We’re seeing today thousands of music creation apps in app stores for Android and iOS, with a wide range of different approaches, reaching many users of different musical experiences. But the music software and hardware industry are still, at large, focused on desktop applications. There is a chasm between mobile music making and desktop-based music tools, and no clear path to go from one to the other. How can we bridge that gap?

On our conference MOBILE MUSIC IN THE MAKING 2017 in Berlin last March we had a big exchange of different types of musical practices with apps. In 52 sessions on mobile music projects, the more than 150 attendees (musicians, app developers and representatives of relevant ministries, NGOs and cultural institutions), shared their distinct, musical approaches on the new way of music making on digital technologies. (Some impressions: That was MMM2017 and it was pretty amazing)

On the Audio Developer Conference 2017 in London this November, we will see another essential community on this topic. The mission: to challenge pro audio developers with thought-provoking ideas about music creation on mobile.

Mobile Apps on the ADC’17

The Audio Developer Conference is one of the largest annual gatherings of audio developers. After the success of ADC’16, which was attended by over 230 developers from the pro audio industry and academia, ROLI invites once again to London to attend the Audio Developer Conference’17. It takes place at Code Node, 13-15 November 2017 and is a unique opportunity to learn, exchange and network with the best audio developers in the world. For that the ADC’17 will have a conversational, workshop atmosphere and will feature talks from selected participants – anyone is invited to submit a proposal –, as well as posters, demonstrations, and evening events. All info: www.juce.com/adc-2017

This year there will be also a panel that is focusing making music on mobile. The panel will start at 2 pm on Wednesday 15th November and will last for 50 minutes.

The panelists

– Jeannie Yang, ex-Chief Product Officer at Smule, she spent the past 7 years building mobile products used by > 100 million users. She’s a product and UX expert.

– Matt Derbyshire, Head of Product and Marketing at Ampify (Focusrite-Novation), he has been the instigator of the Launchpad, and the Launchpad app and all subsequent apps.

– Ashley Elsdon, journalist and founder of palmsounds.net, the first website dedicated to mobile music applications, started in 2006. Ashley now works with Create Digital Music.

– Matthias Krebs (panel chair), Head of Research Center for Mobile Music Making and App Music at Berlin University of the Arts and band leader of the DigiEnsemble Berlin, operating in a mobile first experience on physical stages.

We will start with a brief introduction of our panelists, followed by a discussion for about 25 min. And finally, we will open it up to any questions you might have about music making on mobile in general, whether it concerns app development, app usage, music app performance…

Apps – from just toying around to making music? This video gives you the perspective of one of the users. In the panel we want to go further…

Questions to be discussed in the panel

With these diverse set of expertise we want to discuss several questions:

• In what context (on stage, studio production, amateurs, on the road, education) does mobile music making has its strengths? What are new contexts that can be musically ‘conquered’ with apps?
• What are the challenges for hardware manufacturers in terms of apps? What role do they have in the product placement and development?
• What impact do easy to access mobile music creation apps have had on encouraging listeners to cross the line into what they would call ‘music making’?
• Where do music tech company see their main stake group?
• What do users want from mobile music, and most importantly, what are their motivations?

From discussing the current state of mobile music, we further want to take a look forward. That brings in a great opportunity to focus on higher level debates of globalization, easy access, and accessibility.

• What does this mean for reducing the barriers to music creation across the globe?
• What will manufacturers need to do to capture the imagination of a new generation of users and stay relevant?
• Why has the journey for new music makers shifted so much in the new connected paradigm?
• What are the new challenges created in this new paradigm, and what opportunities do they create for engaging people in making music?
• How are business models changing to adapt, and what are the impacts of the disruption caused here? What does this mean for providers of services and products in the future?

So, all in all, it will be interesting to have the panel in the function of a catalyst to shift the debate from more traditional ‘Desktop/Hardware’ based conversations of last year’s ADC, to the new challenges created by the mobile app-connected paradigm.

Bottom line

We want to invite you to join us. We are very happy to work with the ADC this year. The international conference will be a good opportunity to talk to industry players and discuss new developments and future technologies. Look at the great board of speakers!

With the panel on making music on mobile, we hope to bring the discussion any further. And we will present some results here in the blog and finally bring to our next MOBILE MUSIC IN THE MAKING conference.

All info: www.juce.com/adc-2017