The Future of Music

Tod Machover, from MIT’s renowned Media Lab, is one of the world’s most exciting composers, working at the cutting edge of technology. In the month that his new opera Skellig premieres at The Sage, Gateshead, Tod comes to the RSA to offer a glimpse of the future of music and to share his vision of how music-making can be made genuinely accessible and life-changing for all.

Tod will argue that although there is a current boom in user-created content, and applications such as Guitar Hero have seen world-wide success, there is a widening gap between professional musicians and the interested public.

How can this gap be closed? And what musical qualities, technological tools and business models will lead to a truly vibrant musical ecology, where the boundaries between expertise and amateurism are blurred, and both excellence and enjoyment are enhanced?

We are delighted that John Kennedy, Global Chairman and Chief Executive of IFPI, the organisation that represents the global recording industry worldwide, will join us to offer his unique perspective on how the music industry is re-inventing itself for the digital era and how technological progress will impact the commercial future of music.

Chair: Ralph Simon, Chairman Emeritus of the Mobile Entertainment Forum

For more information on Tod Machover and his extraordinary range of music projects, visit his new website: www.todmachover.com