This month will see the return of Face The Music, two jam-packed days of panel sessions, keynote presentations, networking opportunities, workshops, and master classes, which bodes to bring together the best of Australia’s music industry.

From artists and managers, to labels, journalists, start-ups, policy-makers, activists, and promoters, Face The Music 2015 will be giving a wide range of industry stakeholders an opportunity to make new connections and support each other.

This time of year it’s a very exciting time to be a part of not only Australia’s music community, but the wider global music community. To both celebrate some of the key thinkers in the industry and to get you in the mood for FTM 2015 we’ve collected a few speeches and panels featuring speakers who will be part of this year’s event.

Joel D Ross: How Time Travel Will Save The Music Industry


We spoke to Joel earlier this week about this fascinating theories on Virtual Reality (VR) and its potential to save the music industry’s somewhat dire looking financial future. In this clip Joel explores what exactly he thinks people would pay for (experiences rather than physical products) and how easily this concepts could become reality. He’ll be touching on similar subjects at Face The Music this year.

Brodie Lancaster: Not Here To Be Nice


Brodie Lancaster is a much loved Melbourne-based freelance writer, editor and critic who has quickly become one of this country’s most exciting new voices in pop culture and journalism. She writers for not only her own print zine Filmme Fatales but also iconic publications including magazines including Rolling Stone, Rookie, Pitchfork, Hello Mr, Noisey, Vulture and The Pitchfork Review. Though this above is a bigger talk about the female experience in pop culture, Brodie’s thoughts and opinion on music and the surrounding culture are as fresh and exciting and worth hearing in real time at Face The Music.

Amy Terrill: A “Music City” Road Map


Working for Music Canada Amy has been instrumental in Music Canada’s efforts to unite a broad coalition of industry members in Ontario in a bid to promote live performance, music tourism and Toronto as a Music City. In this panel, Amy moderates a discussion on how to make a city a proper ‘Music City’ and what that means. Interesting stuff, she’ll be touching on these topics at Face The Music.

JD Samson: Electric Independence


If you haven’t heard of JD Samson you’re seriously missing out JD is best known as leader of the band MEN and for being one-third of the electronic-feminist-punk band and performance project, Le Tigre. For more than a decade, JD’s career as a singer, producer and DJ has landed her at the intersection of music, art, activism and fashion. In this mini doco JD discusses her love of computers, the science of beat making, growing up in the radical world of the feminist electropunk band Le Tigre and her dreams of classic RV- style retirement. She’ll be presenting a keynote as part of Face The Music.

Ruth Daniel: Do it Together


We also chatted to Ruth Daniel recently who share with us a very insightful how to guide on staying independent while still making a career in the music industry. Daniel is an internationally renowned Music Activist. Based in Manchester, UK, she is a cultural producer and entrepreneur whose projects range across the world, using music as a powerful tool for positive social change. In this talk Ruth explains how alternative economies can be created without having economic gain as a key driver.The “Do it Yourself” movement is one of the strongest cultural powers we have.

Robert Kronenburg: Adaptive Architecture

Professor Robert Kronenburg at Adaptive Architecture 2011 from The Building Centre on Vimeo.

Robert is an architect and Liverpool School of Architecture with interests in and expertise on innovative forms of architectural design, film and popular music. His presentation at the Melbourne Music Symposium the day before Face The Music will focus on Sound Cities: Popular Music Performance as a Catalyst for Urban Change and include a case study on Liverpool as a music city. This video touches on similar subjects. His current project is on The History of Popular Music Architecture.

Revisit- Steve Albini: Keynote At FTM 2014


Did you not see this speech? This is just one of the many special moment from Face The Music 2014, do yourself a favour and check it out now.

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