Rethink Music Conference Offers Genesis Competition

Rethink Music’s second annual conference is scheduled to take place April 23-24 in Boston. Rethink Music describes itself as, “A hands-on conference designed to bring music stakeholders together to discuss business models for the future, examine copyright challenges in the digital era, and analyze technological innovation in music and its distribution. Centered around transforming the music industry, Rethink Music’s programming does not just focus on discussing change, but rather making it happen.” The conference is produced by Berklee College of Music and Midem in association with Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Panelists already added to the growing list for next spring include;
Chris Kaskie, President, Pitchfork
Kenneth Parks, Chief Content Officer, Spotify
Jim Lucchese, CEO, The Echo Nest
Rio Caraeff, President & CEO, VEVO
Cecily Mak, VP/General Counsel, Rhapsody International, Inc.
Jim Griffin, Managing Director OneHouse LLC
Anita Elberse, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School

This year Rethink Music has entered into a new partnership with Babson College to create the Genesis Project, a competition designed to recognise new concepts, technologies and businesses which can move the music industry forward. The competition is a key part of Rethink Music’s goal of fostering innovation and new ideas for the music industry. Submissions to the competition are open until March 15, 2012 and will be judged by Berklee College of Music faculty, Babson College faculty, industry executives and venture capitalists on their potential to become the basis of a viable new or improved venture or music business idea. Finalists will present their ideas at the Rethink Music conference in Boston on 23-24 April and Rethink Music will provide the winning project with $10,000 in legal services, additional in-kind awards, consulting services and meetings with venture capitalists.

Rethink Music will also host a Hacker’s Weekend April 21st & 22nd in Cambridge, MA at Microsoft’s New England Research & Development Center. (Microsoft N.E.R.D, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA) This will be a weekend for developers, designers, programers, industry insiders and musicians to come together to create new and unique applications across many different platforms. Hackers will have the weekend to build their hack and the three best will be presented at the Rethink Music Conference.