I've been wanting to do a Music Mashup for some time, so I'm really excited that we're doing a Music Mashup as a pre-conference before the big Mashup this summer in San Francisco July 16-17. Personally, I've been in a sad state of musical affairs since my CDs were stolen from my car. My husband bought me an iPod Mini (yes, it's the one they don't make anymore), and I have erased it twice so far accidentally. Rebuilding my own music collection has just felt too daunting to attempt, at least not while I've been so slammed. The CDs I miss the most? Outkast, Missy, Stevie Wonder, and true confession: the other Stevie, Nicks that is. My own musical malaise aside, I was really excited when Jay Frank, who heads up programming at Yahoo! Music and is on the 2007 Mashup advisory board, raised his hand and offered to program the Music Mashup pre conference.

He has done an amazing job pulling together speakers who will be addressing how the combined forces of youth and technology are transforming how we all listen to and consume music. Here's what Jay has lined up so far:

A keynote from Eric Garland, CEO, BigChampagne Online Media Measurement, who will break out the genres that teens are actually listening to and give a better idea of what sounds work for marketers. Eric will also offer analysis on how much is being consumed illegally vs. legally along with the methods by which young people obtain this music.

The music and social media panel featuring J Scavo, President, MySpace Records, Larry Weintraub, CEO, Fanscape, and David Hyman, founder of MOG. You'll be able to hear from our music and social networking insiders about how music actually is discovered and the techniques that work and what doesn’t to reach youth through music.

We're also working on another keynote as well as a panel called Mixtapes: The Unsung Music Marketing Tool, which will feature Steve Rifkind, Chairman, SRC Records. Finally we'll wrap the Music Mashup up with a case study and live performance from a just about to break artist to be announced soon. This will all lead into our opening night reception, which we hope to have DJ'd by one of San Francisco's "mashup" DJs.

So help spread the word -- we're looking for some cool music trade/media partners as well as sponsors for this special pre-conference event. If you have ideas, contacts or suggestions just email me. Register now for the early adopter discount!

Posted by anastasia