Talk about a room full of true, industry-shaping thought leaders. If you missed the Wallifornia MusicTech Summit and are here to decide whether to go next year, let’s save you some time: it’s a hard yes from us.
Held in Liège, Belgium, on July 9–11 and set in the vibrant La Grand Poste, the event welcomed the upper echelon of international startups, professionals, artists and investors — all there to develop the future of our industries together.
Conversations as in-depth as you’d hope, talks packed with insights and organized to a tee, days brimming with multifaceted interest in how tech and music intersect.
A key focus, unsurprisingly, was the impact of AI; we’ve recapped our favorite talks below.
At this point, we’re all pretty familiar with generative AI — but Wallifornia went further by looking at assistive AI and its potential, which goes far beyond generating content and, instead, fine-tunes how we’re used to doing things. As heard during the "Empowering Entertainment and Music + Tech" talk:
"Tech has been the catalyst to unlock new ways to discover, distribute and consume music."
AI is a massive opportunity
Our favorite topic (for obvious reasons) was how AI makes painfully long processes wildly easier. That includes music searches and playlist creation. It’s not just miles faster; it’s actually getting results of higher quality. Advanced tools like AIMS understand what you’re looking for based on any jumble of links, references or freestyle prompts. And playlist curation has never come close to being this easy.
Remember the “streaming scare”?
Speakers didn’t shy away from the music industry’s history of defensive behavior. Their point was, just how the industry wasn’t ready for the transition from CDs to streaming, people discrediting AI now don’t realize it embodies the natural evolution of the music industry.
We were thrilled to see use cases mirroring what we do being not just discussed but embraced. 2024 is hands-down the year of assistive AI.
Freeing up music managers' time
Tying in with the above is the topic of streamlining management tasks. AI is perfect for taking care of the repetitive, endless tasks — giving managers more time for strategic roles. Neeta Ragoowansi from the US Music Managers Forum called AI a potential “manager for the music manager.”
A helping hand for all artists
Robbie Williams’ manager Stephen O’Reilly shared examples of AI assisting Robbie in collaborating with songwriters. And according to Christina Matteotti, Head Of Music & Culture EMEA at Google, the vast majority of artists want to use AI for brainstorming and idea generation. Already, there are so many great tools to choose from — we’re just not used to them yet. But similarly to how sound recording changed the industry for artists, AI will change the ideation process as we know it. It will be the starting point or companion.
Leveling the playing field
Right now, music creators face challenges complex in ways we don’t yet fully understand. Explosive numbers of creators is one thing, but they’re also navigating a “fragmented ecosystem.” Since this is especially high-risk for new artists, they can use AI to remove (or at least lower) financial and accessibility barriers when trying to make a name for themselves.
But are we ready for the challenges?
Catalog flooding is a real problem. More than 30,000 AI-generated songs are posted daily. Yes, platforms like Deezer are working night and day to figure out how to detect AI usage — but the road to proper regulations is still a longer one.
In the meantime, fight AI with AI. As catalogs inevitably become bigger, one thing you can do is explore them more efficiently. That’s a surefire way to ease a solid chunk of your worries.
In summary: An event with all the extras
The social cherry on top was just how great Wallifornia was for networking. The "Meet the Ecosystem" session got everyone talking by putting major global organizations in the spotlight and asked them how, exactly, they're supporting the music-tech industry.
Everyone discussed, brainstormed, shared. Ultimately, it really does feel like big or small, all companies are after the same thing: vaulting archaic processes into the modern age while protecting human creativity.
Oh yeah, there was a ton of live music, too; the event ended with Les Ardentes, a hip-hop festival with DJ Snake, Gunna, Offset… You can read all about that on Wallifornia’s official page. We’ll just say: It was a good, good time!