Slush Music is being organized for the first time, as a side event of Slush – one of Europe’s biggest startup events. Slush Music brings together technology startups and music entrepreneurs. This sounds like a very exciting mix, and is something that we at Unzyme try to do. These days it’s very hard to make a living with music alone, so artists are forced to think about various other business models and income sources. It’s a huge puzzle, and something that is really hard to do unless you have a team to share the tasks with. Musicians tend not to have great business skills, but those who do, and still manage to concentrate enough on music too, have a greater chance of survival in the rather post-apocalyptic world of music business.
There are some really interesting keynotes at Slush Music. I’m really looking forward to “Artists as Investors”, a panel discussion with Samu Haber (Sunrise Avenue & Comusic Ltd.), Ulf Ekberg (Ace of Base & Norvik Ventures), Chris Cooke (Managing Director at CMU Insights) and Matt Helders (Drummer of Arctic Monkeys, Investor). Personally I’ve founded two companies. They’re not directly music-related, but I’ve done business with artists (Apulanta and Hurriganes for example) and agencies (Rockin’ Hot Mama Agency). All the money I make, tends to get invested in music gear and trips to music business events.
The reason why I go to music business events (such as Slush Music or Music & Media), is not that I want to hear the latest news from the industry. If I wanted that, I could just open YouTube and watch some videos from SXSW or some other popular event. I go there to meet people, and try to form business relations. It kind of bothers me that I didn’t start doing it earlier, and have been attending such events only for about a year now. I even started a list of music business events in Europe, to keep track of the events that I need to take part in. After Slush I’ll be at MARS in Seinäjoki, Finland. And then there’s Tallinn Music Week in the Spring of 2017.
One of my all-time favorite artists, Imogen Heap, is also at Slush Music.