Twentysomething in the Music Biz

The keyword of the title is sometimes because most of the times people are full of shit.

Give me a couple paragraphs or so of back story to back up the previous claim.

In late May, my buddy Alex emailed me saying he was coming up to New York for Internet Week and needed a place to crash. My initial thoughts: why the hell would he want to come up watch nerds and widget junkies (a new term I just came up with…yay or nay???) act awkward towards each other because they’ve only met online. But then I told him I’d go to a couple events with him anyway–I mean, you truly never know who you’ll meet by immediately saying no to whole thing.

The first night, at a Mashable after party my buddy Walt told me to go, I saw my friend Miko. After we said our hellos, she asked if I was going to SoundCtrl, to which I immediately replied, “What is SoundCtrl” and “Should I know know about it?”. She said it was the ONLY music-themed event at Internet week. That was enough for me to go, so she hooked me up with a VIP pass for the event the following night at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in Soho. I was extremely intrigued with the concept on top of wondering how connected the guys who run it must be to get Chuck D to speak and Pepsi to sponsor it.

First SoundCtrl Event

I got there a little early because I hoped I would be able to walk around the museum before the event started and I was completely WRONG. When I finally got in, I was:

• Excited to see Chuck D speak
• Pumped for the open bar as well as to try out the short-lived Pepsi Throwback
• Ready to network with people since that is an integral part to these types of events

Chuck D was nothing short of a perfect speaker for this event and everyone spoke in his shadow…and that’s all I got to say about that.

Me "patiently" waiting outside

Front row raging

The Legendary Chuck D

Hip-hop up and comer Wale (click to download new mixtape)

(Source: SoundCtrl Facebook Page)

Alright guys, I’m not gonna lie to you. This is gonna get kinda weird…two dragons. (note: inside joke)

After Internet Week, I was pretty amped again about diving into the tech part of the music industry, so I emailed Nate from NY Tech Weekup about hosting a music-themed Tech Meetup. He replied saying I should contact Jesse from Soundctrl. As I read the email, I was laughing. I thought to myself, I guess I need to get involved with these guys, so I emailed Jesse, we met at his office, and hit it off real well. We decided there was enough NY-based music tech companies to kiiiiill it for an October meetup.

Fast forward to last Thursday

Four sangrias deep at the open bar with my friend Jo, I finally found Jesse to catch up for a few minutes. He told me Nate was totally into the idea, but it was a tossup between music and gaming. Fuck gamers…don’t they have a DDR competition or Warcraft convention to go to anyway?

I began accumulating a list of companies in my head until the event, entitled Artist Disruptors, began. I won’t lie. I thought it was slightly dry until Chrisette arrived late after a music video shoot. Jo and I both agreed that she was hilariously honest and insightful to unique ways to get and sustain fans using both on and offline tactics. She realized, unlike a lot of other musicians, that Twitter is a tool on the belt of Social Media, in order to get people’s attention, as opposed to the end all solution. Just like streams of income as a musician, your promotional and marketing tactics should be diversified and spread out because one is bound to collapse.

Jo, Rando Guy, me, and Rando Guy's friend

Anyways, enough of my rambling. Jesse and I got a little list in mind for potential music tech companies for a meetup, but we are TOTALLY open to suggestions to mull over before we actually pitch the idea to Nate, so please contact me if you got any ideas. Hopefully in a couple weeks, I’ll have some good news and details for the event. Until then, brainstorm!