#UNCON08

Marco Raaphorst / guitarplayer / composer / arranger / sampling engineer / phonographer / audio tweaker / MAM / BON / founder of Melodiefabriek / composer of music for Heineken / nu.nl / VPRO 3voor12 / VPRO Metropolis TV / RVU Flick Radio (radio & tv) / RTL TV / sound designer for Propellerhead Software / Reason 3 & 4) / powerFX / Fabfilter / Nimbuzz / weblogger / Dutch Bloggie Best Music Weblog 2007 / chairman of non-profit Stichting Offline 070 / organiser Blog-Art festival The Hague ////// generation slash /

Lykle de Vries is co-founder of Lopend Vuur and New Music Labs and Member of the International Board of Un-convention. Way back when, he did actually play guitar in a band, but he has since moved to developing concepts for iPhone Apps, websites and other means that help bands engage with their audience. Tribe Monitor is New Music Labs latest tool; a Social Statistics Aggregator that helps you keep an eye on your overall Social Media performance. By the way, Lykle also invented Twitterfountain.

Get in touch with Lykle right now! Follow Lykle on Twitter: @lykle

Photo by Judith van der Meulen

Kristin McGee is professor of popular music at the University of Groningen, performing musician and soundscape aritst. She has written on women in jazz media (Some Liked it Hot 2009), new media and social networks, 1920s sound films, Orientalism in popular music and Amsterdam’s electronic jazz scene. In Chicago and Groningen she has worked with musical groups Las Toallitas, Blue Turtle Tea Party, Funkadesi, Nerve Tonic, the Tinsel Trio and Hora Est. Before acquiring a real job Kristin worked as a caterer, archivist, fruit factory laborer, nursing home assistant, French tutor and music teacher. While not writing, researching, teaching or playing her saxophone – you may find her cooking slow food, watching documentaries or cutting her hair.

UK manager for SoundCloud, a cloud-based music platform that allows music professionals to easily distribute, share and stream audio over the web. With over a decade’s experience in the music industry, Dave’s career has moved from selling good old fashioned records to focusing on the latest trends in digital music. Along the way he has released his own album, DJ’ed across Europe, run a label, worked in digital distribution and founded a successful niche MP3 download store. As well as his work for SoundCloud he is the organiser of OpenMusicMedia and Music Hack Day events.

Fat Northerner Records / Un-convention

Jeff helps to run Fat Northerner Records, an independent label based in Manchester. The label, now in its sixth year, works with artists across a variety of genres, from rock and country, to folk and electronica.

At last count he had ten guitars, two tambourines and a harmonica, as well as a degree in Economics; he is still trying to find a use for the latter.

Jeff co-founded Un-Convention, and is proud to be part of such an innovative and vibrant community.

Después de terminar la carrera de economía, Jeff se ha desempeñado como consultor en administración, publicidad, marketing y diseño, en los que ha dirigido las cuentas del grupo Arcadia, Diageo y BAA e importantes empresas británicas como Marks & Spencer, Boots y Hallmark. Jeff ha sido músico durante 20 años y desde 2006 ha ayudado a dirigir el sello disquero independiente Fat Northerner Records en Salford (Gran Manchester, UK)

Una ambición compartida: impulsar a los artistas de las bases musicales, empujaron a Jeff y sus amigos a fundar el evento Un-Convention en 2008. Actualmente está trabajando en el desarrollo de un sistema administrativo en línea para la música en vivo.

During his studies Geert started up Ham Radio Communications (HRC). HRC is a Groningen based concert-organizing collective for (inter)national up & coming indie talent. HRC takes an un-conventional approach to concert-organizing with their “anything is a stage” concept. They have successfully organized concerts in such locations as an empty church, a fire station, various ships, a French schoolbus, small clubs, and lots and lots of living rooms. He currently is the main songwriter/singer and for Dutch acoustic pop formation The Black Atlantic who released their debut album “Reverence for Fallen Trees” in August of 2009 with over 50.000 downloads via torrent and other music distribution sites in the first 2 months and to instant (inter)national critical acclaim in the press.

With a long and active history in DIY music culture, be it playing in several bands or booking shows in every available space in Tilburg, I founded the Incubate festival, a large scale festival focusing on Independent culture. What started out as a hobby ended up as a full time job. Together with 2 colleagues, I now run the Incubate foundation, a foundation that has set its goals to promote and stage the independent culture through cutting edge and creative ways. Within the foundation, I am responsible for a big part of the music program, but besides that, I am in charge of the production department, and head of finances and internal procedures. One could say I am the backbone of the organization, and that I spend most of my time organizing the unorganized. As a professional organization, we maintain the ethics of underground and DIY culture; the culture our organization emerged from and that keeps on feeding us.

Niels Aalberts (1971) has been working in the music industry since 1994: first as a product manager for PIAS, later on as A&R-manager for Universal. He turned free-lance in 2003, offering his services to both record labels and artists and has been principal teacher Music Management at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht (HKU). He shares his experience, tips and tricks with musicians daily through his blog: http://eerstehulpbijplaatopnamen.blogspot.com/, which was recently awarded a Dutch Bloggie. He has practiced those very same major changes in the Music Industry -that he identifies and celebrates on his blog- in the last two years managing and marketing Kyteman (Colin Benders) with resounding succes: over 40.000 albums and 8.000 DVD’s sold and sold-out shows in clubs and big festivals (Pinkpop, Lowlands). And all that on a €50 marketing budget, long live internet!

During his Communication studies at the University of Amsterdam, Hoite applied his knowledge to what he was into at the time. Music and BMX bikes. This resulted in a magazine, a start as a freelance journalist, and hosting of youth culture events. During his 2 years at MySpace, he combined his enthusiasm for music and media in the fast evolving roots of social networking. In his current job as project manager at Veronica Holding, he continuously switches his attention between all fields of media available, while keeping a focus on music and new media. In his spare time, he doubles as a freelance music journalist and a DJ

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/hoitepolkamp#ixzz0r2DjINrT

Renger Koning (1959)
Composer Sound designer, Producer.›
Started in 1984 composing for Multi Media before you could study it. Composed for TV stations, brands, advertising, drama series and art projects.
Won several (inter)national awards for his music and sound design. (3x New York Festivals). His sample libraries are used in Hollywood movies like ‘The Dark Knight and ‘Stealth’ and used by artists like Hans Zimmer, Jeffrey Rona, James Newton Howard, Junkie XL, The Orb etc.
Owner at Soundbase (www.soundbase.nl) and Soundlabel (www.soundlabel.com)
Band: Sweet ‘n Wicked (www.sweetwicked.com)

Lykle de Vries is co-founder of Lopend Vuur and New Music Labs and Member of the International Board of Un-convention. Way back when, he did actually play guitar in a band, but he has since moved to developing concepts for iPhone Apps, websites and other means that help bands engage with their audience. Tribe Monitor is New Music Labs latest tool; a Social Statistics Aggregator that helps you keep an eye on your overall Social Media performance. By the way, Lykle also invented Twitterfountain.

Get in touch with Lykle right now! Follow Lykle on Twitter: @lykle

Photo by Judith van der Meulen

New Music Strategies

Andrew Dubber is an Arts and Humanities Research Council Knowledge Transfer Fellow in Music Industries Innovation, a founder member of the Interactive Cultures Research Centre and a Senior Lecturer in the Music Industries at the Birmingham School of Media at Birmingham City University.

He’s an online music consultant, a co-founder of Music Think Tank and the author of New Music Strategies.

Originally from New Zealand, Dubber moved to the UK in 2004 to begin a research project in Online Music Enterprise. With a background in both the radio and the music industries and with an academic record that includes numerous articles, book chapters, and conference presentations about digital media, the music business and media ecology, Dubber has quickly become one of the UK’s leading experts in the field.

His research includes a project on online fandom within the BBC’s Audio and Music Interactive division; explorations into jazz and other specialist music consumption online; the social impact of iPods; and post-graduate work on digital radio and deregulation.
He currently consults for over thirty music and radio businesses in the UK and Europe – from established record labels and retailers to entrepreneurial online music start-ups – and is on the advisory boards of Bandcamp (US), Meetsound (France) and Un-Convention (UK).

He has written articles for Computer Music Magazine and chapters on blogging and podcasting for the Alternative Media Handbook (Routledge, 2008). He is currently co-authoring an undergraduate textbook on the Music Industries, and is the co-author of a book about new technologies for broadcasters in developing nations, commissioned by UNESCO.

When he’s not teaching and writing, most of his time is spent travelling, presenting seminars and workshops across the UK and around the world.

Andrew Dubber es profesor miembro de la junta directiva de la Universidad de la ciudad de Birmingham (Birmingham City University) en el área de Transferencia del Conocimiento del Consejo Investigación en Artes y Humanidades (Arts and Humanities Research Council). Es uno de los socios fundadores del Centro de Investigaciones de Culturas Interactivas (Interactive Cultures Research Centre) de la misma Universidad; también es profesor adjunto del curso Industrias musicales de la escuela de los Medios de Birmingham (Birmingham School of Media). Es consultor especializado en el nuevo mercado digital y fue uno de los fundadores del Music Think Tank, escribió el libro Nuevas estratégicas musicales (New Music Strategies).

Nativo de Nueva Zelanda, en 2004 se trasladó al Reino Unido para emprender la investigación sobre la industria musical en línea. Debido a su experiencia en radio e industria musical, junto con su carrera académica que incluye varios artículos, postulaciones y presentaciones magsitrales sobre temas como los medios digitales, el negocio de la música y la teoría de los medios, Dubber ha llegado a ser, en muy corto tiempo, uno de los principales expertos en este ámbito.

Sus investigaciones incluyen un proyecto sobre las subculturas de los fans en línea, realizado para el Departamento de Músicas Interactivas y audio de la BBC; un estudio sobre la consolidación de la distribución en línea del jazz y otros géneros musicales especializados; que incluía una mirada sobre el impacto social de los iPods y una inviestigación de postgrado enfocada en la radio digital y su desregulación.

En este momento es consultor de más de 30 proyectos de radio y música en el Reino Unido y Europa- dichos negocios incluyen sellos disqueros establecidos, comercializadores y empresarios de la música en línea que apenas comienzan. Así mismo, es miembro de la Junta Directiva de Bandcamp (EEUU), Meetsound (Francia) y Un-Convention (Reino Unido). Ha escrito artículos para la revista Música Ordenador y ha redactado capítulos sobre el blogging y el podcasting para el libro Alternative Media Handbook (Manual de los medios alternativos) (Routledge, 2008).

Actualmente escribe sobre las industrias musicales y realiza con colaboradores una obra encargada por la UNESCO sobre las nuevas tecnologías para las estaciones de radio y la televisión en los países subdesarrollados. Cuando no trabaja, en su tiempo libre le gusta viajar, dar conferencias y realizar talleres en el Reino Unido y el mundo.

Paul Keller is open content activist/advisor at Knowledgeland, an Amsterdam based think tank. He is public project lead for Creative Commons in the Netherlands, and coordinates the relations between CC and Collecting Societies. Het also works copyright related aspects of ‘Images for the Future’ project (and is one of the developers of the Licensing Framework of Europeana the European digital library. In addition he is incapable of playing musical instruments, singing and cant even whistle properly.

Lance LaBreche is a twenty-one year veteran in the artist management business. After working successfully as an actor in the mid-80’s, Lance decided to switch gears and try his hand at being an agent. It seemed clear that he wanted a greater understanding of how an industry functions, so with a little persuading, he took a job running a friends modeling agency in Raleigh, North Carolina. Less than two years later, Lance found himself in New York City, heading up “new faces” at American Models.

Over the course of the next fifteen years, Lance would go on to work with both male and female models at agencies like Ford, New York Models, Boss, Bethann Management, and DNA. He helped leverage his clients onto the international fashion scene through covers and stories in international magazines (Vogue, Elle, Spin, Rolling Stone), ad campaigns (CK1, L’Oreal, Revlon), music videos (Rolling Stone’s, Jay-Z), and television/film projects. In 2002, Lance decided to take a break from fashion, spend time with his young daughter, and pursue his passion in music by managing rock bands.

Since then, lance has either booked and/or tour managed a series of successful national tours of the USA with bands like Blues Brother Castro (Amsterdam), Melodrome (USA), Will Hawkins (USA), and Geffen recording artist Matt White (USA). Lance has helped see bands onto showcase stages at CMJ and SXSW, has executive produced albums for Neptune Crush (USA), A. Bitter Mahn (USA), and singer/songwriter Kim Janssen (Netherlands), and has overseen music publishing deals for a handful of his artists. And, for three years, Lance and his family hosted “The Barn Music Series” from the barn of his house in upstate New York, allowing a wide variety of international musicians to perform in a natural, acoustic environment. In 2006, Lance and his wife decided to expand what they were doing with musicians back into the fashion scene by creating the hybrid management firm known as Rocket Garage.

Rocket Garage is an artist management company with offices in New York and Amsterdam (beginning 2010), representing a select, international roster of fashion models and rock and roll bands. It is a look based around a sound. It is about pursuing the potentiality of an ever converging media market. It’s about seeking out and creating opportunities for our clients, helping our musicians obtain invaluable print exposure and licensing deals, and our models to infer all that is cool, hip and relevant in pop-culture today (backed up, of course, by a kick-ass soundtrack). We celebrate youth. We celebrate art. We celebrate the exposed image and the musical progression.

Back in 2002 Nicolai Adolfs (29) formed the post punk formation Kismet. As a result of regular collaborations between Utrecht based artists with a similar point of view, Nicolai founded a music platform named Beep! Beep! Back Up the Truck along side Boudewijn Rosenmuller and Sacha van den Haak.The initiative rapidly developed into a pioneering record label using all the possibilities that new media offers besides the proven old fashioned strategies. By using the Creative Commons licence all of the releases can be fully streamed and downloaded for free online, as it should be. Still the main focus lies in releasing and promoting hard copy albums wrapped up in beautiful artwork.

Meanwhile the first half of 2010 will bring four new albums, two new signings and digital distribution within 35 countries.

Fat Northerner Records / Un-convention

Ruth Daniel co-founded Manchester indie label, Fat Northerner Records in 2003. In the proud tradition of great British indies such as 4AD, Warp, Creation and of course Factory, Fat Northerner only release music by artists they believe in.

Fat Northerner has worked with over 60 bands and was one of the first labels to fully embrace the digital revolution. Their recent project involves current bands reworking Salford punk-poet John Cooper Clarke’s material and has attracted interest from many top artists, bands and spoken word artists.

Ruth is co-founder and chair of Un-Convention, a music conference aimed specifically at the grass roots of the industry, the goal is to bring together like minded individuals to discuss the future of Independent music. Ruth is also Director of a new online live music industry project with fellow UKYME nominee Ian Chamings. Ruth was shortlisted for UK Young Music Entrepreneur 2008. Ruth believes in making music as culture, rather than music as commerce.

Ruth’s commitment for music in the NW is very strong, as cited in a statement from the jury on the UK Young Entrepreneur panel, for the award that she was short listed for this year (supported by NESTA and The British Council):

‘With passion and enthusiasm for both music and her region, Ruth has in a short time built an independent record label representing talent from the North-West. She is a genuine and very hardworking young music entrepreneur representing quality acts, and the judges applaud her obvious commitment’ (Jury included Alison Wenham, Chief Exec. AIM; Paul Williams, Editor Music Week; and Phil Patterson, International Business Specialist for Music, UK Trade and Investment)

Fundadora de Un-Conventión y el sello indie Fat Northerner Records en Salford (Gran Manchester, UK) durante el 2003 siguiendo la tradición de 4AD, Warp, Creation y Factory que creen en el valor de la música al creer en los artistas y la pasión por hacerla. Finalista del premio Joven Emprendedora Britanica del British Council en 2008 y fue incluida en la lista de Women 2 Watch por su trabajo con Un-Convention.

Hasta la fecha Fat Northerner ha trabajado con alrededor de 60 artistas y fue uno de los primeros sellos que abrazó la revolución digital. Sus proyectos recientes incluyen la modificación de las obras del poeta de punk de Salford John Cooper Clarke, que ha capturado la atención de los grandes grupos y artistas de la palabra hablada. Además Ruth es una de las fundadoras de Un-Convention, esta conferencia dirigida a los artistas de las bases de la música, que busca reunir a personas que piensan parecido para discutir sobre el futuro de la música independiente. Ruth cree en la música como una representación cultural en lugar de pensar en ella solo para fines comerciales.

En 2008, se hizo ganadora del premio Joven Emprendedor Británico del British Council. Además es la directora de un nuevo proyecto en línea sobre la música en vivo, la herramienta TourCore fue lanzada por Ruth y su socio Ian Chamings que también fue nominado al mismo premio y cuenta con el respaldo financiero de los empresarios Deborah Meaden y Theo Paphitis del programa del BBC Dragon’s Den.

La declaración de los jueces del premio Joven Emprendedor Británico del British Council resalta la gran dedicación de Ruth al desarrollo de la escena musical del noreste de Inglaterra.

“Por el entusiasmo y pasión por la música y su región, en muy poco tiempo Ruth ha lanzado un sello disquero independiente que colabora con artistas de gran talento del noreste del país. Es una empresaria joven trabajadora y genuina que representa los grupos musicales y celebramos su evidente dedicación”. — Jueces del premio incluidos Alison Wenham, Chief Exec. AIM; Paul Williams, Editor Music Weeky Phil Patterson, International Business Specialist for Music, UK Trade and Investment.

Rense van Kessel is één van de mede-oprichters en eigenaars van Friendly Fire, een entertainmentbedrijf dat in januari 2009 werd opgericht. Vanuit Utrecht houden zij zich voornamelijk bezig met boekingen (o.a. Milow, Voicst, Alphabeat, Peter Doherty e.v.a.) en managemen (o.a. Novastar, Laura Jansen, Pete Philly en GRAM).

Walter Flapper is an artistmanager from Groningen who started managing Noisia and also Dutch hiphopacts like Kraantje Pappier and Vice Verzen.

Rutger Middendorp is a writer, moderator, identity specialist and entrepreneurial whirlwind. He founded the network for young creatives Nieuwe Garde, teaches at the Academy for Pop Culture in Leeuwarden and works for clients as diverse as the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Bright Magazine.

Drummer / Promoter at The Local

Howard is a music professional in every sense! He’s an in-demand drummer with numerous albums and tours to his name. He’s a promoter and founder of The Local – London’s fast growing and highly respected live music promotion agency. Howard has a 360 degree view on the business of making music and works on a number of projects as a marketing and communications consultant with The Arts Council. You can also catch him MCing at various events around the country – at The Local’s own stage at the End of the Road festival, at The Big Session, and at the Big Chill.

Favourite Pie: Meat and Potato at Spotland, the home of football (Rochdale FC).