Music Tech Europe Academy is a new, hybrid and scalable training scheme for music-tech innovators, entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs across Europe.
Music Tech Europe Academy, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of The European Union and coordinated by Music Innovation Hub (IT) in partnership with Media Deals (DE), aims to:
Discover high-potential and talented music-tech market players, who use innovative technologies (AI, VR, AR, 3D Audio, Big Data, Blockchain, Machine Learning) in order to create scalable and sustainable products and services for the music sector.
Provide a new, flexible and scalable training scheme through online mentorship and in-site workshops.
Create opportunities for music-tech professionals, market players and investors, eventually leading to long-term relationships for smart and strategic business opportunities.
Further develop the ecosystem of music-tech innovators in Europe and create a level playing field between tech-savvy entrepreneurs, artists and the music industry.
The program —
Music Tech Europe Academy is a 7 months program addressed to 10 music-tech innovators/ entrepreneurs/startups/SMEs across Europe, who are ready to develop their innovative project/product/service within the music field. The 10 selected participants will have access to:
01 —
8 weeks of one2one online mentoring with top level expert of music, technology and innovation (see the list of mentors below)
02 —
Exclusive Industry Meetups with experienced founders of music-tech companies and managers of successful enterprises in vertical sectors from a wide range of European countries, who will share their experience and exchange with the entrepreneurs involved in the program to evaluate potential synergies.
03 —
3 days of Hybrid Academy in Milan to complete the mentoring program, network and exchange with the other participants and mentors, meet industry experts and get feedback from investors. After the Academy in Milan, an online pitch session in front of investors will be granted to those participants who reached the readiness level over the course of the program.
04 —
A vibrant community of digital innovators and music professionals, involving participants, mentors and experts, to foster constant and long-lasting exchange and support.
The mentors —
Thierry Baujard
CEO at Media Deals
Thierry Baujard is CEO of European Investment Network Media Deals focusing on the Creative Industries. After many years in the field of film finance in the UK, USA and Berlin, He has been helping investors better understanding opportunities in vertical creative segments like Audiovisual, Musictech, Video Games and FashionTech. He is also co -founder of Franco-German Video Game Accelerator Spielfabrique (www.spielfabrique.eu) with investments in game studios and projects and in Just Temptation (www.just-temptation.com), a film music publisher . He has made seed investments in creative companies across European borders. Thierry is also a regular speaker at conferences on investment and financing in the Creative and Cultural Sector and an evaluator of the European Commission « EIC Accelerator » (SME Instrument).He holds an MBA from Bocconi (Italy) and UCLA (USA) as well as the ENA European Executive programm."
Yvan Boudillet
Founder of TheLynk
A Digital Entertainment Expert with 15+ years experience in leading digital development and consumer strategy for EMI and Warner Music, Yvan Boudillet is the founder of TheLynk, a strategic advisory agency dedicated to connect the dots between Startups and Creative Industries with a focus on Music. A regular international speaker & jury (SXSW, Wallifornia, Slush Music, Sonar+D, Midem, Music Inc. India, TheArts+, MIFA, 4YFN, Bush, Linecheck) and lecturer specialized in MusicTech Ecosystems and Data-driven Transformation of Creative Economy, Yvan is passionate about bridging artistic and tech talents who invent jointly new ways to create, discover, experience and monetize Music"
Thomas Lidy
Chief Innovation Officer at Musimap
Thomas Lidy has been active in the field of music tech & AI since 2004. He is the Chief Innovation Officer at Musimap, a company that uses Deep Learning to analyze styles, moods and emotions in the global music catalog. Together with a team of musicologists and data scientists, he created an emotion-aware music AI that is able to characterize both music and people based on their emotional signature in order to enhance music recommendation and enable completely new branding opportunities with a deep link to people's preferences. In the European project FuturePulse, Thomas and the teams of Musimap and partner companies built a platform predicting future trends in music, identifying emerging artists and predicting the popularity of songs and artists. Previously, Thomas was a researcher at Vienna University of Technology, and the founder and CEO of the music discovery startup Spectralmind. Thomas is also the creator and co-host of the successful Vienna Deep Learning Meetup, co-organized AI Summit Vienna 2017 and has published over 40 publications in the field of music & AI. "
Turo Pekari
Senior advisor, Teosto
Turo Pekari is an music innovation specialist, researcher, advisor, mentor, ecosystem & community builder based in Helsinki, Finland. He works as senior advisor at Teosto where he’s been running several Nordic innovation labs developing future solutions for music rights management, as well as leading innovation, data strategy and foresight work. Turo is also the co-founder of #NextStageChallenge, a pan-European music innovation initiative formed during Covid-19 pandemic, the chair of the copyright infrastructure development working group for data practices appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, European innovation ambassador of CreativeSHIFT and a mentor and advisor in various international startup and music business accelerator programs. As an expert in open innovation, future technologies, metadata and rights tech, startup economy, innovation policy and funding mechanisms, Turo is speaking and lecturing frequently around the world.
Thomas Philips
Head of Business Development at Steertone Solutions
Thomas is a music passionate since as long as he can remember. After several professional experiences as a Business Developer in different sectors (FMCG, Real Estate, Marketing Softwares, etc.) he finally entered the music industry through the interesting yet complex world of Neighbouring Rights. His passion for music quickly turned into a passion for the music industry in general and music rights in particular. He never stopped learning about it since. Today, Thomas puts his knowledge and on-the-field experience at the service of Steertone Solutions (former Himeta Technologies) as Head of Business Development.
Claudia Schwarz
Co-Founder, Vice President (VP) at MusicTech Germany
Claudia is a Strategic Tech Advisor & Project Manager with a focus on MusicTech and other Creative Technologies, Sustainability and Social Impact Tech, AI & Machine Learning and Tech Ethics, Cross-Innovation as well as future-facing innovative conference & festival curation and formats and the promotion of (more) diversity in Tech. She’s Co-founder and VP of MusicTech Germany, co-founder of Creative Tech Innovation Catalyst WickedWork, both based in Berlin (Germany.) Furthermore, Claudia is Co-Founder of german.innovation, an innovation strategy advisory and networking agency that initiated and co-founded Innovation Bridge Europe (IBE), a collaborative pan-European network of innovators. Selected as a participant in the EU-funded Keychange program, co-founder and Board member of Music Women Germany, Claudia is furthermore dedicated to the promotion of diversity and inclusivity within the Creative Industries, particularly of Women in Music & Technology.
Juliane Schulze
Board member at Media Deals
Juliane Schulze is Senior Partner at strategic financing consultancy peacefulfish and member of the board of Media Deals, a pan-European investor network being constituted of business angels and early-stage venture capital funds focusing on creative economy and digital media. As Executive Advisor with more than 30 years of experience in the creative economy, Juliane holds an extensive cross-industrial knowledge, specialising in financing and business consulting of audio-visual and technology driven entrepreneurs in the creative industries. As mentor, she supports founders and SMEs in business planning, investment readiness and in access to finance, focusing on creating compelling investor pitches. She is Fellow at the Competence Centre Cultural and Creative Industries of the Federal Republic of Germany and lectures at several universities and industry events. Juliane is ambassador of GEMM (Gender Equality Media Management) as well as board member of European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA).
Matthias Strobel
President of MusicTech Germany
Matthias Strobel is President of MusicTech Germany and Germany’s main point of contact for music technology. His network of music tech entrepreneurs, industry executives and researchers, and his connections to (inter)national policy makers, media representatives and multi-disciplinary artists make him one of Europe’s renowned experts in that area. Matthias Strobel fosters the knowledge transfer between visionaries from all intersections of the creative industries and serves as a consultant, mentor and independent innovation manager to help accelerate avant-garde approaches from entrepreneurs and startups. Determined to further the innovative potential – and thus future success – of artists and startups, he founded the creative-technology catalyst WickedWork with which he realizes projects that enable cross-sectoral innovation and adaption of research within the creative industries and beyond. Matthias uses his experience and leverages his network to help create the music ecosystem of tomorrow. He passionately works towards improving the overall access to information about innovation, the creative environment of the music (tech) industry and its underlying economic infrastructure.
Gerome Vanherf
COO & Program Director at LeanSquare
Gérôme has 15 years’ experience in entrepreneurship and innovation in the entertainment industry (music, sport, esport, etc.). In this field, his day-to-day job is to create connections between start-up and corporate entities through programs such as Wallifornia. He is COO and Program Director at LeanSquare, a VC based in Liège, Belgium, which invests in entertainment tech start-ups. With his team, he will soon be running "La Grand Poste," an emblematic building of 7000 square meters located in the center of Liège, at which the local EntertainmentTech ecosystem will be working starting in 2021
Georgia Taglietti
Communication Director, Mentor and Networker
Born in Brescia, Italy in 1965, Georgia has worked for Advanced Music / Sónar festival from 1995, as the Communications & Digital Director, developing and implementing the brand message across all communication channels specially on the social networks and international level as well as developing an effective PR & marketing strategy. During the years, Georgia has been actively participating as guest lecturer and speaker to various events worldwide and teaching digital communication and marketing in various masters for Spanish universities and abroad. Currently she is mentoring various start up and companies focused on circular economy, sustainability and non profit activities. Georgia is also a board member of the international women in music platform shesaid.so.
Matteo Tambussi
Musician and Blockchain Project Developer
Matteo has been working in the independent music scene since 2000. With different line-ups and as a solo artist, he has released a total of 10 albums, earned radio plays at international level (BBC6, Radio J Wave Tokyo, Flux FM, Life FM London, Radio Deejay, RadioDue) and played as opening act for artists such as Nick Cave, Boy George, Mando Diao, Africa Unite, Lo Stato Sociale. Matteo started working for the Ethereum ecosystem in Berlin in 2018 as a livestream operator for Livepeer. Since then he helped organize major ethereum events such as Devcon4 Prague, Dappcon 2018 Berlin and ETHBerlinZwei. Matteo co-organized the first italian ethereum hackathon ETHTurin in spring 2020 and he’s currently involved in a handful of projects matching blockchain with governance, local impact, music items and escrow payments.
The jury members —
Steffen Holly
Managing Director at Psoido GmbH
Sholly became an electronic technician before he studied music. After his music career he worked in a record company, later as an independent supervisor for music & synch rights. In 2000 he became Director of Audio Products & Technology Licensing at MAGIX AG. With the buyout of Fraunhofer AudioID to the MAGIX subsidiary M2Any (today mufin GmbH) he lead the hybrid recommendation development. After 2009 he worked as CTO for AUPEO! Personal Radio being responsible for product development and content licensing. From 2013 to 2019 he lead the business unit Media Management & Delivery at Fraunhofer IDMT. In 2019 Sholly founded Psoido GmbH together with some colleagues as a Fraunhofer SpinOff and became the managing director, operating in the field of Privacy Enhancing Technologies. At Popakademie Mannheim he is doing guest lectures in the field of „Music metadata, blockchain and new business models“ since 2011.
Helen Meyer
Digital Innovation Consultant at Warner Music Central Europe
Helen Meyer has extensively worked across the music industry, including being involved in brand partnership and project managing campaigns, as well as music supervising spots. In her role as Project Lead for The Venue Berlin/Axel Springer SE, Helen was looking for the most innovative and disruptive business models within the music and audio industry. Through her panels and After Work Sessions, Helen created a space to discuss new technologies within the industry. In her position as Digital Innovation Consultant for Warner Music Central Europe, she is seeking for startups and entrepreneurs with game-changing ideas for the music industry.
Marlen Hüllbrock
Marketing Executive at Music Ally
Marlen has experience in music and brand partnerships, initially working for Universal Music in Germany and Switzerland. Since joining the Music Ally team in London, she works across their marketing services and develops and delivers digital marketing training to a wide range of clients including the MMF and BPI. For Music Ally's Sandbox publication she tests and analyses the latest music marketing tools and has spoken at various conferences about a variety of topics across music and digital..
Gianluca Delli Carri
Co-founder and CFO of Musixmatch
Gianluca delli Carri is the co-founder and CFO of Musixmatch, a company providing lyrics and music metadata to the likes of Apple Music, Spotify, Google, Amazon, Facebook. Education in engineering (Milan Politecnico) and MBA (Bocconi University and Rotterdam School of Management). Before venturing out into the wilds of entrepreneurship he worked for Accenture and KPMG. He was born and raised on the beaches of Puglia and he still goes there if he wants to de-stress. Ask him about startups, business planning, fundraising, music biz.
Guests —
Emmanuel Thomassin
CFO at Delivery Hero
Emmanuel Thomassin joined Delivery Hero in January 2014 as Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) and is responsible for all financial activities of the Group. Beforehand, he joined Team Europe in 2012, the Berlin-based incubator and Delivery Hero investor. Previously he held the CFO positions and member of the management at the leading branding agency MetaDesign, Berlin after several years working for the REGIOCAST group, a German radio broadcasting network. He graduated from the French-German Institut Supérieur Franco-Allemand de Techniques, d’Économie et de Sciences (ISFATES) with the European Diploma.
Start-ups —
Blueghost
Germany
Blueghost is a way for event organizers to streamline their operations, without going mad. How? All in one place, not all over the place. A single interface to handle talent bookings, event programming and scheduling, financials, tasks and team management, accreditation and guest lists, sponsorships and so on. A 360 overview of what's happening at your event in real time, from planning to settlement.
Flowers of sound
Netherlands
Flower of Sound applies sound and technology to establish wellbeing. We use insights from sound healing, neuroscience and sound therapy in combination with the newest technologies to create spatial environments and sound journeys both physical and virtual to provide the best tailor made experiences for healing and transformation. Our basis is a digital immersive content catalogue. We distribute our content via our products (Immersive Room and a XR app) and streaming services.
klaep
Germany
klaep is an app-based social network for musicians and singers, in which every user can record, edit and publish their own musical ideas and collaborate time-shifted with other users worldwide in split-screen videos (ReJam). All published compositions can be viewed, commented on and rated, so that pure music listeners also enjoy added value.
Holonic Systems
Finland
Holonic Systems uses spatial and physical computing to transform real world data into musical information. Holonic Systems takes a systemic approach to music, regarding it not just as entertainment but a form of cognitive stimulation and a feedback channel that can convey information about ourselves and our surroundings. Our software can be used by consumers, artists and corporate customers to enhance and augment health & fitness, mobility, retail experiences and events with musical interactions. The future of music is human-powered!
IKI / KIEKU AI
Finland
Kieku Records Oy is a music company of the future, built on a foundation of great musical curation and taste. Developing data driven talent development and marketing automation tools (IKI) alongside AI based composition tools (Kieku). Founded in Helsinki in 2017, the company has people working across Helsinki (Finland), Berlin (Germany) and Athens (Greece).
Instruments of Things
Germany
Instruments of Things is a music technology company that uses the Internet of Things to turn electronic musical instruments into virtuoso experiences. With our unique products, artists can push their performances to a spectacular level, athletes can hear their movements during a workout and consumers have access to interactive media and concerts - We turn YOU into sound!
Lineup
Sweden
Lineup is a social platform for live events worldwide. A next generation event discovery tool and social group ticketing service. Lineup reshapes the customer journey and helps fans organize and get hyped on live events. Using computer vision and machine learning, Lineup transforms any event into interactive platforms where fans can experience music, plan events and get tickets together. Lineup offers b2b solutions including retargeting, campaign tools and data insights to bring the fans, artists and industry closer to each other.
Open Stage
Italy
Open Stage introduces urban entertainment among the services offered by Smart Cities. A technological totem, equipped with audio speakers, mixer, and led lights, that can be booked with an App to allow a high-level experience for artists, citizens, and tourists and to create an open-air social network. Open Stage is a start-up that allows live shows in urban centers, through totems that create unique experiences with the highest quality. The App allows all citizens and artists to discover events around them, creating a solid and authentic community.
Rubato Booking
Norway
Rubato Booking is a digital booking platform connecting artists and music event organizers. It streamlines the whole booking process, and makes the communication between the artist-side and the organizer-side more effective. The goal is to simplify and make the communication between the artist-side and the organizer-side more effective, by including administrative tools, such as digital signatures of contracts, time scheduling tools, and payment solutions.
The timeline —
February 15th – March 21st (Extended Deadline)
Open Call for Applications
April 1st
Communication of Results
April the 8th
Online Kick-off Meeting
10/10.30 Program presentation by MIH and Media Deals
10:30/10.45 Opening words from the European Commission
10.45/11.15 Speech of Emmanuel Thomassin
11.15/12.30 Q&A between mentors and projects
12.30/14 Break
14/15 Webinar of Steffen Holly
15/17 Networking on Wonder
Mid April/mid June
Online Mentoring Program
May/June/July
Industry Meetups
September (first half)
3-days Hybrid Academy in Milan
September (second half)
Online investment pitch (if applicable)
Who can apply and how —
MTE Academy is addressed to startups and SME’s (already established as companies) and to projects (pre-company-formation), but with a defined Proof Of Concept, that offer technologic, business and artistic solutions. The necessary condition to join the program, under penalty of exclusion, is that the participants commit to actively participating in all of the activities planned by Music Innovation Hub and Media Deals, with the physical or digital presence of at least one member of the team during the following activities: kick-off meeting , mentoring program, Meetups and Milan Academy (travel and subsistence costs will be covered by the organisers).
To apply, fill out the Application form here and please upload the requested documents:
Pitch / company presentation, which includes team, vision, strategy, economics, business model and stylistic references (inc distribution plan for the next 3 years)
Short video in english (max 3 mins)
Demo of the project (if available)
CVs of the person applying and potential teammates
