About the Workshop:An energetic and eye-opening session exploring how music and branding have evolved into one of the most significant intersections in the modern music industry. Through a mix of historical perspective, cultural commentary, and case study analysis, Josh takes participants on a guided journey from the early days of jingles to today’s world of sonic branding and AI-enhanced campaigns. The presentation blends academic context and insider anecdotes, revealing how music both reflects and drives cultural trends in media.
Educational Takeaways:- Understanding the evolution of commercial music use and brand storytelling- Recognizing aesthetic and emotional strategies in advertising music- Identifying new opportunities for composers in the sync and branding space
Speaker:Josh Rabinovitz - Brooklyn Music Experience
When & Where:14 October / 11:30 am - Workshop Room
About the Workshop:Every time your recording is played on radio, in a club, on TV or in a public space, money is generated – and much of it never reaches the people who made it. Neighbouring rights have been one of the fastest-growing income streams in recorded music, yet across Southeast Europe they remain the most under-claimed.
This workshop cuts through the jargon. In 90 minutes, SoundAct — the team behind the world’s first neighbouring rights management platform (Cactus) — will walk you through:- What neighbouring rights actually are — and how they differ from publishing and streaming royalties- Who gets paid — featured artists, session players, labels — and how the splits work- Where your money is sitting — collection societies, black boxes, and unclaimed royalties worldwide- How to claim it — a practical, step-by-step live demo demonstrating how you and your recordings can be registered with societies around the world and be paid what you are due
Continue the conversation at the Cactus Discovery Zone in the conference hub, open daily throughout the event for one-to-one demos and sign-up support.
Speaker:CACTUS
When & Where:15 October / 16:00 - Workshop Room
About the Workshop:For the first time, a 2-person indie label can access the same strategic thinking that used to require a 15-person major label marketing department. But only if you know how to feed it the right context and keep your creative identity intact. This workshop covers the how, with practical examples.
Speaker:Tomas Luyke - Director, Marketing Technology & Innovation at Nettwerk Music Group
When & Where:14 October / 11:00 - Presentation Room
About the Workshop:A practical workshop on structured thinking for artists, producers & managers with Doroteja Budaite.
Speaker:Doroteja Budaite
When & Where:15 October / 13:00 - Workshop Room
About the Workshop:Most campaign advice assumes a big budget, a global team, and a record label behind you. This session doesn't. Ellie, Alice and Ross (the international team at Partisan Records) strip campaign strategy down to its actual building blocks - timing, market prioritisation, press, radio and DSP relationships, live strategies, audience development and grassroots community-building - and show what a campaign could actually looks like on a shoestring. This talk will cover how to sequence a rollout, where to spend the little you have, and what kinds of label strategies you can incorporate into your releases without actually having a label. Think of this as your toolkit: a practical, hour-long session for independent artists, managers, and small label teams who want a framework they can actually use.
Speakers:Ellie RumboldAlice OliveiraRoss Hampl
When & Where:14 October / 13:30 - Workshop Room
About the Workshop:Every career in music begins with listening. Too many end with hearing loss.
For DJs, producers, live musicians, engineers and touring professionals, hearing isn't just another sense—it's the most valuable piece of equipment they'll ever own. Yet tinnitus, hearing fatigue and permanent hearing damage remain some of the industry's most ignored occupational hazards, often accepted as an unavoidable part of the job.
This interactive session brings together hearing specialists for an honest conversation about what years of clubs, festivals, studios and soundchecks really do to your ears.
Moving beyond generic health advice, the discussion explores the realities of protecting your hearing without compromising performance, how technology and custom protection have evolved, the psychological impact of hearing damage, and why prevention is one of the smartest investments any music professional can make.
Because the most important instrument you'll ever own is the one you can never replace.
About the Workshop:Most mixing advice is about getting things technically right, balanced and clean. This workshop is about what happens next, using saturation, unconventional EQ, creative space, character, tone shaping and automation as expressive choices rather than corrective ones. Through before/after listening examples pulled from different genres, attendees see how a few deliberate creative decisions turn a competent mix into a memorable one.
90-minute flow:- 10 min — The mindset shift: "correct" vs. "compelling," with a quick before/after- 60–65 min — Five techniques, each with a live demo across varied genre examples:- Saturation & distortion as seasoning, not repair- Extreme/unconventional EQ moves for character- Space as an instrument (creative reverb/delay, not just "put it in a room")- Automation for movement and arc, not just consistency- 15 min — Open floor: Q&A, or invite someone to share a track for a quick live example
Speaker:Jose Diogo
When & Where:14 October / 16:15 - Presentation Room
About the Workshop:
Music journalism is no longer competing only with other music journalism. It is competing with TikTok, fan edits, reaction videos, Discord servers, memes, creators, recommendation algorithms and an infinite amount of content fighting for the same few seconds of attention. For artists and their teams, that creates a strange contradiction: there have never been more ways to tell a story, but getting anyone to actually care about that story has become much harder.
What makes an artist pitch interesting enough to open? What gets deleted immediately? Does a press release still matter? How differently should the same artist story be told on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or through editorial? When does content feel culturally relevant, and when does it simply look like another marketing obligation?
The conversation will also use Germany’s current new-wave and hip-hop scenes as a window into how young audiences are discovering music now: how scenes form online, why some artists become part of a wider cultural conversation while others remain isolated releases, and what traditional music media can still do that algorithms cannot.
Not a lecture on how to go viral.A practical confersation of what makes someone stop scrolling long enough to care about an artist.
Speakers:Paulina BahrSvetoslav Todorov
When & Where:14 October / 14:30 - Workshop Room
Speaker:Malle Kaas
When & Where:15 October / 14:30 - Workshop Room
