Iceland Airwaves Conference 2023 – See the Photos!
Credir: Cat Gundry-Beck
Iceland Music is immensely grateful to work with partners like Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavik Music City, and Business Iceland and being a founding partner in producing the Iceland Airwaves Conference. We are especially proud of how the Conference came together this year where it found a new home in the IA Center, with attendees picking up their wristbands, having coffees and watching inspirational talks on the latest in the world of music business.
Our line-up this year was full of heavy-hitters with speakers from the likes of Netflix, Spotify, Google, Youtube, EA, Universal, Warner, Billboard, Pitchfork, Roskilde, ESNS as well as the first lady of Iceland and Sigur Rós.
We are proud to see what used to be a side-event to the festival come into its own and be the most ambitious platform to discuss the music industry here in Iceland. We had the wonderful Cat Gundry-Beck take these photos we invite you to browse through. If you want to share them on your own platforms, please give her credit on your post.
THE PANELS
Some of the topics covered in-depth at the IA Conference were:
“The Outsiders: Attracting Global Audiences to the Edge of the Earth”, A real highlight of the panel was Sajje Solbak from the Riddu Riððu festival stating the importance of reaching the right people. She found it difficult to connect her festival with folks nearby while it has international status with delegates flying in from across the world.
Our reason to even put on this contentious topic: “Where’s My Money: Why Invest in Music?” is because we’re seeing a new dawn in music in Iceland witha new music office is opening in January 2024. This new office will combine Iceland’s Music Information Center and Iceland Music – the export office (that’s us, hehe) and further emphasise encouraging the Icelandic music life with investments in artists and also music companies. Read more in Billboard’s “How Iceland Found Its Place in the Global Music Market” to learn about this exciting development.
The theme of the panel "Attention Wars: Is the Non-Music Part of Music Eclipsing the Music?" was if the world-building we see artists do on social media with their visuals is overtaking artists time and creative focus. We had a great group in the panel consisting of artists, and creative directors. Rhian Emanuel who moderated the panel found this quote to use as a reference:
“The reason I do photographs is to help people understand my music….most people’s eyes are much better developed than their ears. If they see a certain emotion in the photograph, then they’ll understand the music.”
No conference of today is complete without a panel discussing the ever increasing presence of AI. On the panel "The Ultimate AI Panel" the AI professionals met the enthusiasts to discuss the matter. Some think of AI as a tool rather then a threat whilst others are worried about the increasing flow of AI generated music.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg – we also had panels covering the live sector, the Iceland Music Film Phenomenon, how failure can inspire your biggest success, the art of curation and many more.