Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and the Future of Finance in Art
By: Steve Masur
Join us on Monday, December 4 at the National Arts Club (7:30PM) to discuss Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and the Future of Finance in Art.
About the Panel:
In recorded music, so much of the money is kept by middlemen that songwriters and musicians are looking to a new kind of money as a means of getting back some of what is derived from their craft. It is called Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency powered by a technology called Blockchain, which records and encrypts transactions in a transparent public ledger. Pledge Music & Dot Blockchain founder Benji Rogers, Steven Masur, Ujo Music product owner Jack Spallone and painter/visual artist Lindsey Nobel will discuss the promise of Blockchain, and how it can change the artistic and creative world.
About the speakers:
Steven Masur has over two decades of experience advising emerging and established businesses on new opportunities and business challenges. He focuses his practice on corporate finance, M&A, intellectual property, entertainment, emerging businesses and strategic guidance. Steve brings a unique mix of legal, business, and strategic experience to bear on client matters. He has counseled enterprise level clients including Shazam, Virgin Mobile, Liberty Media, Yamaha, Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Bob Vila and Conde Nast Publications in corporate, digital media, and new business matters. He has also helped emerging businesses in a wide variety of sectors, and is especially knowledgeable in media, entertainment, advertising, consumer products, food and technology, including mobile, games, digital music, social media, augmented and virtual reality, software and hardware.
Benji Rogers is a British-born, New York-based entrepreneur, technologist, musician, and the founder of Pledge Music. An early pioneer of the direct artist-to-fan model of distributing music, Rogers founded Pledge Music based on the belief that artists should share the process of their artistic output, not just the finished product. Straddling the worlds of technology and music, Rogers uses his dual background to advise a range of tech and music companies on how to bridge the divide between their industries. To address the unique challenges facing artists releasing their work in the digital economy, Rogers also co-founded the Dot Blockchain Music Project, an attempt to create a decentralized global registry of music rights using blockchain technology that will overhaul the commercialization and movement of music online. In addition to these projects and his ongoing role with Pledge, Rogers is also an instructor at Berklee College of Music on digital trends and strategies in the industry. A dedicated patron of arts and creativity in all its forms, Rogers’ work is rooted in a belief in the democratizing power of the internet; he will always be “loving your work.”
Lindsey Nobel is a mixed-media artist living and working in Los Angeles. Her art employs various media to explore ideas of technology, science and human connection. Lindsey’s artistic process stems from investigating memory, dislocation and environment. Attachment and reflection. In 1992 she began developing a drawing language that, for better or worse, connects us to computers. Lindsey’s work exposes the invisible world to which we are utterly attached via the Infosphere.
Jack Spallone comes from the US with a diversified background working in music and tech. Starting as a music and events blogger while still an undergrad, Jack soon expended his experience into talent buying and inevitably managing artists. After launching the careers of two Billboard artists, Jack’s attention turned to exploring alternative methods for maintaining a career as a musician, leading him to thinking about how blockchain and decentralized technology could usher in new financing, licensing, and interactive opportunities for artists. Today, Jack drives the product vision for Ujo Music, focused on solving the many problems of music’s digital supply chain while also growing the revenue pie for rights holders.
*In addition to this event, we also have another Cryptocurrency and Blockchain event coming up November 16. See more info and register to attend here.
