Meet The Speakers

Bryan Stone is Senior Vice President of Business Development for Universal Music Group’s Global Digital Strategy division, which is responsible for driving commerce initiatives and identifying business opportunities in new technology. Over the past 17 years, Stone has worked closely with senior management and label leadership to develop and maximize digital ventures and business models in the global music marketplace ranging from streaming, social media, gaming and health & wellness.

Michael Pelczynski is a strategist, economist and music rights expert that has been a pioneering force in evolving the streaming business. As Vice President of Strategy at SoundCloud, Michael had architected, licensed and launched an award winning new economic model and fan-powered business. 

Continually working on improving the economics of music, Michael had delivered multiyear first-to-market licensing deals with major record labels while conceiving and developing artist-to-fan product tools that enhance the commercial value proposition. 

Focused on the future state of the industry, Michael has led cross-functional teams to identify and evaluate new strategic business opportunities, including new initiatives, partnerships and operational improvements.

Through his industry newsletter and consulting agency Forms + Shapes, Michael advises on political and regulatory risk policy, content and technology licensing, corporate and commercial transactions as well as artist development services. 

Prior to joining SoundCloud, Michael directed rights administration at Warner Music Group, overseeing royalties and reporting across six label divisions. In addition to formal economics background, career in music began as a songwriter, composing for BMG Rights Management and several film productions, notably garnering 2014 A2IM Libera Awards semi-finalist nominations for Album of the Year and Up & Comer.

Katri Saarikivi is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Helsinki. Her work examines the neural mechanisms involved in learning, empathy, trust and the experience of awe, and explores how these mechanisms could be better supported in online environments.

Alongside research, she is enthusiastic about popularizing science, and especially about opening the scientific method to people outside academia.

Ty Roberts is a leader and innovator who has worked at the forefront of digital media. From his creative tools and work with artists like David Bowie and Brian Eno to new formats like Hi-Res Audio.

He has always created new experiences for music fans. His latest venture FanTracks streams live concerts and creates visual concept albums for major artists like BUSH, 311 and Goo Goo Dolls. He has started, built and sold several successful companies which have changed the face of entertainment, including Gracenote which powered iTunes with its metadata and information.

Gee is Chief Operating Officer and Head of Legal & Business Affairs at AIM. She joined AIM in 2017 and was instrumental in developing the Digital Distribution Switch Code as well as support for the independent music community in response to the challenges of Brexit and Covid-19. She plays a key part in AIM’s work in the streaming debate and other policy areas. 

Her previous experience in music includes several years working with Cooking Vinyl, Essential Music & Marketing, FatCat Records and others and, earlier, in live events. 

Gee holds a Masters in Electronic Engineering and a Law Degree, and is a Clock-accredited Music Sector Expert. She currently serves on both WIN and IMPALA’s boards, as well as various committees for technology and copyright aspects, including chairing IMPALA’s Metaverse Committee. 

She sits on UK Music’s Rights & Legal Affairs and Policy committees and more recently in its work around AI. Gee represents AI Mon the steering group for Music Week’s Women in MusicAwards, and last year joined UD Foundation’s board, an organization fostering diverse creative talent. She is passionate about contributing to positive change in the industry and in facilitating the independent music community’s continuing innovation and success in an increasingly technology-driven world.

Jake is an artist manager from London, UK. He also advises artists and technology companies on business strategies. His clients have included Beyonce, Rihanna and The Clash. 

With a background in financial markets, he consults for rights technology companies and rights holders: Jake has been part of music industry stakeholder dialogues with WIPO, EU, UK and US policy makers; and regularly speaks on artist management and music industry innovation topics around the world. Jake is Director of Innovation & Education at the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF) connecting artists and managers from 60+ countries.

As part of Project Zero, supporting ocean conservation projects, Jake was involved in the first ever launch of a social token by a registered charity, using Web3 to organize communities, including artist’s fanbases.

Erling Maartmann-Moe has 25 years of experience in Venture Capital from Norway and Silicon Valley, and is an angel investor in early stage music and media technology companies.

Music Ally is a knowledge and skills company, publishing its well-respected reports since 2002.

Paul has a background as a musician, having played bass guitar with The Sundays, a band who sold over two million albums worldwide. Paul also worked briefly in the private office of Rt Hon Tony Blair MP before the 1997 General Election and at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank where he wrote New Musical Entrepreneurs, a report into the impact of new technologies on the UK music industry published in 2000.

Nadine’s PhD in Applied Mathematics specialises in machine learning and pattern recognition for content-based music analysis.

Her work at TMC² addresses challenging AI problems in a variety of areas, including computer vision, machine listening, time series prediction and generative neural networks.

She holds several patents in the field and has co-authored numerous journal publications and conference papers.

As well as her PhD, Nadine has a BSC and MSc in Electrical and Audio Engineering, a further MSc in Sound and Music Computing, and is a former employee of the Music Technology Group, Pompeu Fabra University, where she worked on audio analysis, pattern recognition, and machine learning. Occasionally, she composes abstract electro-acoustic music and designs electronic music instruments.

A veteran of the digital music business Stephen O’Reilly is a director at London based artist management company ie:music. O’Reilly is also the Managing Director at ie:ventures. During his career Stephen has worked with pioneering music technology companies including Mobile Roadie & Topspin Media.

ie:music was established in 1992 by two industry veterans, David Enthoven and Tim Clark and the company has managed Robbie Williams for over 25 years. 

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ie:music is a pioneering management, entertainment and media company with ventures in music, film, television, technology, education and philanthropy. As the digital revolution flourishes, ie:music is propelling itself to the forefront of emerging technology, exploring and capitalising on opportunities for its artists. The company embraces digital technology as an extraordinary facilitator of artist – fan communications, as a means of encouraging transparency and of making everything from ticketing to downloading and streaming more effective, efficient and honest.

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ie:ventures was established in 2019 to embolden and transform ie:music’s core philosophies into breakthrough ideas, products and new businesses.

Erlend Hausken is an investor, advisor and entrepreneur based in Bergen, Norway. Most recently founder and CEO of Voisey (acquired by Snap Inc. in 2020), a social music platform for producers, singers and rappers that quickly became one of the fastest growing engines of new original music in the world, breaking new talent around the globe.

Before entering the global music tech scene, Erlend served as global director of marketing communications in Opera Software. He is an award-winning media strategist and creative brand developer, and has advised some of the world’s biggest brands and companies, from Microsoft and McDonald’s to PepsiCo and Adidas. His campaigns have been written about in The New York Times, TIME Magazine, Wall Street Journal, CNN and Tech Crunch, to mention a few.

Aurora is a Norwegian entrepreneur, advisor, angel investor, and board member currently residing in San Francisco, USA.

She has extensive experience in the gaming industry, having dedicated 10 years to this field. Recently, she transitioned from her roles as COO and board member of Medal.tv. Medal.tv is renowned as the leading platform for recording and sharing short gaming clips among friends. In 2019, Medal.tv acquired Megacool, a company she co-founded and served as CEO.

Prior to her involvement with Megacool, Aurora held the position of VP of Business and Marketing at Dirtybit, a Norwegian indie game studio celebrated for the highly successful Fun Run mobile game series. She holds an MSc in CommTech Engineering and Entrepreneurship from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Currently, she serves on the board of the digital cosplay platform Cosgear.

Elise Hessevik is the CEO of BUZZ. BUZZ is an investment fund that has been investing in music technology for over a decade.

The fund is dedicated to music investments and owned by the municipality of Bergen which makes it quite unique on a worldwide basis. Elise works closely with Startups in the process leading to(or not to) investment and has 13 years of experience in the music business as entrepreneur, project manager and music biz consultant.

Jeff Liebenson operates his law firm Liebenson Law in New York City which concentrates on the convergence of entertainment and technology. He negotiates digital licenses, provides IP advice relating to digital entertainment and represents companies in corporate acquisitions. He previously was chief legal/business affairs executive for BMG International overseeing music, video, videogames and digital activities in 53 countries.
 

Jeff is Editor of “User-Generated Content: New Business Models and Legal Issues” and “The Streaming Revolution in the Entertainment Industry,” both published by the IAEL.

Producer turned serial entrepreneur Jan Nordlund is the co-founder and CEO of music tech startup Starmony - a company that utilizes music intelligence and AI to create and monetize music at scale.

He started his career as a producer and songwriter, as part of the successful production team Bass Nation where he co-wrote some of Sweden’s most prominent dance hits. Since then, he has founded multiple companies within the music-tech sphere, including Mobilehits, PlusFourSix, Global Media Bank, and X5 Music Group, the latter of which was later acquired by Warner Music.

Tone Østerdal is Executive Director of Music Norway, Norwegian music industry´s export facilitator and promotional organization.

Before joining Music Norway in the late fall of 2022, she was General Manager of the Norwegian Live Music Association. Tone Østerdal has also held several management positions at regional government level and specializes in political advocacy and strategic management within the arts sector and creative industries. She holds several board and committee member positions. Tone has a master’s degree in cultural studies, and further studies in Audience Development as well as Business Process Management.  

Tormod has a long track record with communication, innovation and the music and cultural industry. From being marketing director of Ticketmaster Norway to running the Oslo based cultural, music and travel innovation cluster, Arena Oslo - a Cluster focusing on innovation and commercial development of the cultural industry.

At present working in a digital agency as business developer alongside his role in Music Tech Norway. 

Aga Samitowska is a music business professional and Web3 consultant, passionate about new technologies in the creative industry. For nearly a decade, she was associated with Kayax - an independent record label based in Warsaw. As the Head of Digital Distribution, she was responsible for modernizing distribution in response to the dynamic development of streaming platforms.

She managed major Polish artists (Brodka, Nosowska) and initiated the My Name Is New incubator for young talents. She also pursued her curiosity for new technologies in San Francisco, California, working for the venture capital fund Fifty Years.

Today, Aga focuses on the Web 3 space, offering training and advisory services for projects operating at the intersection of Web 3 and the creative industry. She gave her first talk on Blockchain and Music in 2017.