In the old days it was DJs, A&R folks, labels and record store owners that were the gatekeepers to music. Today, we are seeing a new music gatekeeper emerge... the developer. Using open APIs, developers are creating new apps that change how people explore, discover, create and interact with music. But developers can't do it alone. They need data like gig listings, lyrics, recommendation tools and, of course, music! And they need it from reliable, structured and legitimate sources. In this presentation we'll discuss and explore what is happening right now in the thriving music developer ecosystem. We'll describe some of the novel APIs that are making this happen and what sort of building blocks are being put into place from a variety of different sources. We'll demonstrate how companies within this ecosystem are working closely together in a spirit of co-operation. Each providing their own pieces to an expanding pool of resources from which developers can play, develop and create new music apps across different mediums - web, mobile, software and hardware. We'll highlight some of the next-generation of music apps that are being created in this thriving ecosystem. Finally we'll take a look at how music developers are coming together at events like Music Hack Day, where participants have just 24 hours to build the next generation of music apps. Someone once said, "APIs are the sex organs of software. Data is the DNA." If this is true, then Music Hack Days are orgies.
Dave Haynes is VP Business Development for SoundCloud, a cloud-based music platform that allows creators to easily distribute, share and stream audio over the web. With over a decade’s experience in the music industry, Dave currently works at the forefront of the latest trends in digital music. As well as his work for SoundCloud, he is the organiser of the OpenMusicMedia and Music Hack Day events that take place across the world. Last year he was listed as one of UK’s Young Music Entrepreneurs 2010 and is also a frequent speaker at various events from TEDxCardiff to Midem.
Matt is a Canadian music technologist based in London, UK. He helps application developers build great music products on top of The Echo Nest's music intelligence platform.
Before joining the Nest, Matt spent almost six years at Last.fm, where he directed several major evolutions of the website, acted as public ambassador for the API, and grew the teams and technologies that took Last.fm from 0.5 to 40+ million users.
Prior to leaving his arctic homeland, Matt obtained an MA in English and Computing Science at the University of Alberta and created the Streetprint Engine, an open source CMS for sharing and archiving printed ephemera.
