hosts a podcast about comic books. Follow on Twitter: @EvieN

Professor David NimmerIrell & Manella LLP, Of Counsel / Professor from Practice, UCLA School of Law / Distinguished Scholar, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology / American Law Institute
David Nimmer is of counsel to Irell & Manella LLP in Los Angeles, California. He also serves as Professor from Practice at UCLA School of Law and Distinguished Scholar at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. In 2000, he was elected to the American Law Institute.

Since 1985, Prof. Nimmer has authored and updated Nimmer on Copyright, the standard reference treatise in the field, first published in 1963 by his late father, Professor Melville B. Nimmer. The U.S. Supreme Court has cited Nimmer on Copyright on numerous occasions, as has every federal appellate court, countless district and state courts, as well as courts confronting copyright cases in countries across the globe.

Widely recognized as a foremost expert in copyright law, Prof. Nimmer was named one of “The 25 Most Influential People in IP” by The American Lawyer. He has also been named the 2013 Los Angeles Litigation Intellectual Property “Lawyer of the Year” by The Best Lawyers in America and one of California’s “Top 10 Copyright Lawyers” by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal.

Prof. Nimmer represents clients in the entertainment, publishing and high-technology fields. He has twice served as co-counsel representing clients before the U.S. Supreme Court. On the first occasion, a unanimous decision in favor of his client drew the boundaries between copyright and trademark protection. In the second, another unanimous decision in favor of his client set the stage to compensate all freelance journalists in the country for their past articles.

He gave congressional testimony at the invitation of the House Judiciary Committee in 2014; on behalf of the United States Telephone Association in 1997; and on behalf of the National Association of Broadcasters in 1992; he also delivered Parliamentary testimony on behalf of the Combined Newspaper and Magazine Copyright Committee of Australia in Sydney in 1993.

He received an A.B. with distinction and honors in 1977 from Stanford University and his J.D. in 1980 from Yale Law School, where he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Prof. Nimmer also served as the Chairman on the Committee on Intellectual Properties Litigation for the American Bar Association from 1989-1992.

Jonas NorbergPacemaker Music AB, CEOMusic, space and tech nerd. Entrepreneur. Inventor of Pacemaker®. Follow on Twitter: @pacemaker / @jonorberg

Zack O’Malley GreenburgForbes, Senior EditorZack O’Malley Greenburg is a Forbes senior editor and author of the Jay-Z biography Empire State of Mind. His second book, Michael Jackson, Inc, will be released in June by Simon & Schuster. Zack covers the business of music in The Beat Report at Forbes; in five years there, he’s tackled topics from public pension fund scandals to Justin Bieber’s budding career as a venture capitalist. He has also written for the Washington Post, Vibe, McSweeney’s and Sports Illustrated; guest-lectured at Yale, Harvard and Georgetown; and appeared as an expert source for BBC, Bloomberg, MTV, VH1, CBS’s 60 Minutes and others. Follow on Twitter: zogblog

Cecilia PagkakinawanApploud, CEO/FounderConnecting the dots between businesses and technology for over 15 years, from digital marketing and e-commerce to social media and mobile. My forte is knowing how to acquire, convert and retain customers through targeted marketing, branding, messaging, and relationship management. Since 2012 have been consulting with startups as well as Fortune 500 companies such as HP, Time Warner, Conde Nast, Gucci, and Pepsi. Former Consultant/CMO of Hone (social curation and surveying platform) and of Stagedom (music discovery and fan engagement app) applying the marketing, social commerce, CRM, and analytical skills I’ve honed in fashion and luxury e-commerce to help emerging and established bands & artists further monetize their assets and create richer relationships with their fans. Was Chief Client Officer of dotbox and left several months after it was acquired by MDC Partners. CEO of StyleTrek: Fueling Emerging Designers through Social Commerce. Spent almost 7 years working for multi-national fashion and luxury brands as Director or VP of E-commerce. I joined Burberry in 2003 and launched their first US ecommerce site. Launched Frette’s in 2006 and re-launched La Perla‘s ecommerce to 25 countries in 6 languages. In addition to founding my own companies, I have experience working for other internet start-ups. I was VP of Strategic Development at RichFX. President of e-commerce software company Abilon, Inc., VP of Client Services at K2 Design, a publicly traded web development firm. Clients I’ve worked with are: IBM, MCI, Volvo, Audi, AOL, Burberry, Oakley, Toys R Us, Fortunoff, Nine West, LEGO, Barney’s, etc. Follow on Twitter: @ceciliany

Jason PeltzSlyde Inc., Co-founder and CEOJason Peltz, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer of Slyde, organized the management team and guides the vision and strategy of the company as it grows. Jason assists the business development effort, focusing on Artists, API partners and Brands. Prior to Slyde, Jason spent a decade in finance as a registered representative managing substantial family office portfolio at Maxim Group and Vantage Capital Group, a boutique investment bank /broker dealer and hedge fund/investment advisor respectively. An avid music fan, Jason built close ties to the entertainment industry through relationships with A list artists, A&Rs, DJs, executives, lawyers, managers, producers, songwriters. (www.slyde.fm) Follow on Twitter: @PeltzJason

Alex PhamSmule, Marketing & Communications ManagerAlex Pham has written about technology, interactive entertainment and digital media for the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and Billboard Magazine. She currently manages marketing and communications for Smule Inc., whose products have been used by more than 150 million people to create, share and discover new music. Follow on Twitter: @AlexPham

Ian PortSF Weekly, Music EditorIan Port is music editor of San Francisco Weekly, for which he has interviewed Iggy Pop, reviewed four Metallica concerts in one week, and fairly decimated his hearing. A Bay Area native, his writing has also appeared in Rolling Stone, The Believer, and Village Voice. Follow on Twitter: @SFAllShookDown / @iPORT

Erin PottsAir Traffic Control, CEOErin Potts is passionate about giving artists–and their fans–the tools to change the world. To achieve this, she has produced eight sold-out stadium concerts, founded two successful nonprofits, worked with hundreds of artists, and earned over $8 million for important causes around the world. Erin first experienced the power of music and activism at 14 when she saw U2 on the Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope Tour. Only seven years later, she would co-found a nonprofit with the Beastie Boys and go on to produce the Tibetan Freedom Concerts–the largest and most successful cause-related concerts of the 1990s. In the years since, she has innovated artist activism strategies, especially in her role as the CEO of Air Traffic Control, which she co-founded in 2005 and where she leads an all-star team of experts in artist activism & philanthropy. Follow on Twitter: @atctower

Tim PozarFandor, Director of Streaming OperationsTim Pozar’s work focuses on building technical infrastructure that enables democratic, open communication. He currently is at Fandor as the Director of Streaming Operations where he architects and oversees film delivery.

Outside of Fandor, Mr. Pozar is the network architect for the City of San Francisco Community Broadband Network (CBN) that supports free Internet access to 16,000 of the residents of City’s Housing Authority as well as dozens of non-profits and open spaces around San Francisco. Recently he was architecting the design of public WiFi access for San Francisco’s Market Street deployment.

Previous to Fandor, Mr. Pozar was VP of Engineering and COO of UnitedLayer, a west-coast colocation center and ISP. Mr. Pozar grew the company from one data center to five and expanding the operations from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Ashburn and Chicago.

Before UnitedLayer, Mr. Pozar served as co-founder and director of operations at Brightmail Inc., which specializes in anti-spam filtering. Before that, he was director of operations at Alexa/Internet Archive, which archives and indexes Web content.

Mr. Pozar founded a number of community radio stations (including KFCF and KFSR), and has acted as technical producer of a number of nationally distributed broadcasts for Grateful Dead Productions, Dave Mathews Band, Pacifica Radio Networks, and Nelson Mandela. He worked as a technical consultant and technical producer on “The Telecommunications Revolution”, a live weekly radio show, distributed nationally by Pacifica, that covered the social impact of emerging technology. Follow on Twitter: @pozar

Brad PrendergastSoundExchange, Senior Counsel, Licensing & EnforcementBrad Prendergast is Senior Counsel for Licensing & Enforcement at SoundExchange, the non-profit entity designated by the U.S. Copyright Office to administer the government’s statutory license in Sections 112 and 114 of the Copyright Act for the digital audio transmissions of sound recordings. In that role, Brad helps digital music services fulfill their obligations under the law, ensuring that Internet radio services pay royalties and report playlists accurately and on time so that artists and copyright owners receive compensation for the use of their sound recordings. Brad also handles regulatory and legal issues related to SoundExchange’s daily collection and distribution operations. Prior to joining the SoundExchange legal team, Brad was an associate at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, where he focused on copyright and trademark matters. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Virginia School of Law, he served as editor in chief of the student newspaper at Notre Dame and the Virginia Journal of Law & Technology.

Renee RichardsonKFOG / KGO, Music DirectorRenee Richardson has been on the air at KFOG radio (104.5) for over 15 years, she started her career as part of the KFOG Morning Show where they interviewed everyone from Barack Obama to Tammy Faye Baker. Today she hosts the midday show and acts as music derector for the radio station. Renee also does entertainement features for KFOG sister station KGO AM. Follow on Twitter: @RenadioSF

Timothy RobertsStationDigital Corporation, CEOTimothy has more than two decades of experience in the technology industry and has held prior roles such as CEO, CTO, Managing Director or Board Member for six different companies. Mr. Roberts was the innovator and founder of broadband services provider Savvis Communications (NASDAQ: SVVS), which was sold to Century Link for $2.5 billion in 2011 and supports over one-third of all Internet transports, a large portion of the federal and state government infrastructure and handles 90 percent of the financial markets as the network that powers Wall Street. Mr. Roberts also founded net-sourcing service provider, Intira Corporation, which was the first company to pioneer and sell enterprise class hosting/data centers combined with a worldwide OC3 ATM BGP backbone and virtualized hosting from the cloud. It also successfully raised more than $250 million in equity capital and was sold to a real estate developer, which owned buildings that housed portions of Intira’s data centers, and became Terremark (NASD: TMRK). In 2011, Terremark was sold to VERIZON for $1.4 billion. In addition, Mr. Roberts was the Founder and CEO of Infinium Labs, Inc., GameStreamer, Inc. and Savtira Corporation. Follow on Twitter: @stationdigital

Ty RobertsGracenote, Co-Founder, Chief Strategy OfficerTy is tasked with developing long-term strategy and identifying new areas of growth for Gracenote. Ty co-founded Gracenote when his company ION merged with CDDB in the late 1990s. Prior to Gracenote, Ty produced the industry’s first interactive music experiences on CD for artists like Brian Eno and David Bowie. Connected to practically everyone in the business, from labels and artists to technologists, Ty is a frequent speaker at music and TV industry conferences and events. Follow on Twitter: @rocknty

Larry RosinEdison Research, PresidentLarry Rosin is President of Edison Research. He has been involved with market research and audience measurement for over 25 years. Larry has been recognized as one of the leading thinkers in the field, and advises many of the world’s largest media companies, including Time Warner, Sony and Disney/ABC. Larry co-founded Edison in 1994 and has been a primary force in building the company into one of the world’s most respected market research companies. Edison Research provides strategic information for businesses and media organizations worldwide and has been the sole provider of exit poll information to ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC and the Associated Press since 2003. Follow Larry on Twitter: @larryrosin / @edisonresearch

Ethan RudinRhapsody International, CFOAfter more than 10 years handling billion-dollar transactions for financial firms such as Bank of America Securities, J.P. Morgan and Citi, Ethan proved he is more than a world-class numbers man when he took a position as Starbucks’ Director of Global Strategy & Corporate Development. When he wasn’t downing hot cups of Pike Place Roast during long nights and early mornings at the company’s Seattle headquarters, he fed his passion for music in the legendary music venues of the Northwest.

With music as a core passion, Ethan jumped at the chance to be part of one of the most influential and iconic companies in music history. As the CFO of Rhapsody International, he has global strategic and operational responsibility for the company’s finance, accounting and corporate development (M&A) operations – and on top of that – he manages human resources, legal, label relations and business development.

Ethan holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.A. from Tufts University. Follow on Twitter: @Rhapsody

Marc RuxinTastemakerX, CEO / Co-FounderMarc is the founder and CEO of TastemakerX, a social, mobile platform that allows users to express tastes and preferences by building virtual collections.

Prior to founding TastemakerX, Marc was the Chief Innovation Officer at Universal McCann and McCann Erikson. In this capacity worked with media companies on cutting edge brand integrations, and developed groundbreaking cross platform programs with emerging media start-ups to create scalable digital marketing opportunities for clients. Before joining UM/McCann, Marc was chief operating officer of The Mill Group, the leader in commercial visual effects, and Beam.tv, the leading advertising digital asset management system. Before that time, Marc served as vice president of business development at iVast, the early leader in MPEG4 technology, and as vice president of business development and marketing at Eveo, Inc., one of the earliest use- generated content portals. Marc also worked for WPP Group, where he was an MBA Marketing Fellow and ultimately led West Coast new media strategy.

Marc sits on the Boards and Advisory Boards of numerous internet and technology start-ups in Silicon Valley as well as serving on the BoD of the San Francisco Film Society. He started his career in A&R at EMI Records. Marc has a BA from Hamilton College and an MBA from Columbia Business School, and lives in San Francisco with his wife and three children. Marc blogs about music and film at Snoozebutton and the Huffington Post. Follow on Twitter: @tastemakerx / @ruxputin

Julie SamuelsEngine, Executive DirectorJulie Samuels is Executive Director of Engine, a nonprofit that represents the voice of startups in policy debates. She is a frequent commentator on tech and policy issues, particularly in the patent space. She recently testified before the Senate Commerce Committee on patent demand letters. She came to Engine by way of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she was a senior staff attorney and the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. Before joining EFF, Julie litigated IP and entertainment cases in Chicago at Loeb & Loeb and Sonnenschein. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Julie spent time as a legislative assistant at the Media Coalition in New York and as an assistant editor at the National Journal in D.C. Julie earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University and her B.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Follow on Twitter: @engineadvocacy / @juliepsamuels

Daniel SavageMusicmetric, Executive VP, North AmericaDaniel Savage leads the North American division of Musicmetric, the music industry’s leading data analytics firm. He brings a wealth of experience from over 20 years working at the most senior levels of the business, including most recently the position of General Manager at Maverick Records, plus key executive marketing and sales positions at Hollywood Records, Mercury Records, Atlantic Records and Island Records. Follow on Twitter: @danielsavage64

Damian ScavoAxwave, Inc., CEODamian Scavo is the founder and CEO of Axwave Inc., a company that was born to make every multimedia more interactive, with newer, smarter connections. It was developed to communicate with other devices without any protocol, by using simple proximity and sound. Axwave offers the best automatic content recognition technology of music and TV.
Prior to his leadership efforts at Axwave, Damian co-founded and directed various successful start-up projects. As a co-founder and member of the board of directors at Quadro Tecnologie SRL, he rose over several million euros of capital and negotiated and closed multi-million euro contracts with suppliers. He has opened various new ventures and helped grow start-ups to success.

Robert SchwartzmanTwentyTwo, Co-founderRobert Schwartzman is a singer/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist/composer/techy, best known as the frontman of the Los Angeles alternative band ROONEY. He started the band during his high school years, and spent 12 years touring and performing to a global fan base.

Riding the wave of change through the music industry, from major label artist to indie artist, Robert has experienced releasing music from many perspectives. But no matter which direction the music industry continues go, he has always kept a steady focus on songwriting and releasing quality records for his audience. He has written multiple top charting songs both in the US and internationally, including Blueside, I’m Shakin, Pop Stars, When did Your Heart Go Missing, I Should’ve Been After You, and Are You Afraid. In 2011, Robert began his career as a solo artist with the release of his first solo album, Double Capricorn; available on his indie label California Dreamin’ Records.

In 2013, Robert co-founded the startup 22, an app that allows artists and fans to build a stronger connection by communicating through short audio messages. Knowing the importance of embracing and engaging with fans, Robert hopes this app will deliver a unique experience for both artists and their fans, ultimately improving the direct to consumer opportunities for independent artists.

Search for “22” on the app store today!

Stay in touch with Robert at:

www.robertschwartzman.com
www.facebook.com/rcschwartzman
www.twitter.com/rcschwartzman
www.instagram.com/robertschwartzman

Matt SerleticMusic Mastermind, CEO / Co-FounderSongwriter, producer, record-label owner, and technology entrepreneur Matt Serletic is the co-founder and CEO of the independent entertainment and technology company Music Mastermind. He has written, produced, and marketed recordings that have sold in excess of 110 million albums and have generated more than $1 billion in revenue for major label companies. Over a 14-year career, Serletic has written and produced records that have earned him multiple GRAMMY, ASCAP, BMI, Billboard, and CMA Awards, and his projects have been licensed by a multitude of major television networks and media companies. In 1999, he produced the most successful Billboard chart single in the rock era to date: Carlos Santana’s “Smooth,” which, since its release, has sold 25 million units.

Matt’s first music company, Melisma, was founded in 1996 and has sold in excess of 50 million albums with artists like Rob Thomas and Matchbox Twenty. Owing to his success at Melisma, he was hired as Chairman and CEO of Virgin Records America, where he became the youngest-ever head of a major label. Over a four-year period, he successfully reorganized operations and improved the bottom line by $240 million. He is now Owner and CEO of Emblem Music Group, a recording and publishing company.

A native of Stone Mountain, Georgia, Matt developed his musical and managerial expertise in his teens as a young musician, band member, and session player. At the age of 13, he joined the band Collective Soul as a keyboard player and launched his career by producing their debut album. Matt earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Performance at the University of Miami School of Music, graduating with Honors and earning membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Follow on Twitter: @MattSerletic / @Zya

Randy SheferSony/ATV Music Publishing, Sr. DirectorAt Sony/ATV Music Publishing Randy Shefer oversees music licensing for interactive initiatives (video games, apps), Sports Programming and TV. Shefer has built strong relationships within the industry that have strengthened Sony/ATV’s presence in the videogame and mobile application world.

John ShinalUSA Today, Tech ColumnistJohn Shinal writes the New Tech Economy column 3 times a week for USAToday.com. He’s covered tech and financial markets for two decades at Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal Digital Network, and Entrepreneur.com. Follow on Twitter: @johnshinal

Patti SilvermanSF MusicTech Summit, Communications DirectorPatti Silverman is the Director of Communications for the SF MusicTech Summit. While at Columbia Records in NYC, she developed a reputation as an early proponent of music tech. To run marketing and promotional campaigns for Adele, Band of Horses, MGMT, The Avett Brothers, Passion Pit and other artists, Patti scouted the latest products and services being developed by Bay Area startups. Since her move to the West Coast, she’s also been an integral part of launching the Silicon Valley Internship Programme, a non profit which inspires UK tech entrepreneurship. Patti graduated Summa Cum Laude from St. Louis University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. She’s an avid live music fan – you can check out the 150+ shows she’s attended via Songkick. Follow on Twitter: @sfmusictech / @silvermansays

Frances Simpson-AllenUnited Nations Millenium Campaign, Innovations and Digital ConsultantFrances is the innovation and technology consultant for the United Nations’ MY World campaign. MY World is a UN-led multi-sector campaign gathering data on people’s priorities for the next development agenda from citizens around the world. Since its launch, more than 2 million people have voted on MY World from 194 countries. In this role Frances is responsible for developing and executing innovative solutions to citizen engagement through strategic partnerships, new technology, mobile and digital strategy.
Before joining UNMC, Frances worked on President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and for a leading Member of Parliament in the UK.
Frances graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 2012 with a B.A. in International Politics. Follow on Twitter: @myworld2015 / @francesjssa

Aram SinnreichRutgers University, Assistant Professor / MusicianDr. Aram Sinnreich is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information, in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies. Sinnreich’s work focuses on the intersection of culture, law and technology, with an emphasis on subjects such as emerging media and music. He is the author of two books, Mashed Up (2010), and The Piracy Crusade (2013), and has written for publications including the New York Times, Billboard and Wired. Prior to coming to Rutgers, Sinnreich served as Director at media innovation lab OMD Ignition Factory, Managing Partner of media/tech consultancy Radar Research, Visiting Professor at NYU Steinhardt, and Senior Analyst at Jupiter Research. He is also a bassist and composer, and has played with groups and artists including NYC soul band Brave New Girl, LA dub-and-bass collective Dubistry, and Ari-Up, lead singer of The Slits. Sinnreich holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Southern California, and a master’s in Journalism from Columbia University. Follow Aram on Twitter: @aram

DJ SkeeSKEE.TV/SKEEMATIC DJ SKEE is redefining the role of 21st century entertainment mogul. He frequently spins or hosts at the world’s largest events from Las Vegas’ biggest clubs to the Super Bowl. He produces and remixes for the world’s biggest artists from Snoop Dogg to Michael Jackson and hosts an array of successful radio shows on the biggest radio stations in the country, including KIIS FM & Sirius XM. He also runs highly-touted, cutting edge campaigns for Fortune 500 Companies. In raw numbers, SKEE has generated over a billion media impressions with his platforms and continues to set trends by pushing the boundaries in media and entertainment. SKEE also hosts the top rated music show on prime time television, SKEE Live, in partnership with Mark Cuban, and has been recognized on both Forbes & Billboard’s “30 Most Influential Under 30” lists. Follow on Twitter:@DJSKEE / @SKEE

Scott SnibbeEyegroove, CEOScott Snibbe is an entrepreneur, researcher, and artist who has made significant contributions to the fields of interactive music, gesture and touch interaction, and digital art. Snibbe is the CEO of Eyegroove, a social music video startup, which just released the Eyegroove instant music video app. He was previously the founder of Snibbe Studio, producer of interactive music apps, including the world’s first app album Björk: Biophilia; and Snibbe Interactive, a developer of immersive gesture and touch interactive experiences for clients including James Cameron’s Avatar and The Beijing Olympics. Snibbe began his career at Adobe Systems, where he was one of the early developers of After Effects, and later worked at Interval Research Corporation as a manager of research teams, one of which spun out to his first CEO position at venture-backed Sonamo Collaborative Media.

Snibbe holds over 18 patents for interactive media technologies, and his interactive art is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Whitney Museum (NY), and other prominent institutions. A regular worldwide speaker, Snibbe serves on the Advisory Council to The Institute for the Future, and has held teaching and research positions at UC Berkeley, NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematics, San Francisco Art Institute, and California Institute for the Arts. He holds a M.Sc. in Computer Science, a dual B.A. in Computer Science and Experimental Animation from Brown University and RISD, and has received grants and awards from the NSF, NEA, Prix Ars Electronica, and the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. Follow on Twitter: @eyegrooveapp / @snibbe

Andy SternbergConsultant, Digital Strategy & Live EventsAndy Sternberg is a digital strategist and event marketer with over 15 years experience directing multimedia content programs, online marketing and digital campaigns.

As an independent contractor, his recent clients include Google, Sony Music, The X Factor USA, AEG Digital, and Waze. As partner and chief innovation officer at Adler Integrated, he developed and executed strategies and real-time event marketing programs for clients including Staples Center to BottleRock Napa to Austin City Limits Live.

As Head of Digital for Live Earth, he developed innovative community building and content programs and partnerships, while spearheading global campaigns to raise awareness of critical environmental issues. He also oversaw online marketing and social media for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Opening Concert Celebration for Control Room, which was viewed via internet livestream by millions of people.

Andy has spent his entire career on the frontlines of music and tech, beginning in the late ‘90s as webmaster and online marketing associate for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and including stints with Southern Records and as online communications and digital assets manager for Warner/Chappell from 2007-2008. He has a Master’s in Online Journalism and has been an adjunct instructor at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism teaching a graduate course in digital journalism. Follow on Twitter: @andysternberg

Andrew StessLyricFind, Chief Revenue OfficerAndrew Stess has a reputation for being a deal-closer, relationship-builder and revenue driver for business in established and emerging technologies. His 16-year experience in the digital media, consumer electronics and technology fields has been proven with his many years of success. In 2006 he joined LyricFind’s Board of Directors where he has helped drive the companies overall strategy and sales. Andrew added the role of Chief Revenue Officer for LyricFind in 2011 and has helped grow LyricFind to be the largest legal, licensed lyrics database in the world, with millions of licensed tracks available and hundreds of lyrics sublicensing clients. LyricFind has established licensing and content relationships with over 3,000 music publishers, The Harry Fox Agency, and Rovi.
The company delivers services to over hundreds of web sites and mobile applications that want to enhance their music products with lyrics, including HTC, Microsoft’s Bing, Pandora, CBS, Samsung, Lyrics.com, Shazam, SoundHound, LyricsMode, SongMeanings, Universal Music, Nokia and Amazon.

David H. StullSan Francisco Conservatory of Music, PresidentDavid H. Stull became President of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on July 1, 2013, having served previously as Dean of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music since 2004.

At Oberlin, he helped secure support for numerous initiatives including The Bertram and Judith Kohl Building, a project spearheaded to completion under his leadership. The Kohl Building is one of the most innovative teaching and performance facilities in the country and is the first dedicated music building to receive a Gold LEEDS rating. Under his leadership, the Conservatory created an intensive entrepreneurship curriculum, numerous academic and experiential learning programs, and produced fully sponsored orchestral tours to Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall and the People’s Republic of China. He also launched a state-of-the-art recording studio and record label and initiated a series of world-class recording projects, including a Grammy®-nominated album.

Recognizing the success of Oberlin’s innovative academic programming and contributions to American education, President Barack Obama presented the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with the National Medal of Arts, which Dean Stull accepted on behalf of the institution in February 2010.

From 1993-2000, Stull held positions at Lawrence University’s Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, as a member of the brass faculty, director of conservatory admissions and assistant dean. Stull was also associate director of admissions for The Juilliard School from 1990-1993.
Read more

Shane TobinThe Echo Nest, VP Business DevelopmentShane Tobin has been an executive in the digital music business for over 15 years. Early on he produced concert webcasts and artist interviews for House of Blues Digital. He then went on to manage Grammy Nominated Latin afro-funk band, Yerba Buena.

As VP of Business Development at The Echo Nest, Shane has built partnerships with Getty Images, Twitter, EMI, Foursquare, Rdio, Spotify, Songkick, Jambase, LyricFind, musiXmatch, Discogs and many others in the music tech space. Follow on Twitter: @echonest / @shanetobin

Cydney A. TunePillsbury, Senior CounselCydney Tune is Senior Counsel at Pillsbury‘s San Francisco office, and leads the firm’s Copyrights practice and Media & Entertainment industry team. Her practice includes a wide variety of intellectual property issues, including copyrights and trademarks, as well as a broad array of entertainment, licensing, E-Commerce and rights enforcement matters. She represents a variety of clients—large and small, domestic and foreign, and in many different industries.

The Daily Journal named Ms. Tune one of 2008’s Top 10 Copyright Lawyers in California and listed her among California’s top “25 licensing specialists” in 2010. She is regularly voted by her peers as among the Best Lawyers in America in the Entertainment Law and Media Law categories. She has also been named a “Super Lawyer” in intellectual property. She is a frequent speaker and author on topics pertaining to intellectual property, licensing and the convergence of entertainment and technology.

Affiliations
– Past Vice Chair, ABA Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, and Immediate Past Chair of the Licensing, Branding and Merchandise Division for that organization
– Immediate Past Chair, Copyright Interest Group, State Bar of California IP Section, former Executive Committee member
– Editorial Board, International Entertainment Law Journal
– Advisory Board, Copyright World
– Advisory Board, Internet Law & Strategy
– Executive Committee and Northern California Chapter Chair, Emeritus, Copyright Society of the U.S.A. Follow on Twitter: @pillsburylaw

Ken UmezakiDigital Daruma, PresidentKen is an angel investor, through his company Digital Daruma, in digital music business start ups, with a specific focus on artist and b2b service companies. He is also a digital music business executive, focusing on business development, strategy, operations and fundraising in the music business. Prior to that, his experience includes 25 years in financial services trading, asset management and senior management positions . He is also a musician; and currently plays bass in the band Fifth of Bourbon. Lastly, he is involved in a number of music foundations, including co-chairing the New York Area Advisory Board of Little Kids Rock.

John VandersliceTiny Telephone, OwnerJohn Vanderslice makes records and owns Tiny Telephone Recording in San Francisco. Follow on Twitter: @johnvanderslice

Katelyn WatsonIfOnly, VP, MarketingKatelyn Watson is a digital marketing expert and the VP of Marketing at “for profit, for good” experiences company IfOnly, where she helps connect luminaries with their top fans, while also driving revenue for artists and the causes they support. IfOnly works with over 150 charities and hundreds of luminaries in the fields of music, film, entertainment, food & wine and more. IfOnly has delivered successful campaigns for notable artists such as Big Boi, Chris Cornell, Stephan Jenkins, Paul McCartney, Justin Timberlake, and many more. Before IfOnly, Katelyn led digital marketing for finance start-up Kabbage where she growth hacked their way to one of the largest in online SMB finance and was among Fast-Company’s 2013 Most Innovative in finance. Prior to Kabbage, Katelyn led acquisitions at Shutterfly, where she operated a full in-house agency for 4 years. Katelyn was nominated a top 40 under 40 by Brand Innovators in 2013 and a top 10 marketer by iMedia in 2011. Follow on Twitter: @ifonly / @katelynwatson

Vinitha WatsonZoo Labs, Executive DirectorVinitha is a lateral thinker, design strategist, singer and committed learner. She has sometimes been called “divergent”, and her path has been just that: Vinitha caught the startup bug while opening Google’s first satellite office in India. She went on to start her own textile design company, then joined the experimental first class of the Design Strategy MBA at California College of the Arts in 2008. She is currently the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Zoo Labs, a non-profit Music and Technology Accelerator. In addition, Vinitha consults on innovation strategy and growth planning for nonprofits, sits on the boards of Nexleaf Analytics and California College of the Arts, and is a 2014 Future for Good Fellow with the Institute for the Future. Follow on Twitter: @thezoolabs / @phishfry

Emily WhiteWhitesmith Entertainment, Readymade Records & Dreamfuel, Co-FounderEmily White is the co-founder of management and consulting firm Whitesmith Entertainment, specializing in music, comedy and sports. Whitesmith’s roster includes W. Kamau Bell, Urge Overkill, Hockey, Future Monarchs, The Autumn Defense, The Big Sleep, Kevin Avery, Kristina Wong and Olympic gold medalist Anthony Ervin. In 2012 White founded Readymade Records and Publishing with management client Brendan Benson of The Raconteurs. Recently along with Cortney Harding and Justin Kalifowitz, White launched Dreamfuel – the premiere crowdfunding platform for athletes bringing modern music industry tactics to the sports field. Follow on Twitter: @WhitesmithEnt / @EMWizzle

Chris WiltseeBandPage, Senior Director of Business DevelopmentChris Wiltsee is Senior Director of Business Development at BandPage. In this role, Chris has led the development of BandPage’s growing partner ecosystem, securing deals with major platforms including Xbox Music, VEVO, Rhapsody and many others. Prior to joining the BandPage team in 2010, Wiltsee was Executive Director of The Recording Academy (GRAMMYs), where he contributed to the Awards process, as well as initiatives in advocacy, membership and the Academy’s charitable missions. Wiltsee founded Youth Movement Records, a non-profit artist development agency and record label, which he led from 2003-2009. Additionally, Wiltsee co-founded AMP, a national resource for all-ages music venues and communities, and released a book in 2006 titled, “In Every Town,” (Sub-Pop/AK Press). Wiltsee holds degrees from the University of Michigan and University of California, Santa Cruz. Follow on Twitter: @cwiltseego

Simon WillisonEventbrite, Director of ArchitectureSimon Willison directs the architecture team at Eventbrite, a Bay Area ticketing company working to bring the world together through live experiences. The architecture team is responsible for Eventbrite’s public-facing API as well as internal initiatives to help Eventbrite scale and take on new technical challenges. Simon joined Eventbrite through their acquisition of Lanyrd, a Y Combinator funded company he co-founded in 2010. He is a co-creator of the Django Web Framework. Follow on Twitter: @eventbrite

Brian ZiskSF MusicTech Summit, Executive ProducerBrian Zisk is a serial entrepreneur specializing in digital media, web broadcasting and distribution technologies. He is a founder of BuzzMakers, Inc., which produces the SF MusicTech Summit and the Future of Money & Technology Summit. He is a co-founder of the SF MusicTech Fund. Additionally, Brian is a Co-Founder and Technologies Director of the Future of Music Coalition and a Board Member and/or Strategic Advisor for a wide variety of tech companies and non-profits. Brian was previously a founder of The Green Witch Internet Radio which was sold to CMGI (NASDAQ: CMGI) at the turn of the millennium. He is active in many influential computer-mediated forums, is quoted and published extensively in the media, frequently appears on panels and at industry events domestically and abroad, and is an expert at frenzy whipping, brand awareness, and in creating new business models. He is married to Shoshana Zisk. Follow Brian on Twitter: @zisk

Shoshana ZiskSF MusicTech Summit, Co-ProducerShoshana Zisk is the co-producer of the SF MusicTech Summit. She is also an entertainment lawyer with a wide range of experience in the music industry. Her experiences includes Interim Chief Operating Officer for In Ticketing, Business & Legal Affairs for George Clinton and his musical groups Parliament, Funkadelic and The P-Funk Allstars, and General Manager of Clinton’s independent record label The C Kunspyruzy. Her previous positions include Business & Legal Affairs at BMG U.S. Latin, the Copyright Department at Motown, and A&R Administration for Island Records. Shoshana is currently the CEO of Kiddie Village, which creates award-winning childrens videos and music. She is a member of the California, New York, and Florida Bars. She earned a bachelor degree in Classical Piano Performance and Juris Doctorate (cum Laude) from the University of Miami. Shoshana was recently the Musical Director for “Rent” (the musical) in San Francisco, CA & Hollywood, California. Follow on Twitter: @shoshana