Music Tech Fest is the global festival of music ideas, featuring cutting-edge performance, music hacking, innovation labs and industry showcases that connect artists, technologists and business in a vibrant environment. Unique collaborations, new works created on site, premieres of future technology, and a visionary community make each event an exciting landmark gathering. MTF is cross-genre, international, enriching, and inclusive. It brings together academia and industry, artists, makers and scientists from around the world to celebrate and invent the future of music. The podcast features interviews and presentations from MTF events.
"Smaller fish, like clownfish, they're very talkative. They exchange lots of information between each other when they communicate, they have their own social structures, and they debate among themselves as well so it's quite interesting to observe that." The post 118. Robertina Šebjanič – Aquatocene appeared first on MTF Labs.
"I think it's all the same thing. I use the term Black Music. I think you could use the term Jazz. Or you could use the sociological term Afro-diasporic music. There is something continuous - even in terms of how it evolves and changes and brings new things in." The post 117. Caspar Melville – It's A London Thing appeared first on MTF Labs.
Sofia Crespo is a visual artist who uses artificial intelligence technology to create speculative biological life forms. "I think a crucial part of creativity comes from iterations... exploring all of the ramifications that a single idea can have. And that's something where assisted creativity helps a lot." The post 116. Sofia Crespo – Artificial Life appeared first on MTF Labs.
Gary Pisano is a Professor at the Harvard Business School and the author of Creative Construction: the DNA of Sustained Innovation. "I believe we can make progress. Our televisions are better than they were when I was a kid. Our phones are better today. Things are better. Technologies are better. Organisations are technologies. We can make those technologies better." The post 115. Gary Pisano – Creative Construction appeared first on MTF Labs.
Dr. Anna Grichting is a Swiss architect, urbanist and musician designing beautiful spaces for a sustainable world. "Your job as an urbanist or architect is to see what needs to be done to improve the environment, not just about real estate or making money. Of course we have to make beautiful objects but it's really about the quality of life for everybody." The post 114. Anna Grichting – Urbanism and Jazz appeared first on MTF Labs.
Yaniv Balmas is head of Cyber Research at Check Point Software in Tel Aviv. "In any new war, the interesting part for offensive cyber security is that the term "war" is not the war that we know. Not tank against tank or man with a rifle against man with a rifle. It's somebody sitting in one part of the world pushing a button against someone in another part of the world pushing a button." The post 113. Yaniv Balmas – Cyber Crime and Digital Espionage appeared first on MTF Labs.
Julia Coney is a wine writer, wine educator, speaker, and consultant. "I had a very early obsession with France because I was a James Baldwin fan and so I started taking French all through school. I knew I wanted to study abroad and I have a degree in English Literature. Where do you go? Well, it's Sartre and all that. I went to France. So I look back and see that all that led to this - but I didn't know that at the time." The post 112. Julia Coney – Wine is Science appeared first on MTF Labs.
Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stepanian is a designer of experiences and founder of the Underground University. "I wasn't set up to meet with any Nobel Prize winners in Physics. I'm not set up to meet with any astronaut. But I don't give up. It's not about stopping with one astronaut. There are 250 astronauts, so you just have to email 250 astronauts until one of them says yes." The post 111. Nelly Ben Hayoun – Designer of Experiences appeared first on MTF Labs.
Dr. Aram Sinnreich is an author, musician and professor of Communication Studies at American University in Washington DC. "Jefferson himself pointed out: Listen, we just got through the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, and before that we had the Renaissance. And we did all of that without copyright. So, you don't need to propertise ideas in order for people to come up with new ones and share them with each other. That's what we do!" The post 110. Aram Sinnreich – Strange Historical Reverberations appeared first on MTF Labs.
Ariane Koek is a global leader in Art Science curation and the creator of the Arts programme at CERN. "What inspires me? New knowledge. What makes me weird? I'm really into nuclear history. What haven't I done? I've never gone subatomic. Where in the world is at the cutting edge of all knowledge and technology at the moment? And I went... CERN!" The post 109. Ariane Koek – The Wonder of Everything appeared first on MTF Labs.
Robert Root-Bernstein is a world-leading expert on creativity in scientific research. "STEAM is going to allow us to at least graduate students who can hold a pipette and have some hand-eye coordination to go along with it and things like that. They're also going to have a sense of what that creative process is." The post 108. Robert Root-Bernstein – Sparks of Genius appeared first on MTF Labs.
Abrian Curington is a cartographer and visual storyteller. "I started with mapping on the fantasy side. Creating journeys when I'm reading a book, mapping out where the characters were going and what this new fantastical world looks like - and I wanted to relate that to our real world as well." The post 107. Abrian Curington – Maps to the Stars appeared first on MTF Labs.
Joseph Illidge is Executive Editor of Heavy Metal Magazine and co-founder of the Access Guide to the Black Comic Book Community. "If you look at the old Marvel characters from the 60s, one of the things that those creators were brilliant about was the understanding that gaining superpowers would actually make your life more complicated." The post 106. Joseph Illidge – Great Responsibility appeared first on MTF Labs.
Ola Sars is the founder, CEO and chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand - a music streaming platform for businesses. "What we do is collaborate with independent academic platforms which is much healthier for running R&D. We have multiple research projects going on in the neuroscientific field, for example..." The post 105. Ola Sars – Soundtrack Your Brand appeared first on MTF Labs.
Dmitri Vietze is the CEO of Music Tech PR company Rock Paper Scissors, and the founder and curator of the Music Tectonics conference. "I grew up playing acoustic instruments in the subways of New York City. I was always intrigued by how music was made and followed the path from hip hop to jazz to African music, as well as being interested in the raw materials that made the buzzy weird sounds, or the hybrids of different cultures clashing that led to things like Afrobeat and Colombian cumbia rock." The post 104. Dmitri Vietze – Music Tectonics appeared first on MTF Labs.
Dora Palfi is the co-founder and CEO of imagiLabs, an ed-tech company creating gadgets that make programming more relevant and welcoming for teenage girls. "One of my favourite projects was by one of our super-users who turned the Imagicharm into a tool that would randomly select and tell them whether to watch Netflix or do their homework." The post 103. Dora Palfi – Imagilabs appeared first on MTF Labs.
Siavash Mahdavi is the founder and CEO of AI Music, which helps brands and creators connect with their audiences through customised music. "I really love what I do. I've managed to create the perfect job. Super geeky techy and using my own expertise - and then I spend the rest of the day talking about music and making music." The post 102. Siavash Mahdavi – AI Music appeared first on MTF Labs.
Sandra Vengadasalam and Friederike Kleinfercher run the Max Planck Digital Labs at the heart of the Max Planck Digital Library in Munich. "There's a problem that exists since the beginning of science - and now we see a chance to solve that problem." The post 101. Sandra Vengadasalam & Friederike Kleinfercher – bloXberg appeared first on MTF Labs.
A compilation of some highlights from the past two years of the MTF Podcast, showcasing the brilliant, diverse and fascinating people of MTF. The post 100. The Universe in a Grain of Sand appeared first on MTF Labs.
Marta de Menezes is an artist who works with biological systems - including her own. "What does it mean to have a system in our body that decides what is 'me' and what is 'not me'? I need to understand better how that works." The post 99. Marta de Menezes – Nature? appeared first on MTF Labs.
Sumit Bothra is a music manager. He's director of ATC Management and a board member of the UK Music Manager's Forum. "Taking credit for the work that you do is not stroking your ego. It's about recognising your impact on history. And why shouldn't you?" The post 98. Sumit Bothra – Managing Nicely appeared first on MTF Labs.
Lotta Ahlvar is Chair of Design Sweden - the association that represents all Swedish designers. "The fashion industry is one of the world's biggest polluters. It's only the food industry that is worse..." The post 97. Lotta Ahlvar – Designer Chair appeared first on MTF Labs.
Marc Brown is the founder of Byta - a platform for sending and receiving digital music. "There needs to be substantial cultural change in the music business. Things have improved, but that's no excuse and there's a long way to go." The post 96. Marc Brown – Byta appeared first on MTF Labs.
Sara Herrlin is, among other things, the founder of STHLM Music City. "Don't forget that music in Sweden is not a niche - it's larger than all of tech put together. So of course, Music Tech is small, but it's buzzing and growing with fantastic ideas." The post 95. Sara Herrlin – Music Tech Connector appeared first on MTF Labs.
David Batstone is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist with a mission to eradicate human trafficking and the global slave trade. "I believe in Democratic Capitalism. And the problem today is that we have Feudal Capitalism. Most people in the world do not have access to capital to pursue their dreams. I'm trying to democratise the capitalist system." The post 94. David Batstone – Not For Sale appeared first on MTF Labs.
Shain Shapiro is the founder and CEO of Sound Diplomacy, the leading global advisor on growing music and night time economies in cities and places. "We underestimate the power that music has, and yet we're using its power every day without recognising it. And it doesn't matter what your political affiliation is - you're uniting people through the power of music." The post 93. Shain Shapiro – Sound Diplomacy appeared first on MTF Labs.
Lisa Lang is the founder and CEO of Elektrocouture, OfundamentO and Powerhouse. "When you wear fabrics in space, they give off fibre which blocks the air ventilation. That's kind of a disadvantage if you want to breathe." The post 92. Lisa Lang – What to Wear on Mars appeared first on MTF Labs.
Allen Bargfrede is co-founder and Chief Legal Officer of Verifi Media. "When I first wrote the book eleven years ago, we were entering into a digital age. We are not exiting it any time in the near future." The post 91. Allen Bargfrede – Legally Verified appeared first on MTF Labs.
Sandra Wall is Trade and Industry Developer for the Creative Sector in Norrköping Kommun. "I was always the odd one out. A culture lover in a family of sports. In the end it was music that was the connection for me. It always came back to music." The post 90. Sandra Wall – Norrköping City of Music appeared first on MTF Labs.
Cliff Fluet is a digital media lawyer and music tech business advisor. "A very wise client said to me that the thing about Covid is that it's deadly in the face of underlying conditions. And that's as much true for business models as it is for people." The post 89. Cliff Fluet – Counsel for the Disruptive appeared first on MTF Labs.
Gabriella Coleman is the world's leading expert on Anonymous and an anthropologist who covers the politics, cultures, and ethics of hacking. "Since computers are attached to everything - from your pacemaker to a nuclear reactor - with the right software, you could do a lot of damage." The post 88. Gabriella Coleman – Anonymous Hackademic appeared first on MTF Labs.
Mark de Clive-Lowe is an innovative musician and producer who has worked with some of the greats in jazz, R&B/Soul, Dance and Electronic music. "You could play Herbie Hancock note for note, but you'll never be Herbie Hancock. And if you do really nail it, then that voice is not even your voice." The post 87. Mark de Clive-Lowe – Heritage and History appeared first on MTF Labs.
Vickie Nauman is a consultant to music startups, the former President of 7Digital and head of business development for SONOS. "You build the right model, you build the right infrastructure, and you get it right from the beginning with a smaller collection of music and then you can gradually grow that over time." The post 86. Vickie Nauman – Music Software Law Product appeared first on MTF Labs.
Anouk Wipprecht is a Dutch fashion tech designer. "The more I wear this garment, the more it gets to know me. So that's an interesting discussion between the fashion industry and the tech industry." The post 85. Anouk Wipprecht – Robotic Couture appeared first on MTF Labs.
Musician Kris Halpin uses Mi.Mu gloves as an accessible instrument. "I thought people are just going to boo me if this doesn't work, but the opposite happened. They seemed to get that it was bleeding edge stuff." The post 84. Kris Halpin – Gloves Off appeared first on MTF Labs.
Bengi Ünsal is Head of Contemporary Music at the Southbank Centre. "Live streaming, maybe it was coming - but this coronavirus situation has forced it on us and it's so accelerated. Maybe most of the companies are left behind already - including us. So yeah, we definitely want to do it." The post 83. Bengi Ünsal – Lockdown Meltdown appeared first on MTF Labs.
Rastko Petaković is Senior Partner at Serbian law firm Karanovic & Partners. "I had a discussion with one of my father's friends. He was under the impression that music stopped evolving around the late 80s. For me, that was the time when it really exploded." The post 82. Rastko Petaković – k/talks: MTF & Copyright appeared first on MTF Labs.
Zane Lowe is co-head of artist relations at Apple Music and host of the flagship show on the Apple Music platform. "That whole thing about how people say I'm good at interviews - it's because I love musicians. I love being around them. I love talking about music." The post 81. Zane Lowe – Years Ago appeared first on MTF Labs.
Agnieszka Roginska is Professor of Music Technology at New York University and President of AES - the Audio Engineering Society. "I think because the technology is evolving, it is giving new ideas and new forms of expression and creativity to artists." The post 80. Agnieszka Roginska – Immersed in Audio appeared first on MTF Labs.
Author Derek Sivers is best known as the founder of CD Baby and a TED speaker. "I don't ever tell people that they should be like me. If fact, I like it better when they're not. I don't want to convince you to my way of thinking." The post 79. Derek Sivers – How to Live, Baby appeared first on MTF Labs.
Jason Singh is a Manchester-based composer, vocal artist, sound designer and DJ. "What I thrive on is being in those kind of scenarios and projects and environments where I don't know what's going to happen." The post 78. Jason Singh – Dialogue with the World appeared first on MTF Labs.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross is the host of Vox's technology podcast RESET. "I want people to feel something. I don't think that technology is very often about empathy and I would like for my podcast to change that. I want to make the most human tech podcast you have ever listened to." The post 77. Arielle Duhaime-Ross: Reset appeared first on MTF Labs.
Ethan Diamond is the CEO of Bandcamp. "The response was amazing. It ended up being 4.3 million dollars in 24 hours. People bought about 800,000 items in that day. About 15 times a normal Friday for us." The post 76. Ethan Diamond – Bandcamp appeared first on MTF Labs.
Nitin Sawhney is a composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist and chair of the PRS Foundation. "Music can enhance our feelings and moods during a time in which we're feeling isolated, confined and frustrated." The post 75. Nitin Sawhney – Isolation Aftershock appeared first on MTF Labs.
Doug de Angelis is a legendary LA music producer, TV composer and innovator. "The challenge is figuring out how we (the music industry) do what the game industry did from an innovation standpoint." The post 74. Doug de Angelis – From the Midi Room appeared first on MTF Labs.
Virginia Dignum is Professor in Responsible AI at Umeå University in Sweden. She advises to the European Commission and World Economic Forum on AI. "There is no business model for unethical AI." The post 73. Virginia Dignum – Responsible AI appeared first on MTF Labs.
"I would have loved to carry this idea of only using 1969 technology all the way to the bleeding edge..." Film score composer Matt Morton used 50 year old synths to soundtrack the award winning documentary about Apollo 11. The post 72. Matt Morton – Apollo Moog Mission appeared first on MTF Labs.
"I may be a bit of a late starter for a solo single, but hey - never say never!" Terry Tyldesley has been involved in Music Tech Fest since the very beginning. She bridges the worlds of geekery, startups, politics and DIY electro punk. The post 71. Terry Tyldesley – Kat Five appeared first on MTF Labs.
"Monsters can be beaten. Maybe not all of us make it. Maybe not everyone survives the masked man with the chainsaw... but the fight goes on." Jon Greenaway is a horror fiction scholar, media critic, political theorist, and public intellectual. The post 70. Jon Greenaway – TheLitCritGuy appeared first on MTF Labs.
"We are absolutely not against people trying to make money. Obviously. But it's pretty much impossible." Beverley Whitrick is Strategic Director of the Music Venue Trust, a charity set up to protect and improve grassroots music venues. The post 69. Beverley Whitrick – Trust in the Future of Music appeared first on MTF Labs.
"The Mission Control audio from the Apollo 13 explosion that hasn't been heard since 1970... we're digitising it right now." Ben Feist's Apollo In Real Time project commemorates our greatest scientific adventures. The post 68. Ben Feist – Apollo in Real Time appeared first on MTF Labs.