The Music Business Association’s 60th Anniversary Music Biz 2018 conference kept on rolling for Day 2 in Nashville at the Omni Nashville Hotel. Standing-room-only sessions were the order of the day, with the “#NEXTGEN_NOW: Young Voices Rewriting the Rules” panel and sixth annual Metadata Summit playing to overflowing crowds, only to be outdone by the Music’s Leading Ladies Speak Out program, featuring the one and only Dolly Parton.
Conference attendees piled into the Legends ABCD ballroom for this year’s Music’s Leading Ladies Speak Out program, headlined by an Artist Keynote from Dolly Parton and Linda Perry and an Executive Keynote from Wendy Goldstein, EVP of A&R at Republic Records, and Beka Tischker, manager of Music Biz 2018 Breakthrough Artist Julia Michaels, moderated by Melinda Newman, West Coast Editor of Billboard. Parton and Perry, who recently collaborated on the upcoming Dumplin’ soundtrack on Dolly Records/RCA Nashville (film directed by Anne Fletcher, starring Jennifer Aniston and Danielle MacDonald), discussed their collaboration and the recording process for the soundtrack. It was an amazing opportunity to get to hear about the powerful collaborations that Linda and Dolly were able to create and take a deeper look into the raw, integral beauty of the creation process. They even told us that there would be collaborations on these songs with multiple female artist including, Miley Cyrus and SIA.
From left: John Zarling, EVP, Marketing and New Business, Sony Music Nashville; Caryl Healey Atwood, VP, Sales and Streaming, Sony Music Nashville; Linda Perry; Danny Nozell, CTK Management; Dolly Parton; Darren Stupak, Executive VP/GM Sales, Sony Music Entertainment; Alaina Vehec, Director, Digital Sales and Streaming, Sony Music Nashville; and James Donio, President, Music Business Organization.
Goldstein opened the session with Melinda Newman, telling the stories of her journey through the music industry, the artists that she discovered as well as those she passed on, and her thoughts on the finer technical details of A&R. She was then joined by Tischker, who revealed how she and Michaels first bonded over their Iowa roots. The two then discussed how they worked with their “reluctant superstar” to support the evolution of Michaels from a behind-the- scenes hitmaking songwriter to a GRAMMY Award-nominated multi-platinum-certified performing artist.
From left: Melinda Newman of Billboard, Wendy Goldstein of Republic Records, and Beka Tischker, manager of Julia Michaels.
The event also featured a presentation from Erin Crawford, SVP & General Manager of Nielsen Music, on the influence and power of women in the music market, and a panel featuring Marcie Allen, President of MAC Presents; Marlene Tsuchii, Co-Head of International Touring & Music Agent at CAA; Kelli Turner, EVP of Operations, Corporate Development & CFO at SESAC; and Janet Weir, Manager of Maren Morris at42 Entertainment/Red Light Management; also moderated by Melinda Newman.
From left: Music’s Leading Ladies Speak Out presenters and panelists Beka Tischker, manager of Music Biz 2018 Breakthrough Artist Julia Michaels; Janet Weir, manager of Maren Morris at Red Light Management/42 Entertainment; Marlene Tsuchii of CAA; Erin Crawford of Nielsen Music; Wendy Goldstein of Republic Records; Marcie Allen of MAC Presents; Kelli Turner of SESAC; and Melinda Newman of Billboard at Music Biz 2018 on May 15.
Day 2 of Music Biz 2018 kicked off with the first “#NEXTGEN_NOW: Young Voices Rewriting the Rules” panel, which gathered forward-thinking music industry influencers — all under 30 years old — to detail their unconventional, unique journeys to the top of the music biz. These included moderator Cherie Hu, Contributing Writer/Editor at Billboard/Forbes, and panelists Jackie Augustus, Head of Digital Marketing at SB Projects; Devin Dawson, Singer/Songwriter with Warner Music Nashville/Atlantic Records; Amber Grimes, Manager of Artist & Label Marketing at Spotify; Phil Quist, Agent at CAA; and Anna Weisband, VP at THiS Music/Warner Chappell. Stories included heading up digital marketing for Scooter Braun at the age of 23, making the switch from investment banker to agent, ditching Heavy Metal music for a breakthrough career in Country, and becoming a VP at a publishing powerhouse just one year after graduating college.
From left: Cherie Hu of Billboard/Forbes, Anna Weisband of THiS Music, Amber Grimes of Spotify, Jackie Augustus of SB Projects, Phil Quist of CAA, and singer/songwriter Devin Dawson during the “#NEXTGEN_NOW: Young Voices Rewriting the Rules” panel at Music Biz 2018 on May 15.
The sixth annual Metadata Summit overflowed throughout its entire program, which began with a presentation from Edward Ginis of OpenPlay, who explained why metadata must evolve beyond artist, genre, and title to enable the music technology of tomorrow. In addition, global metadata issues took center stage in a series of presentations, and Chris McMurtry of Exactuals, Chris Read, Jill Chapman of Amazon Music, and Jackson Mercer of Concord Music Group discussed the many metadata issues that could cause a music release to be rejected with moderator Bill Wilson of Music Biz.
From left: Chris McMurtry of Exactuals, Chris Read, Bill Wilson of Music Biz, Jill Chapman of Amazon Music, and Jackson Mercer of Concord Music Group during “Rejected! The Most Common Errors” during this year’s Metadata Summit at Music Biz 2018 on May 15.
The day also included the Indie Artist & Songwriter Forum, which addressed artist and streaming income, the artist-label relationship in the digital era, and how independent labels or artists can successfully manage releases. Molly Neuman and Jason Cerf of Songtrust also provided a two- part crash course in how to use the service.
Jason Cerf of Songtrust during “Songtrust 101 – Part 2,” a panel during the Indie Artist & Songwriter Forum powered by Songtrust at Music Biz 2018 on May 15.
For more information:
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Twitter – @MusicBizAssoc
Instagram – @musicbizassoc
Hashtag – #MusicBiz2018
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