Having conceptualised a good part of Berlin music conference all2gethernow’s [access protected, 2016-03-10] discussion topics (and organised even more), I suddenly find myself with heaps of thoughts and content not published on ContentSphere. Even worse, ContentSphere has been almost plain blank while working on those topics. It just would be a shame to not make use of it. More than that, these topics are dealing with issues and they are raising questions. I contributed them to a2n because of their relevance in today’s music business.

The abstracts of those topics you will find on a2n’s schedule which is still accessible. The link to each of them I added to the list below. I’m trying to flesh out at least some of them in the near future to give you a bigger picture of what I intended them to be.

As you might have guessed, I was able to witness only very, very few of the events I drafted. But a large number of a2n’s discussions have been streamed, which makes me curiously waiting for the finalised and edited videos. I hope them to be published soon as a part of our documentation, so I can add the actual video of the discussions to my articles.

But – what are those topics and issues I contributed to a2n? Let’s see:

  1. Netlabels reloaded – what’s their role?
  2. SELL SELL SELL – How to get your music licensed in Commercials, Games, Film & TV
  3. Creative Commons Collecting Society – and it’s no typo
  4. Current status in collecting societies and licensing alternatives – what’s the vision?
  5. GEMA or Creative Commons: What’s best for me?
  6. Getting paid for Creative Commons licensed content – sounds weird?
  7. How to compose for film
  8. The relevance of collaborative networks
  9. Pandemonium of social media options: strategies overload.
  10. Search & navigation – key to customer?
  11. Artists being solo – on stage & in business
  12. How do technologies & social media influence music culture?
  13. Alive & Growing – the music business
  14. State of the art in Digital Distribution: Old school anyway? On DIY, Direct-to-fan and usability.
  15. Lost in Music – today’s generation of musicians in fear of freedom
  16. The future of labels
  17. Integrating change – current strategies in music and software
  18. Web 3.0 / Music 3.0 – What does real-time web mean to music business?
  19. Smart Artist Management
  20. GEMA, Pay-to-play – what else? Who pay? How much advertising do you stand?
  21. Love & Money – raising your fanbase

Please don’t get me wrong – the storyline might have been set by me for those panels and workshops. Though, it has been the moderators and speakers who did a brilliant job in breathing life into some sketched out thoughts.

You want to know which ones didn’t make it? Here they are. At least the ones I drafted.

  1. Reforming copyright: Necessity or nonsense?
  2. Collecting societies – foot on the brake or guardian of the Holy Grail?
  3. YouTube – whuzznotup? The Black Screen of Death on behalf of GEMA.
  4. Fail & Success – are traditional business models the only to survive?
  5. Branded art – when music becomes added value
  6. DIY is a dead end
  7. DIY marketing: The real world
  8. DIY and direct-to-fan marketing – cameo role or serious market factor?
  9. Direct-to-fan marketing
  10. Artists’ perfect 10 in digital distribution – how does the perfect platform look like?
  11. No charts, no breaking – what does it take to become a “breaking artist”?
  12. Workshop: Site design for artists
  13. Fuhgettabout the producer – we can do that ourselves!
  14. Music production on iPhone/iPad? WTF or OMG?
  15. Technology for the masses – does common access increase music quality?
  16. Convergence or transition: About TV, internet & hybrids.
  17. Music collecting: No options to revamp a bad habit beloved?

Why they did they fail? It’s been the usual reasons. Cancellations, invitations not being answered, and most of all – too much content. Some issues were merged and survived, others had to be abandoned. But, you never know… you like some of the ideas and would have loved to see the panel? Please tell me. I’d appreciate it.

Looks like an awful lot of work. Happy to do it. Gonna be fun.

This text has been published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 Unported licence. If you would like to make use of the text or parts of it in a way that goes beyond the scope please ask me.