Sørveiv's Vision for Music and Tech Synergy

Hi and welcome back to Sound Connections podcast. Today is a special one. We have a partnership episode with Surviveand Norwegian Music Industry Conference Festival. And I'm very lucky to have two of the co -owners,Hannah and Lena here. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited about this because I went to survivelast year and I do go to conferences.

I kind of semi hate a lot of them because especially for the conference side, there's not a lot of substance and it seems like it'sa great opportunity to meet people, great opportunity to network and that's almost everywhere. But like the conference parts are either reallyboring or they're not very interesting. And Survive really nailed it last year. You had an amazing conference. So I wanted to partner with you guys thisyear talking about what you're doing and talking about music technology and especially in Norwaywhere you guys are based.

Could you for the listeners explain a bitwhat is Survive? Survive is a music industry festival in thesouthern of Norway and we have live music and a conference. The area that it's based really needs thisfor just because the industry is very hard there and also we wanted to like stand outin the industry in Norway.

Because both of you acquired the festivalor conference. How do you define it? Festival or conference? What do you say? We decided to split it actually, it was justa music business festival with a live part and conference part, but we noticed that theconference part has grown quite big. So now we call it SurRave Live and SurRaveConference.

Okay.Hmm. Great, got it. So you decided to acquire this conferenceand festival a couple of years ago. Can you walk me through the motivation ofdoing that? You go, Lena. I was first hired to be the head of festival,actually. So I did that for almost a year and then theowners had to sell it, actually.

And me and Hannah had talked a lot about ourgoals and our visions and what we wanted to do in our work. So it was just a very good opportunity forus to... continue the work that we wanted to do andalso build a big network. So, yeah. Okay, we'll get back to Survive because it's really interesting and this is where the partnership is centered, is about your conference.

But could you first walk me through what isa music industry conference? What does it mean? Because a lot of the listeners that we haveare entrepreneurs in the music industry. Some of them might not come from the musicindustry and they're trying to make a mark here. So what is music industry conferences andwhy are they important? Well, a lot of the music business conferencesand when we focus just on the music business side, it's a meeting place for business peoplemore than actually being on the conference and acquire new knowledge.

It's more fun, the other ones, and we've noticedthat we wanted to learn more. That was what we wanted to go to a conferencefor. And we didn't get that knowledge that we needed. And also most of the conferences have a verybasic setup.

So you learn the same, not learning, but youhear the same thing over and over again and it gets quite old. So music conferences today where they meetpeople, I get that because you don't want... to learn the same thing all over again. So that is why we built the conference aswe did.

We did it because we wanted to fill that holethat we felt we couldn't get somewhere else. And also in Kristiansand they had survey oftech. So we wanted to continue building on thatbecause they still do a lot of tech.

conferences in Kristiansand and since we didhave the live part and there was the music business part we wanted to connect tech withmusic business. So that was firstly why we did NISH, do thatNISH, towards the music industry.

Also we noticed we have a lot of startupsin Norway. Hmm. They are doing great tech companies with whatthey do, but we also noticed that they don't know a lot of the music industry and how wework and how the laws work and everything. And we needed to have a meeting place whereyou could cooperate and understand each other.

So music business wouldn't be scared of newtechnology. And so that technology businesses understood Hmm. what they needed to do to thrive in the musicbusiness ecosystem. Mm -hmm. Well, that's really important. And I spend most of my time talking to musictechnology companies and music technology founders and acquiring that knowledge andthat network is really, really hard.

So I really applaud you guys of combiningthose two, the knowledge and the network. But also just to quickly just explain a bitabout Soave, you also have a live side. Lina, what is the focus on the live side forSoave? Our main focus is new artists, so they applyto perform.

And we are very strict with picking the artists. So we want 30 % from our region, because it'shard for those to get through to the other festivals in Norway. And also we have 60 % unsigned artists. So we want this to be an arena where...

booking agents and labels and that sort ofthing can come and actually sign new artists because at other festivals it's easy to gosee a great show but they already have a big team so you don't get that much out of it. So the goal is that it's for the music industry. Hmm.Hmm, that's amazing.

Going a bit back to music technology, becauseI think everyone that works in this space agrees that it can be hard to navigate andit's sort of problematic to find your foothold in the industry. But could you dive into some of the more,some of the problems you've seen in the music technology landscape? What are people struggling with?

I think the biggest fright people have nowis of course AI technology. And now and not understanding data and howit works. We like technology, of course, that's whywe do it. And it's fun. But we also see the struggles both sides have.

And if technology is going to thrive withinthe music industry. They also need to like, I can say, respectthe right holders and the creators. And if they want creators to use their technology,they need to understand the goals of tech business too.

I mean, everyone wants to earn money so thatthey can make a living of it, but we still need to understand that there is a creativeside to it. And... And most of them don't get a lot of moneyfor what they do. And also I can, I have seen that many startupswithin music tech, they also have data.

They see it in that they want to earn money. And everyone sits on different data and don'twant to share it. But I've also heard AI with AI, you can trackmusic online. You can find out where, where it's used. by, you know, using listening AI and identifyit.

But with data, you sit on what you have collectedand you don't want to share it because you want to get paid too. So who owns the data? Where did everyone get the data from? I think that would be some of the biggestthemes during this conference.

so that both tech companies can talk togetherhow can we work so that we don't have like a thousand pop -ups that do the same thingbecause they don't want to share what they're actually doing and how they get the data andhow it's used. At the same time, if the music industry understands that too, we can collaborate more.

And... Since we do this in Norway and there are alot of smaller artists, smaller managements, DIY, smaller labels and tech companies, thenI hope that we can get really good discussions around this without getting too hostile.

But I mean, understanding each other meansthat you don't... Hmm. have to be that afraid. And also if creators can see that tech companieslisten to them, then they might be more compliant.

Yeah, because that definitely seemed likethere's a void in between understanding the industry, the creators and some of the foundersthat work within this space. And we really need to make sure that thatgap is bridged. You know, I work on several technology productswhere... the transference of that understanding isreally hard and I need to be the mediator all the time.

So that's why I've sort of really applaudthese conferences too, especially for those people who have a hard time understandingmusic industry and for the music industry that have a hard time understanding tech ofhow we can create a sort of a meeting point because, you know, technological innovationsare where most of the worth is created through time. like, you know, this is not just somethingwe're making up.

That's in all industries, technological inventionsbrings work to people, it brings revenue, it brings, you know, we can move forward. But somehow the music industry tends to bereluctant, in general speaking, towards that. It's a much slower moving industry when comesto it. But I also do see a lot of change and someinitiatives like yours are addressing that very head on.

Are there any conferences that you like inspiredby that you look to like they're really doing some great movements that we would like toreally look up like really look to towards and learn from? I actually did go to a festival online, MusicTectonics.

They are positioned in Canada. And it was very interesting listening to... They were startup companies basically, andthey talked about the evolution of technology within music. And it was very interesting, and I got thefirst ideas for the conference there.

But we don't have it. We have conferences that do sessions aboutmusic technology, but we don't have conferences that have the full focus on music technology. And since it is very hard for music businesspeople to understand, then we needed to do it from the top and down.

First of all, basics within it. What is machine learning? What does AI do? And it's not just within music production. It's a wide range of uses of what you do there. And then moving further down so that artistsknow how to use it and then management and labels and everyone know how to use it, tryingit out during the conference.

So no, I haven't been to a conference thatdo the niche that we do. for everyone. And I think that was the fun part too. Yeah. Lina, I have a question for you because obviouslywe're moving into an era where a lot of things are happening in the global scale of thingswithin technology and if that's AI or whatever.

And what we're talking a lot about is sortof super fans and artists obviously need to understand technology and how to use it, utilizeit because consumer behavior is changing and they sort of need to understand it. How do you experience the artist's reflection? on new technology. Are they open to it? Do they know what's happening?

Yeah, I think especially the younger artistsare very open to it. And I think they have learned to use a lotof different new tools in like mixing or just writing lyrics or writing songs. We had this workshop at Sova this last yearwith melodies and lyrics.

A lot of the artists thought that was reallycool. And we also want to like... teach them some more tools to use becauseit's inevitable, so it's going to happen either way. But I think maybe the more older artists orartists who have been working a long time have a harder time applying these things.

And also in marketing, there are a lot ofAI in marketing. So I think they are getting better at it. But there also are the other side of it. As I said, we romanticize the use of technology,but there is also a big problem with using AI and data because the tech companies getit from somewhere.

And if you are going to create melodies basedon blah, or creating songs based on... That's interesting. this and this artist or this and this stylethat this artist uses, then that data comes from somewhere. And that person that owns those rights alsowants compensation for it, rightfully so.

So even though we think and believe that youshould use this technology, the tech companies also needs to understand how the music businessworks because we can't just capitalize on other people's rights and other people's way of earning theirliving. So it's a tough edge to stand on now and weneed to change the laws and we need to do lobbying around the world because I thinkthat many music business people are skeptical and afraid of using it because they don'tknow if their rights are being treated as

they should be. And there are different views on how we can co -live in this new landscape. But many people in the music business feellike they're not being heard. And I understand that. So it's both fun with new technology and it'sboth and it's also I don't know what the word is, but we need it to navigate this worldthat we have.

But also, I don't think that people can liveon their music if we continue in this way that we do. And there are a lot of people that believethat. And I don't think also younger artists don'tcare about this because this is fun. But if they want to live on their music, theycan't continue doing it like they do.

Hmm. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of change happening. So it's good that musicians can also cometo this conference and or other conferences like it and learn more about the future ofwhat's going to happen. Can you guys walk me through if one of mylisteners or the podcast listeners are coming to the conference, what can they expect? Can you walk me through a day? How is it structured and what happens in theevening?

What happens in the daytime? Yeah, during the daytime, it's a full program,walking through how streaming works. We have a lot of music business people andtech companies that don't actually understand how it works.

Talk about algorithms and everything, butthere is bias in music streaming and it's an emerging, there are new, bigger emergingmarkets that... that comes into place now. And we want to highlight that in the beginning.

What are the trends now? And what does the global market look like? And what are the new technologies that risesnow that we need to focus on learning and understanding? And then we will move like further down. We will talk about distribution, how it works.

And there are a lot of different ways anda lot of different companies that do have their own business models. So people need to understand how that worksand not just artists, but also maybe labels that uses these different kinds of distributionchannels.

Moving further down, we are going to talkabout how you can actually use these tools. But not only that, within tech, we are goingto see and listen, hear more about digital live, VR concerts and concerts in Fortniteand things like that.

So we're going to try to cover all businessfields within music industry and always have the tech focus on it. So it's hard for music business to accept,also music business people to accept that this is the way we do it. But I think they will also understand howimportant this is and learn something that they didn't think that they could have usedfor in their business.

I also think that this is very overwhelmingfor people. So if we go from up to bottom, from top tobottom, Hmm. they will get a deeper understanding of itand hopefully want to come again next year because it happens a lot in tech and musicevery year.

Yeah, so that you can definitely expect tolearn something new either if you come from the tech side or from the music side. No doubt about it. Hmm.Yep, that's true. Hmm.Hmm. Yeah, but... We also structure the conference with likea keynote on like the introduction to the theme, then a panel and we have some roundtable talks.

So we try to apply like different formatsin the conference and not just like panels because you get a little tired of just hearingfour people talking about themselves or everywhere they have worked. So to apply different formats, I think youlearn more by attending more yourself also.

Hmm. Hmm.Hmm. So I agree. That is fun. We have told our speakers that they don'thave time to say more than who they are and where they work. Nothing about what they do specifically intheir work or my background is this and this and this and this because that's not interestingfor people there.

If they want to learn more, they can go intoour homepage and read their bio. And as Lena said, we have... We try to have everyone there awake. And then we need the variations with bothexpert talks and then panels where you can see this from different kinds of views.

And we know that everyone in the audiencealso are experts in their areas. So we treat them like that. And the floor is open, so to say. Everyone can share their view and no questionis actually too stupid to ask because we know that we have different expertise areas inthe room.

Hmm.And Lena in the evening something else happens. Oh that's great. We'll definitely keep that in. Lena in the evening something else is happening,right? Okay, I found this on the internet about Kristianin sex. Siri, you know, tech.Sorry. I'm going to go ahead and close the video. Yeah, after the conference is over, we havethis lounge for our delegates to go and mingle and network and talk.

And then the concert starts in about six o'clock until midnight. So we have three different stages and in total,I think 35 concerts over two days. So if you are very eager to see all the artists,you actually can run around and watch three shows an hour.

Amazing. Well, I'm looking very much forward to that. And I met a lot of great people last time. We're sort of rounding up the episode andwe'll have more episodes with Survive talking with some of the speakers that's going tobe there talking about specific issues in sort of the same style as the podcast, butwith a Survive focus and music technology focus.

But here at the end of the podcast, I'm curiousto say, like, what do you believe Survive will be in the future? What is that? will make you different that's gonna be specifically different from other conferences. What can delegates expect over the comingyears from Survive? I think because a lot of conferences now popup with music tech focus. But I think the combination between live music,sorry, I think the combination between tech music and the live part, if we are able tostill connect these parts, then we will be more unique than the others.Because...

I think that we need to do this again. Connecting life and conference with actuallyhaving the artists there, actually having the music business there, not just, you know,the CEOs and tech companies that don't understand what artists needs and what teams needs.

I think that is the key to actually havingthe music industry. All good. learning and knowing how to use the tech inthe future. Hmm. Guys, it's been a pleasure. I'm looking so much forward to doing otherepisodes with Survive.

I'm excited. What days of Survive? Just hear the end so everyone can get, buytheir tickets. April 12th to 13th. So it's just a month now. Great, you def - You will, you'll definitely see me and myteam. We're very excited to meet you guys and spenda lot of good times together.

And thank you so much for being on the podcast. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much.