The New Music Seminar ("NMS") kicked off on February 15 at the Sheraton Universal. Tommy Boys Records President and NMS co-founder Tom Silverman made the opening remarks, which featured a blitzkreig of online services, narrated by Peter Malkin. Silverman's remarks included a recap of the current state of the industry, as well as his predictions for its future.
The seminar was broken down into bite-sized segments, or movements. The first movement featured a panel discussion on the topic that the music business isn't dead, it just needs to be restarted. The panel was moderated by Michael Doernberg, the founder of ReverbNation, and featured Eric Garland of Big Champagne, Jay Frank of CMT and Liz Leahy of Section 101. It was very informative and set the tone for the remainder of the day.
Next up was a segment that featured six 18-minute intensive presentations by leaders in the industry, including Eric Garland, Darrian Porter of Mozes, Chris Vinson of Bandzoogle, Mike More of Headliner.fm, Brian Carpizo of Eventric and Bob Cramer and Phil Antoniades of Nimbit.
The second movement featured a panel discussion on A&R in the new music business, and was moderated by Jay Frank and Courtney Holt of Myspace Music. This panel featured Pete Edge of J Records, Craig Kallman of Atlantic Records, Ron Fair of Geffen Records, James Diener of Octone/A&M Records and Cal Nyantakyi of RocNation.
The third movement featured a panel discussion on touring in the new music business, and was moderated by Dave Lory, Executive Director of NMS and Kelli Richards of The All Access Group. This panel featured Megan Jacobs, booker for The Roxy Theater in Los Angeles, Richard Ellis of 12 to 20 (malls and school touring), Andy Gadiel of JamBase and Katie Witkin of Katie Witkin Social Media.
Scattered throughout the day were separate workshops for producers and singers/rappers, a "Meet the Authors" time and a break-out session for personal mentoring with some of the seminar speakers.
Throughout the day, there were times for networking. I managed to meet several of the speakers, including Jay, Katie and Michael, as well as wonderful staff members Riana Trowel, Kara Shaw and Megan Brandt. Other people I met included Ben McLane, Rashon Massey, Paul Seymour and his wife, Jane Jansen Seymour, Bobby Matson, Ian Murray, KC Mancebo, Lauren Tolliver, Ritch Esra, Ron Thomas and Scott Feldman. I also got to reconnect with Edward Donnelly of Aderra and Kim Koury of Spin PR Group. Besides all the industry people, I met several artists and radio personalities, including Jason Urbanczyk of Indie 103.1, solo artists Layla Kilolu and Chris Accardo and members of several bands including Nottingham, Nylon Pink and The Daylights.
After the seminar closed for the day, the fun began afresh at the Roxy Theater, as the final three contestants (Mike Del Rio, The Daylights and Shinobi Ninja) in the Artist on the Verge competition performed for the attendees and the general public. Nylon Pink, the ReverbNation contest winner, opened the night.
It was a great day, although very tiring. Time to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow. More to come :)
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