"Digital Explosion and Live Performance" Conference Notes
Dmitri Vietze, World Music Publicist, Rock Paper Scissors

In the "Digital Explosion and Live Performance" session, it was interesting to see that there were clearly two sets of people: those who have been grappling with and experimenting in the emerging digital economy and those who are still trying to wrap their brains around it. The session was structured as a panel-less panel, to capture the energy and ideas of everyone in the room. We heard from a producer of an album remix and how they are utilizing online opportunities to reach new audiences as well as offering both a live concert and a DJ performance to reach niche audiences. We heard from venues (Joe's Pub, Kimmel Center, etc.) that were using MySpace and YouTube, offering free MP3s and other exclusive web content like pod casts to audience members, setting up text-messaging offers from the stage for fans to get special content. Fears were expressed by some about what happens to artist development without the support of a real record label. Erich Ludwig at CalabashMusic.com proclaimed that "the biggest threat to the independent artist is obscurity."

Later I spoke with ACCESS director Ismael Ahmed, who raised the issues of cross-generational disparities in technology literacy and the potential impact of that on our larger society. He thought that half the room had blank stares on their faces, not understanding half of what was being said. But he thought that is a good thing, as people are exposed to new ideas and strategies. At the same time, you could see light bulbs going on in the room with certain people standing up to rephrase what they just heard to make sure they understood new information. (On another note, Ismael sat on the Working with Arab Music panel, which I think did a great job as an introduction to that music, as well as pointing to the continued and under acknowledged role music and performing arts have to play in social change.)

globalFEST reached yet another level of saturation this year, demonstrating its staying power through representing the diversity of so-called world music, and also showing its alive nature with continually shifting hybrids of roots in modern contexts. Meanwhile, the conference's onsite showcases for world music seem to have multiplied and are also starting to hit another demographic, with Barbes Records sponsoring a smokin' hot room with Slavic Soul Party, Hazmat Modine, and Las Rubias del Norte crammed with presenters. I am seeing a lot of new young labels run by new nimble producers, with a less rigid sense of what a label does. They each function very differently.

As I stated in the Digital Explosion session, the decreasing cost of PRODUCTION has done as much or more to change the music industry as has the flattening of DISTRIBUTION. Meanwhile, I think the next frontier of technological innovation is on DISCOVERY that is, helping the fan find new music within these increasingly available niches. This is the area where I think world music will benefit the most, as people discover music in new ways never available before, and the bottleneck of mainstream programming explodes. That's the true digital explosion and the place where the most innovation is occurring right now and tomorrow.

Read "World Music Focus: Arts Presenters 50th Anniversary"