A ROYALE RECAP OF CAPITOL'S TECH FEST

CMG SVP Global Creative Amber Grimes and FLETCHER

Capitol Music Group hosted its second annual Capitol Royale 11/15-17, a creativity and innovation marathon that took place at historic Capitol Studios, booths in the Capitol parking lot, and at the nearby Dolby Screening Room and Avalon nightclub in Hollywood. Over the three-day conference, 27 apps were built and $35k in prize money was awarded for challenges and a Hackathon. The festival brought together creators, musicians, coders, designers, startups and music fans to celebrate its theme of "Music on the Move."

Festivities kicked off Friday night with a showcase at Avalon, where Femme It Forward along with Live Nation Urban VP Talent & Touring Heather Lowery presented an evening highlighting women in music. Amber Grimes, who leads CMG’s Global Creative team, hosted a fireside chat with FLETCHER on the importance of female empowerment and connection. Performances included CMG’s Layton Greene, Maya B, DeathbyRomy and Phem, and DJ sets by Girls Make Beats, Meduza presented by Holocryptics and 3opolis, and STREO.

On Saturday, CMG Chairman & CEO Steve Barnett, COO Michelle Jubelirer and UMG Chief Information Officer Dan Morales delivered opening remarks in Studio A. Then, Glitch CEO Anil Dash gave a keynote address highlighting the relationship between tech innovation and artistic expression.

Later that afternoon was the panel Head vs. Heart: How Data Is Transforming A&R, presented by Bandsintown, which featured a lively discussion between panelists Capitol SVP Streaming and Research Jeff Temske, SNAFU Records CEO Ankit Desai, ChartMetric Data Scientist Josh Hayes, Caroline EVP Matt Sawin, Capitol A&R Manager Kate Loesch, and moderator Bandsintown Co-Founder & CEO Fabrice Sergent. Loesch best summed up the panel's sentiment by saying, "I use data to back up my gut instincts. At the end of the day, numbers won’t tell you what cuts through emotionally. Only music can do that. Only real artists can do that."

Other discussions included: The Power of Influence – Engaging Audiences with Music, and Data-Driven Touring - How To Use Data To Book And Market Better Shows, which featured AEG Presents Head of Digital Partnerships Marisol Segal, among others.

On Sunday the conversation of music-tech continued throughout the day, with panels such as Creating New Products To Engage The Superfan. Panelist Olivia Rudensky of Maverick Management discussed how Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and other social apps play a huge part in Miley Cyrus' continually growing fan-base.

Motown artist Vince Staples hosted the “Music That Moves YOU” challenge, presented by Capitol360, SDL, FordDev, Connected Travel, Arrive, iHeartMedia and Ticketmaster. The winning team, Stardust, was presented with a $12k grand prize check by Staples and Scott Burnell of Ford for their personalized interactive radio DJ in-car app. And Capitol artist Katori Walker partnered with Bose to host an activation and hacker challenge.

Attendees checked out musical showcases presented by Bandsintown’s Big Break series (Adrian Jean, Dead Poet Society, Hello Forever and Jay Wile), Live Nation’s Ones To Watch (Katori Walker, Lauren Sanderson, Kaya Stewart and Tobi), and the Motown Musician Accelerator program (Asante, Charity, MYNA and Kaleb The Intern, Bravo and WebsterX).

CMG’s partners for the event included Bose, SDL, gener8tor, ConsenSys, Bandsintown, Spin, Glitch, Cloudinary, Ones To Watch, See Tickets, Facebook, Holocryptics, 3opolis and Hypno.

The Head vs. Heart: How Data Is Transforming A&R panel

Top photo: Amber Sterling