ASCAP Launches Research & Innovation Initiative With Startup Summits, Speaker Series, More

ASCAP has launched the Advanced Research & Innovation Initiative to explore how advanced technologies, new business approaches and creative collaborations can drive value for its music creator members and music consumers.

The new program will help to identify and develop new areas of growth and efficiency through technology accelerators, prototyping research projects, cross-pollination with the startup community, and knowledge-sharing through a bi-monthly speaker series.

To kick off the initiative, the performance rights organization has announced a partnership with the NYC Media Lab, which connects media and technology companies with universities in New York City. Meanwhile, the speaker series, which will be held at ASCAP offices in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville, will include sessions with industry and creative experts such as Daniel Belquer, intermedia artist and Co-Founder / Chief Technologist of Music: Not Impossible, which is a wearable technology inspired by the deaf community that translates sound onto the skin through vibration to provide all users a unique and nuanced music experience.

The initial phase also calls for ASCAP to host “Music Startup Summits” together with selected VC and investment firms to explore specific applied technologies and how they might be used in ASCAP’s business in the future.

“We are looking further into the technology horizon to seek out what may be possible to super-serve and support our songwriter and publisher communities for years to come,” said ASCAP chief strategy and digital officer Nick Lehman. “We are pursuing this program as a deliberate way to provide a funnel for the deep passion that ASCAP employees already bring to their work, in order to harness innovation that matters to our members. By exploring new technology, talent, business approaches, and partnerships, we can create new value as ASCAP evolves into the next century.”

Earlier this week, ASCAP announced that it would be rebranding and relocating its annual music creator conference in celebration of its 15th anniversary. The ASCAP Experience (formerly ASCAP’s ‘I Create Music’ EXPO) is scheduled to take place at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, April 1 – 3, 2020.