Music & Tech: Striking a Chord

We want to change the way music

is enjoyed and experienced,

but we also wanna celebrate the fact

that going to a live show is one

of the greatest experiences that you can have.

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[people chattering]

There's millions of super talented artists

all over the world, but they struggle to stand out

and get their music heard.

That's what Tenwest and Future Mode helps with.

We build emerging artists' careers

through personalized social and streaming strategies,

leveling the playing field in the music industry.

We're really lucky to work with US companies,

particularly on the AI side,

making the metadata better

and also on the rights management side,

making sure we can optimize revenue collection.

We've also been able to benefit

from some really good UK government funding

that allows us to export our artists overseas.

The Wellerman are the example of a US/UK collaboration.

They are two Brits and two Americans. They met on TikTok.

They went viral and now they're touring the world.

To understand what Ristband does, you'd have

to understand what's happening in the music industry,

which is that it's become almost impossible

for artists to tour, find their audience and get noticed.

At the same time, the idea of immersive events

has completely blown up

and so why can't music also exist within those contexts?

History of music is the history of technology

and vice versa and when we're looking at what's happening

in a video game and immersive,

there's this beautiful new transition

where we have almost new genres emerging,

creating the next era of music that we're going to hear

and interacting is so important because people want to be

a part of it now.

At South by this year, we're part

of the British Music Embassy

because we're representing innovation

and the creative industries

in the UK here to connect with US audiences.

US and UK collaborations are really important

because both countries approach things

in such different ways.

The best things come from both of the collaborating.

One of the main collaborations that have really changed

what we do has been South by Southwest.

There's that middle ground between tech, music,

art, the industry and the creative side of it

that South by does really well,

And it's a fantastic opportunity

for artists to reach new audiences

with the affordances of emerging technology.

And collaboration is way easier than it's ever been.

We're seeing a lot more genre bending

and culture merging.

Doing music with artists in different geographies

is really easy and you come up

with some really cool music that way.

Traditionally, all of the interesting things happen

in the margins.

It's always indie musicians or indie developers

that really come up with ideas that change the world.

Now is when the interesting stuff's gonna happen.