SF Music Tech Names Innovative Startup Challenge Winners

Just ahead of next week's SF Music Tech, the conference has named their new class of Innovative Startup Challenge winners. From a pool of more than 50 entries, just 10 were chosen by a panel of judges to showcase their startup before the throngs of eager venture capitalists, music industry heavyweights and technology glitterati that populate this must-attend 1 day stop on the conference circuit.

So, without further delay, here are the winners:

• Bandposters - a simple online solution that allows Bands to Design, Print, and Ship Tour Posters and ship them directly to venues for every tour stop in 90 seconds or less.
• Soundslice makes interactive, web-based sheet music and guitar tablature. –  "Our 'responsive' music notation wraps to fit your device, and it's got everything a musician needs to learn the tune — syncing with multiple source recordings/videos, slowdown without changing pitch, simple looping, transposition and more. It's all done on the web, with no need to install anything. The goal is to be the best way to learn any tune.We license this technology to companies that want to offer high-quality interactive music lessons, and we sell interactive transcriptions on behalf of indie artists, giving artists another source of income."
• Pace DJ is musically optimized performance. "Our patented application serves millions of Americans, helping them run in sync with their music and achieve their fitness goals. This is important to individuals, but also extremely important to insurers and employers since it relates to their costs. We have been recommended by the New York Times, Runner's World, Health Magazine, and more, and are scaling up in partnership with leading health and fitness brands."
• Gigstarter -  a new way to promote and sell tickets to shows. "By eliminating the middleman, we connect fans and musicians like never before.Traditionally, the venue is booked, the show is announced and then tickets are sold – leaving fans with no say, and musicians with the pressure to fill the show. With Gigstarter this process is flipped — Sell the tickets then book the show."
• CONDUCTR - an app that turns the iPad into a controller. It is portable, user friendly, easy to customize and audience engaging. Its basic version is free.
• Psyx Research, Inc -  Psy(x) Audio develops the most advanced psychoacoustic technologies in the world today, used in digital broadcast, radio, TV, digital cinema, and consumer electronics. Core areas of innovation: Pyschoacoustics, Pre/Post Processing and Surround Sound.
• Lysn in (by Silent Storm) -  Lysn in enables friends to sync up music across multiple smartphones. Globally known as a "silent disco", the concept unifies the music listening experience through personal devices. 
• Phoncert – Phoncert is a live audio streaming and archiving music application for mobile devices allowing artists to deliver live content to their fans all over the world in real time. No more fans missing a show for any reason.
• Light4sound  is reshaping the sound of the guitar in a way that hasn’t happened since the 1930s. "Our first product, the Opik, is a drop-in replacement for the traditional magnetic pickup. The Opik uses optical technology to deliver a broader and deeper frequency response, resulting in a richer, truer depiction of the guitar's tone. With a variety of ways to program, customize and modulate the tone right as it comes off the strings, the optical guitar pickup will allow for a leaner configuration with more tonal range. The cost will be on par with existing high quality pickups and even eliminates the need to use metal strings."
• Jamendo - the world's largest the world's largest digital service for royalty free music. It enables artists to share their work and reach an international audience (more than 2,3 billions listens) and monetize it via our Licensing products (track licensing, in-store background music).

The judges for this round:

 Brian Zisk (SF MusicTech Summit), Patti Silverman (SF MusicTech Summit),

 Shane Tobin (Spotify/The Echo Nest), David Dufresne (Bandzoogle),

 Larry Marcus (Walden Venture Capital), Patrick Mahoney (SF MusicTech Fund),

 Darryl Ballantyne (LyricFind), Sarah Jones (Electronic Musician Magazine)

 and Casey Rae (Future of Music Coalition)