Dear reader,
I've been in the music business 18+ years, and I've lived through a few technological shifts that greatly advanced my career as I participated in them.
I'm from Silicon Valley — tech-driven from the start. I went to school with Steve Jobs's son, Bing Gordon's daughter, Vinod Khosla's daughter, and more. These were my best friends. I grew up with limitless imagination.
Over the years I've built communities of thousands of artists, songwriters, and producers. I've been on the ground floor. Lots of blood, sweat, and tears. Music Tech Row is the culmination of that — a place where my two favorite worlds, music and tech, converge.
A friend sent me a presentation by Jack Conte (CEO of Patreon) as I was deep in thought on Music Tech Row planning (watch here), and the timing felt serendipitous. It connects to so much of the why behind this project. There were things in Jack's talk that I didn't know — did you know there was a time when recorded music was actually viewed as something that should be banned? It's such a fascinating parallel to where we are today.
At the end of the day, human creativity has continued to prevail through every major technological shift. AI is arguably the most powerful innovation we've seen yet. I'm hopeful that art will keep winning — and that we'll find better, more equitable models for supporting and compensating creators along the way.
I keep coming back to the idea of starting this story further back — not just the 80s/90s, but 100+ years, walking through each major innovation in music technology. But the real story behind Music Tech Row is not the technology itself. It is the resistance, the fear, the uncertainty, and the disruption that has come with each shift — and how artists adapt and keep creating anyway.
I want people to leave Music Tech Row with a renewed sense of purpose around the art and innovation they bring into the world. I want them to feel energized and inspired — not fearful. We all have an opportunity to help build solutions that better support artists, and by bringing tech founders into the room — including people who don't traditionally come from creative backgrounds — we can create bigger conversations around sustainable and fair models.
That tension is the heart of Music Tech Row. The goal isn't to choose fear or blind optimism. It's to embrace the complexity, stay curious, and leave people feeling excited + inspired by what we can build together.
— Mickey Shiloh
Founder, Music Tech Row