Transmitting from Transmission in Vancouver
I spent the last 3 days in Vancouver at the Transmission music conference, showcase and festival. This was the first year for the event, which is the brainchild of Tyl van Toorn and Brad Josling and was chaired by Laura Foti Cohen and Ted Cohen (who sits on SpotDJ’s board of advisors).
Thursday morning began with Nic Harcourt (Music Director at KCRW in Santa Monica) interviewing Terry McBride (CEO of Nettwerk Music Group) about the future of the music industry. Terry described a world in which the best radio station is programmed by the listener, the future of music is fan-to-fan, and fans’ passion about music drives leads them to create their own content about music. He terms this new era the wePod generation, which combines the personalization of the iPod with the community nature of social networks and the web. We couldn’t agree more!
The rest of the two days was packed with interesting discussion groups focused on many of the hot topics in the music industry today — how technology is changing the industry, the changing role of the artist and fan, and the growth of user-generated content around music.
Thursday and Friday night were reserved for listening to some great music, and the organizers brought in a fantastic lineup of bands from around the world. Almost all the bands participating in Transmission recorded spots about their music — talking about songs on their most recently album, their early influences, and why they were excited about the Transmission Showcase, for example. You can hear from all the artists on our Transmission page. Check ‘em out!