Last week Ticketmaster attended the first FastForward conference in Sydney. Aimed at the next generation of leaders in the music industry, FastForward covered a range of topics from The Art of Selling Tickets to Building Interactive Audiences, and much more. There was so much to hear and learn, so we’ve rounded up five of our biggest takeaways from the two-day conference.
- We are officially a generation of skippers. With streaming sites now the everyday norm, Artists need to work harder than ever to hold the consumer’s attention. Gone are the days of listening to a song in full before making judgement, now we make instantaneous decisions and skip through a playlist until a song really grabs our attention. To combat this, Artist Manager are putting their artists back in control, encouraging a more DIY approach to improve the focus on authenticity and unique content to win over new (and old) fans.
- Heritage tours could be a threat to new artists. Conference Founder, Chris Carey, made this point in his opening address. After all, who doesn’t love seeing their all-time favourite artists live in concert? Australian music fans certainly turn out in droves to see legacy acts in action, but is that driving valuable marketing attention away from rising stars? Here at Ticketmaster, we’re committed to helping the next wave of stars with our New Music campaign; helping to shake up our marketing content and champion new bands through TicketWeb.
- VR is the future and the future is now. Virtual reality is a hot topic in every industry right now, but how is the entertainment industry embracing it? David Francis, Head of APAC at Zappar and Co-Founder at Virtual Method (Augmented + Virtual Reality Specialists), offered some valuable insights during his keynote. While the tech giants race to be the first to bring eyewear to the market, the experts are urging those in the live space to quickly embrace evolving capabilities. The question remains, can anything really top that live event experience? The industry doesn’t appear to be wholly convinced just yet.
- You can learn a lot in 15 minutes. Hats off to the FastForward team for putting together some incredible FastFifteen sessions across the two days. Throughout these quick-fire talks, we were able to learn heaps about a wide range of topics. Highlights included, learning how relevant crowdfunding is to the music industry, and artists in particular, thanks to Gemma Bastiani from Pozible, as well as hearing how creative agencies are working with brands and artists to put storytelling back in the heart of content marketing.
- Wellbeing in the entertainment industry is more important than ever. As well as being mentioned in many keynotes, three of the fab FastFifteen sessions had a focus on the importance of wellbeing in the music industry. Our very own, Jess Hope, chatted to us about the importance of enable both fans and artists to talk about mental health. Jess encouraged us to remember just how incredibly emotional music is as an art form, and the importance of encouraging positivity over unnecessary pressure. Mushroom’s Brigid Dixon also gave a very passionate 15-minute presentation, where she brilliantly expressed the importance of the inclusion of junior women in the workplace. She put focus on workplace discrimination and called for senior leaders to make room for rising talent within all aspects of the business. Tim Kelly from Inertia Music finished off the sessions with an important look at how we can treat ourselves and others around us with a more thoughtfulness and care.
A huge congratulations to all of the team at FastForward for a successful first year in Sydney.
