Measure of Music 2022 Closing Remarks
Measure of Music was a three-day music & data conference & workshop/hackathon with 1900+ viewers, participants & contributors. The second annual event took place from February 25–27, 2022.
Below are the closing remarks founder, Christine Osazuwa delivered at the end of the second Measure of Music.
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So, all the hard work is DONE and I want to tell you a bit about what was happening behind the scenes over the last 2 months…
180 people signed up to participate during the 6 weeks registrations were opened.
- Last week we were down to 147
- By Thursday, we were down to 129
- When we started on Friday, we were down to 116
- And today, you heard from the 82 people spread across 15 teams that completed their projects
I tell you this because it’s not easy. Teams have to juggle group dynamics with watching talks while picking up new skills & executing on them in a matter of days and clearly not everyone makes it through.
So, I’m incredibly proud of everything these teams were able to accomplish in less than 48 hours while watching 12 hours of content, participating in networking activities and sending round music recommendations in our slack channel.
Thankfully, they didn’t have to do this alone. We had an overwhelming amount of individuals available to help them all weekend. When a team needed help they could count on the mentors that could provide insights into everything from brand partnerships to graphic design to DSPs to APIs. The mentors (many of whom I call personal friends) gave up part of their weekends to help these teams complete these tasks and I’m constantly in awe of the generosity & love from my network, thank you.
Speaking of which, just like our teams, I also did not have to go at this alone. This year, I had support from our volunteers JJ, Jorge, Lauren, Matteo, Meenal, Nicky, Raina, Tapas, Vyoma, my dear friend Jimmy who I roped in at the last minute to come to my virtual side and of course, my incredible husband, John, who’s been taking the night shift from the last 2 days.
This year, technically they weren’t volunteers because they were all offered payment for their time! After last year, I made it my top priority to be able to pay people for their time as much as possible for the conference and that dream became a reality.
I love transparency, as many of you know, so I’ll write as much as I’m able to disclose about this later but this year I raised 25,000 US dollars to put this event on, with the help of my sponsorships, PR manager and dear friend Nick (supported by the rest of the Jump Global team), he helped me in raising that money
A third of that money went to my support staff including to those that volunteered, handled socials, graphics, sponsorships & more. 18% went to legal & finance costs including fees associated with paying people in a dozen countries and the cost of a legal team to draft up a contract for our sponsorships, about 20% went to software, including the HeySummit platform you all watched most of the talks on, Mailchimp, Zoom, Vimeo, the cool custom graphics the participants got to share on socials (by the way participants you’re going to get a very cool certificate if you managed to finish your project!) and already a fan favorite, our networking platform Run The World and last but certainly not least, almost 30% went to paying our speakers.
As I mentioned yesterday, for the second year in a row our speakers are both majority-minority in gender and race and there was no all male or all white panel. This is why it was so important that they were offered payment for their time. Women and people of color are often underpaid in music & technology roles and while some minority groups are proportionally represented in music at unpaid & entry-level roles, the representation declines steadily at mid to senior levels (you heard this discussed in the community panel as well). This is exactly why I have the people on the stage that I do. Those voices deserve to be heard, respected and paid because all voices are valuable and I am continuously committed to being the change I want to see in this world.
One of our sponsors, POWER UP, recognized the need for support for Black execs & music creators at the inflection point of their career and provided me with the first monetary support for Measure of Music. They also provided me with an incredible mentor and legendary music exec, Keith Harris. When I told him I would be offering payment to all my speakers he said, “You know, you’re completely changing how this is done in the music industry.” To which I said, “That is the point.”
I always say the music industry should reflect the world we live in and the world we hope to live in and this is exactly what I’m trying to achieve.
The people you heard from this weekend are your future label heads, your future C-level music & tech execs, your future Grammy & Brits recipients, and will continue to be innovators, change-makers, thought leaders in music & technology. They may not all be people you hear from regularly but I have a feeling quite a few of them will be soon and I’m grateful to have incredibly smart, talented & most importantly nice people in my world.
That’s why I do this.
The thing about the music industry is… no matter how big it feels, it’s actually so so small. If, for some absolutely insane reason this is the industry you’ve dedicated yourself to, you’ll be surrounded by the same people for possibly forty years… FOR TY YEARS.
Who on earth wants to be surrounded by people who suck for forty years? If I can do my little part to make this place a little brighter, I absolutely will.
I hope everyone got a chance to watch last night’s keynote talk with Shara Senderoff because if you want to be absolutely motivated to go out and get some shit done — that is 100% the panel to watch. That is all about finding your passion, following your dreams, taking leaps of faith and saying yes when an opportunity presents itself. I hope if there’s one thing you all take away from this weekend is that no one needs to give you permission to make a change, no one needs to give you permission to follow your dream, and no absolutely no one, not me, not some list and not some gatekeepers get to tell you who you are or aren’t.
When Elly got on stage to do our practice session she said, “I am aspiring writer.” I said, “No, you are a writer–don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
You’re not trying, you’re doing. You’re not aspiring, you are. You are an absolute force to be reckoned with–all of you–and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Oh and… absolutely anything is possible if you’ve got some good people in your corner.
I’m incredibly grateful to have the support of many people & companies that share this ethos so once again I must thank our sponsors…
- POWER UP: managed by PRS Foundation is a pioneering initiative aiming to break down and remove structural and systematic racism and injustices affecting talented UK-based Black music creators and industry professionals from progressing their careers and accelerate change for a more equitable and representative music industry.
- Audiense (a fan favorite talk on Friday!) is a consumer segmentation and cultural understanding platform that helps companies identify relevant audiences and discover amazing actionable insights to inform strategy.
- Feed Media Group makes it easy, fast and legal for businesses to use music to drive revenues by delivering the most engaging customer experiences.
With additional support from…
- artificial intelligence music tech company, Musiio
- global provider of data and analytics to the entertainment and music industry, MRC Data
- artist & creator-focused membership platform, Patreon
- music data analytics tool, Chartmetric
Plus, promotional support from global music and tech community, The Digilogue; executive management firm, jump.global; fan engagement company, Fan To Band; global community of women and gender minorities in the music industry, shesaid.so; and women in musical arts non-profit community, Women In Music.
These are some of the best companies & personally, some of the best people I know that have revolutionized their spaces & verticals so I hope you all get a chance to check them out and rewatch the sessions for those that spoke this weekend.
*****
Last year, I wore a shirt that said “Black Girl Magic,” this year, I’m wearing a shirt that says, “But still, like dust, I rise.” which is a Maya Angelou quote because I hope this motivated you to go–go do something. Go do anything. You did so much this weekend. You guys are all incredible. You guys are all winners. Even our spectators that didn’t participate, even our mentors, our contributors, our judges–you guys spent the weekend learning. I joked that outside in the UK, it’s beautiful outside, so I commend you if you were able to finish your projects. It was incredible, this was an incredible weekend. Thank you for being around & sticking around for part 2.
Thank you, judges, thank you, everyone, goodnight!