MUMBAI: There were close to 800 people present at the first Revolt Music Conference. The event also coincided with the one-year anniversary of the revolt music channel being on air. The event kicked off with speeches by Revolt TV CEO Keith Clinkscales and iHeart Media Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman.
Among the panels and discussions, one of the standouts was the one moderated by L.A. Reid called “The Lost Art of Artists & Repertoire (A&R)” where the conclusion was that A&R is not a lost art. To elaborate on this Def Jam A&R Sickamore narrated an incident with rapper YG. Sickamore said that when he first sat down with YG to discuss his album, Sickamore would play him tapes and taped of old classic rap albums. Until, Sickamore told him that he wanted to make a classic too, instead of doing mix-tapes.
“You have to sit down with an artiste and find out what their goals are,” said Sickamore. He further added, “There is an artiste development process that has to go on and we are going to die if we lose that process.” Chairman/CEO of Atlantic Records Craig Kallman also added, “It is about sitting with an artiste and understanding their goal and their vision.” Artists and repertoire (A&R) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists and/or songwriters.
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The second day of the conference had Revolt TV Chairman Sean Combs a.k.a. rapper P. Diddy lead a discussion panel called “#AskDiddy”. Through this panel, Combs not only offered career advice to the audience, but he also answered the audience’s questions in reference to Revolt TV and the Revolt Music Conference.
In the evening, at the gala dinner, following R&B singer Ne-Yo’s performance of a medley of his own songs, iconic music industry executive and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine was honoured with the ‘Started from the Bottom Now We Are Here’ Award. While accepting the award, Iovine spoke of his music career through the last forty years giving a moving speech. He also spoke about the current state of music and the music industry’s ever-changing nature. Iovine said, “In your own way, reflecting your own musical passions, I do call upon all of you to find your way to innovate and be a part of music’s future…We
are no longer in the music business, but in the business of music.”
This marks the public statement by Jimmy Iovine on the future of the music industry since his company Beats Electronics was bought by Apple in May for $3 billion.
Revolt TV was in news earlier this month when it announced its new multiplatform deal with Verizon FiOS, which will add the 24-hour music channel to the cable service provider’s FiOS TV package.
