Congratulations to two of our Summit XI Startup Innovators Challenge winners!

Timbre acquired by seatwave.com. Details are here.

Playground.fm acquired by Jawbone. Details are here.

Our contest is a way for promising start-ups to compete for an opportunity to showcase at the SF MusicTech Summit XV on May 20, 2014.

Round 1 complete: Thanks to everyone who submitted by 4/18/14 at 11:59 (PDT).  Those who submitted applications in Round 1 have priority consideration.

Round 2 complete: Thanks to everyone who submitted by 4/28 at 11:50 (PDT).  The contest is now complete, and judging is under way!

The word is out, we were honored with SF Weekly’s 2013 Best of San Francisco Award:

“Best Music Biz Dog-and-Pony Show: Part tech-geek confab, part self-promotion contest, and all good excuse to drink beer and eat brownies while talking to people you’ve never met before, the twice-annual SF MusicTech Summit provides a fascinating window into the tech side of today’s music industry. The highlight of each edition is usually the inevitable shouting match between tech whiz-kids who believe The Internet Rules All and rock codgers who wanna know where their fat royalty checks went. There are always a few fun (and alarming) predictions aired at the daylong event’s panel discussions, too. But for many, the important part of the conference happens in the Hotel Kabuki’s packed hallways, where musicians, code geeks, and grizzled industry types make deals, trade business cards, and otherwise forward this fascinating and sometimes ugly business of music. Whether you’re a music nerd navigating the web wild west, or a tech type looking to get into a new space, the lessons gained from one day at the SF MusicTech Summit are usually worth the price of entry.”

FORBES May 13, 2013
By: Rob Ashghar – “When the winds of change rise, says the old Chinese proverb, ordinary people build walls, while extraordinary people build windmills.

The music industry may have faced stiffer winds in recent years than any other, gales that have scattered the walls built by even the wealthiest and most determined gatekeepers of the traditional recording industry.

And in the Internet era, no new landscape is host to more raucous, eclectic and competing hordes of pioneers, speculators and reactionaries. And no landscape may offer more lessons about how to go past the usual lip service about embracing change in order to actually shape change and profit from it.

Brian Zisk, founder of the semi-annual SF MusicTech Summit, has made it his mission to help bring cosmos from out of the chaos of the music world.  The MusicTech summit, which convenes on May 28 for the 13th time, reflects his view that the art of music is now inextricably a part of a larger ecosystem that includes technology and business. Read More