2020 Session List
Session 01: Welcome and Overview
April 23,2020 | 10:00 am PDT
Gigi Johnson and Storm Gloor will share the origins of the Amplify Music idea, which started from their canceled SXSW “Future of Music Cities” session. They then will share how the program for April 23 and 24 was expanded and the 11 Core Themes planned for the following week. They will talk about the structure around-the-clock and around-the-world to date and plans to follow.
Session 02: What is Resilience
April 23,2020 | 1:15 pm PDT
As an introduction to our virtual conference and what’s ahead, we’ll discuss Resilience.
- What does it mean in a music ecosystem?
- What are some key needs and priorities when being resilient, for today and for the days ahead?
- What’s happening right now?
Matt Kowal and Molly North of Majestic Collaborations, Lisa Gedgaudas of Denver Arts & Venues, and Tom Clareson of Performing Arts Readiness will discuss these and other related questions.
Session 03: Challenges to Date
April 23,2020 | 1:45 pm PDT
What have been the practical challenges to date? Three members of the leadership team of the US Music Policy Forum will help get the conversation started with some of the practical challenges to date in the cities that they are working closely with.
Session 05: Practical Actions from King County and San Francisco
April 23,2020 | 2:45 pm PDT
Some cities have faced the challenges of the public health risks and quarantine ahead of others. Leading voices from King County and San Francisco will talk about what the challenges have been like in their cities and what many of the rest of us can learn from their first actions and continuing solutions.
Session 06: Non-Profit, Government, and Organizational Actions
April 23,2020 | 3:15 pm PDT
Many organizations work locally to support artists and scenes. Guests from different cities will share the challenges in helping and delivering, as well as what unique has been happening in their own communities.
Session 07: How Can Local Organizations and Foundations Help?
April 23,2020 | 4:00 pm PDT
Many foundations and local organizations are deeply embedded in supporting various music scenes. This session will discuss how those organizations are helping and can help.
Session 08: Local Radio and Media
April 23,2020 | 4:30 pm PDT
Radio has taken on a triple burden at this time. It is reporting on local challenges, being part of the music community, and needing to keep its own ships afloat in a financially strapped time.
Session 09: Music Education
April 23,2020 | 5:15 pm PDT
Music education is disrupted from its normal local delivery and relationships with schools and gatherings. We will share some local sagas and examples of how music education has been rethinking its delivery and its role/connection with the local music communities.
Session 12: Music Resilience in Japan
April 23,2020 | 6:45 pm PDT
Two innovators — a Japanese business leader and a DJ — shared how Japan’s live music industry has been affected by COVID-19 and what’s ahead.
Session 13: Music Resilience in Malaysia
April 23,2020 | 7:15 pm PDT
Dr. Santaella and Azmyl Yunor will share what the pandemic has done to music and music ecosystems in Malaysia.
Session 14: Australia and Role of Governments and Cities
April 23,2020 | 8:00 pm PDT
By now. Governments and cities around the world recognize the essential role they play in supporting the economy during Covid-19 and kickstarting it once restrictions are lifted. It is essential that music and the creative industries are around the table when recovery plans are being drawn up.
In order to rebuild and in some cases reimagine their economies, Governments and cities need to recognize the value of music and the creative industries and relax and adopt cultures that say yes and enable creative activity and enterprise.
By drawing advanced manufacturing, music, and vibrant city agendas and integrated design thinking, Governments and industry in Australia have been working together to leverage music and the creative industries for social and economic gain.
Session 15: New Zealand – Practical Actions and Challenges
April 23,2020 | 8:30 pm PDT
How is the industry responding in a coordinated way? In New Zealand, organizations are consolidating everything into one place, impacting all sectors of the industry.
Session 19: India – Practical Actions and Challenges
April 23,2020 | 10:45 pm PDT
India faces unique challenges and an intertwined film environment. This panel will look at the current state of the Indian Music Industry, Bollywood Film Music, music marketing and finance, and how the pandemic has impacted instruments and software in India as well.
Session 20: How can India Revise its Creative Economy Policies & Look Into the Past to Shape the Future?
April 23,2020 | 11:15 pm PDT
As a country, India doesn’t have any formal structures from the government to invest or support creative, nightlife, and music industries. These sectors bring a large amount of revenue to the economy but also have big eco-systems connected, which are not given the importance they deserve. In the age of COVID-19, it is an essential time to create the right frameworks and policies to build for a stronger future. There is an untapped potential, but moreover, we need to look at solutions from our past that can help shape the future.
The music, creative, and nightlife economies have the opportunity to help revive the country at this time. They require, however, the right processes and the inclusion of all communities to create a bridge between both the traditional and contemporary arts within music, arts, and culture. The speakers shared that if not done now this will be another lost opportunity. If they don’t do this now, India will have another lost opportunity. And if the government doesn’t focus on it, it’s upon Indian creators and organizations to bring this to light.
As Gandhi said: “Be The Change You Want To See.”
Session 22: Advocacy Approached from Europe
April 24,2020 | 12:30 am PDT
The core activities of venues and clubs all over Europe is organizing live concerts and programming music. Some venues and clubs also manages social and educational activities, support cultural projects, and provide rehearsal spaces. Others might run a restaurant or host non-cultural activities. Some receive public funding, others don’t. All these cultural and economic specificities feed the diversity of European live music scenes. To protect this diversity in this particular situation and in general, diversity in support measures is necessary. This panel will look from a data perspective on the different experiences for music venues and clubs in Europe.
Session 23: Transformation of Cities
April 24,2020 | 1:15 am PDT
Social distancing and stay-at-home orders have temporarily reconstructed where and how consumers enjoy music. When the bans and restrictions are lifted, how will our musical lives fit into spaces and places that have been altered by massive behavioral and regulatory shifts? What might be the challenges for cities in recovering from lockdowns, adapting to new relationships with national governments, truncated economies, and new patterns of travel and communication?
Session 24: Nightlife Part I – Working with Government
April 24,2020 | 1:30 am PDT
The last six weeks have been a whirlwind. Nightlife leaders, nighttime commissions and “night mayors” have responded quickly to the COVID-19 crisis through network- and platform-building, advocacy, and sharing open-source ideas from one city to another. VibeLab offers a two-part conversation with nightlife leaders from cities worldwide:
Part I will highlight models that have been developed in one city and adopted in another (including livestreaming, surveys, and network-building).
Part II will dig deeper into strategies for advocating for nightlife with local government. We’ll highlight current successes as well as challenges.
How have nightlife cities used network-building, surveys, live-streaming, and more to respond to crisis in the past 6 weeks—and how have cities learned from each other’s work? Successes, challenges, recommendations?
Session 25: Nightlife Part II – Working with Government
April 24,2020 | 2:30 am PDT
The last six weeks have been a whirlwind. Nightlife leaders, nighttime commissions and “night mayors” have responded quickly to the COVID-19 crisis through network- and platform-building, advocacy, and sharing open-source ideas from one city to another. VibeLab offers a two-part conversation with nightlife leaders from cities worldwide:
Part I will highlight models that have been developed in one city and adopted in another (including livestreaming, surveys, and network-building).
Part II will dig deeper into strategies for advocating for nightlife with local government. We’ll highlight current successes as well as challenges.
All tools will be available open-source on nighttime.org, to make it easy to adapt these ideas to your own scene.
How do nightlife advocates fight for support for their scene with local government—especially when overcoming negative perceptions of night economies, or limited policy- or decision-making power?
Session 27: Diversity of Experiences in the European Live Music Sector
April 24,2020 | 3:15 am PDT
This panel will look from a data perspective on the different experiences for music venues and clubs in Europe.
Session 28: How the COVID-19 Crisis May Change the Format of Music Itself
April 24,2020 | 3:45 am PDT
Looking at music’s history, it has always been outside forces that dramatically changed the way we experience music and how music is made. Through anecdotes, this talk explores how electric light, iron casting, mass consumerism, and the internet all played a role in changing the format of music, and how the current crisis may change music itself once again, and the music business with it, through social distancing, localism, and virtual experiences.
Session 29: COVID-19, and then what?
April 24,2020 | 4:30 am PDT
Numerous small organizations are the motor and guarantor of the diversity of the European live music sector – a delicate balance based on fragile economic grounds for most organizations. What can we do now to sustain the diversity of Europe’s live music scene and avoid that the most fragile actors are forced to abandon? How can the sector as a whole support the diversity and prevent the survival of the fittest mechanisms?
Session 32.1: What this Crisis Has Taught Us
April 24,2020 | 6:00 am PDT
As the music industry tackles the current challenges and tries to minimize the negative impacts brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, we turn our gaze both to the past and future to discuss what didn’t work in the way live music, nightlife and artist support were structured, and how infrastructures should be rebuilt in order to create a safer, more resilient and inclusive industry for all.
Session 32.2: How the Music Industry in Latin America Perceives the Impact of the Pandemic
April 24,2020 | 6:00 am PDT
Join this panel of music connectors working across Latin America and hailing from Mexico, Columbia, and New York on how the music industry in Latin America is shifting and engaging across countries and communities.
Session 33: Latin America – Challenges For a Society that Understands Itself Through the Public Gathering
April 24,2020 | 6:30 am PDT
We will be joined by live and digital music leaders from Mexico, Argentina, and Chile who will be sharing their own challenges and experiences in re-thinking music performance and community in their own cultures and communities.
Session 34: How Data is Collectable/Collected Toward Local Action and Recovery
April 24,2020 | 7:15 am PDT
Organizations locally and globally have been surveying their communities and building a growing body of COVID-19 economic-impact data. How can these datasets be compiled into something that can benefit the nightlife and music advocates for scenes and cities around the world? How can the data be woven into effective storytelling? What opportunities may exist in combining or comparing multiple datasets from different cities and/or surveys?
Session 35.1: Livestreaming and Connected Experiences
April 24,2020 | 7:45 am PDT
Music Tectonics has been connecting music innovators through its conference and now online events. They are bringing three innovators to the conversations who have been creating virtual experiences as artists and as platforms to help us have other places and spaces to connect with fans and share and experience music.
Session 35.2: Future of Career Pathways
April 24,2020 | 7:45 am PDT
With the shutdown of much of the industry, what is the effect on short-term opportunities like internships for those aspiring for careers in the music business? What does the landscape for hiring look like in the short and long terms now? What will various segments of the industry look like in terms of the number of jobs and the pathways to obtaining them?
Session 36: Important Takeaways from Katrina – The Challenges of New Orleans are the World’s Challenges
April 24,2020 | 8:30 am PDT
Resilience can stem from disruption and disaster. New Orleans suffered that in abundance after Hurricane Katrina. How did the recovery from Katrina prepare (or not prepare) New Orleans for the changes after and now for the COVID-19 pandemic? How did these past challenges impact the New Orleans music industry? What lessons did the local music community learn? How will the current challenges affect New Orleans after the pandemic?
Session 37: Archiving Music History and Culture
April 24,2020 | 9:00 am PDT
Whose culture will be retained? Whose conversations and protests will be seen? For our artists who are passing, who will be celebrated? Which venues will be missed and who will be funded to return? The question of memory, culture, and tragedy will be a drama and comedy played out in our public spaces and communities. We will be discussing the missing, the forgotten, and the remembered in structure and story.
Session 38: Normalizing Digital Scarcity
April 24,2020 | 9:45 am PDT
Cherie Hu will talk about how the pandemic could be a turning point for normalizing digitally scarce goods and experiences. She’ll discuss disruptive effects (both positive and negative, short- and long-term) of this sudden paradigm shift on how the music industry is structured and what fans expect from artists. I can also discuss one or two case studies of artists and entertainers who built sustainable businesses off of a notion of digital scarcity (pre-pandemic), and what we could learn from them.
Session 39: Sociable Cities
April 24,2020 | 10:00 am PDT
Music is the heartbeat of sociability. While great online performances are available today, virtual socializing will never be a substitute for the physical social connections made in venues providing the space for creative multi-dimensional performances. Two of the sectors most affected by this crisis, the hospitality and entertainment industries, need to think proactively in order to be the next frontline to recovery. How can governments, community organizations, the private sector and nightlife and hospitality workers join forces to prepare cities for this new era of sociability? This panel will discuss the role that alliances will play in the recovery of safe, vibrant night scenes.
Session 40: Recovery – Support Through Music
April 24,2020 | 10:30 am PDT
We are singing and sharing from our homes and balconies now…as well as mourning privately and across digital spaces…and alone. How will music and how does music help us support each other in recovery? Whose recovery?
Session 41.1: Future of Live Venues and Events
April 24,2020 | 11:15 am PDT
How will the long-term repercussions of this pandemic and its negotiated social norms affect the layout, social meaning, and economics of concerts, festivals, and venues? These leaders in the Colorado and Idaho live music communities will discuss challenges, frictions, and realities of the next lives of live performance.
Session 41.2: Music Retail: Now and In the Future
April 24,2020 | 11:15 am PDT
The forced closure of record stores, particularly those that are independently operated, has been devastating to business owners who were already challenged to compete within a rapidly changing industry. Moreover, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Stores missed (for now) the opportunity to benefit from Record Store Day, an annual event that generates huge sales and foot traffic vital to the continued operations of participating stores. What other effects has the pandemic had on these retailers? How have they managed in the meantime? What will reopening look like, and what is the future for these stores that are in many cases landmarks in their communities?
Session 42.1: Festivals as Classrooms for Resilience: The Art of Mass Gatherings
April 24,2020 | 11:45 am PDT
For an exploration into workable ideas, please join Matthew Ché Kowal of Majestic Collaborations for a quick and deep dive into this newly funded national project that creates a classroom within a festival that considers Safety, Resiliency, and Equity best practices.
In collaboration with Performing Arts Readiness + Denver Arts & Venues + dozens of other collaborators, we invite you to think forward with us into enduring questions, like:
- How can disaster/emergency response bend towards creative solutions?
- How can creatives bend towards being prepared to be disaster thinkers and doer?
- How can we create curriculum together with local and national experts to skillshare in an immersive, diverse, and experiential learning environment?
Session 42.2: Future of Higher Education in Music
April 24,2020 | 11:45 am PDT
As a result of COVID-19, higher education institutions were forced to quickly shift to online platforms, a massive disruption by itself. Universities which offered music business programs have ahead of them not only the task of re-adjusting from that shift and the fallout to enrollments, but also a re-thinking of curricula around a music industry that will be vastly affected by the loss of jobs, businesses, and stability. How will music business education transform? How vulnerable are programs? What’s ahead for enrollments?
Session 43: Role of the Individual in Society
April 24,2020 | 12:15 pm PDT
As we prepare for this event, protesters in different cities and countries are standing for their rights to leave their homes. What other rights are being challenged with tracking, reduction in anonymity, and freedom of speech? How does this impact future music-making and music-community? How will this affect how we organize and create?
Session 44: Where the Next Year May Take Us
April 24,2020 | 12:45 pm PDT
We have talked about many topics so far . . . how do they thread together in possible futures that we can be working toward? What should we be steering around and how can we be learning from where we have been so far. Jim Griffin from One House will share some thoughts on the journeys ahead.
Session 45: Closing Conversation
April 24,2020 | 1:15 pm PDT
Gigi Johnson and Storm Gloor will close out our Virtual Gathering with the calls to action and questions of “Where can we go from here?” They will suggest a follow-up Gathering in August and discuss what came of these two days of conversations and connections.