FlashFWD 20II Recap

On Wednesday, June 8th, Fuse in association with SoundCtrl and Internet Week welcomed a packed house at the Gramercy Theatre in Manhattan’s Flatiron district to celebrate FlashFWD 20II.

FlashFWD represented the culmination of another years’ hard work for SoundCtrl, as well as a celebration of the promising future of music tech.  The stories behind Troy Carter, SoundCloud, SoundTracking, The Creators Project, and The Echo Nest, were proudly on display, and the future of music tech never looked more impressive.

As the title FlashFWD indicated, the night was more than a celebration of the past year’s worth of achievements for SoundCtrl and the five tech companies honored that night — it was a night to celebrate the promise the future holds for everyone in attendance — as music industry professionals, and perhaps even more powerfully, as lovers of music ourselves.

So much so that, for a moment, one could almost forget all the troubles the music industry is currently facing and lose themselves in their excitement for the future.  Difficult as it may be, if one were to push past the piracy concerns, ignore the major labels being sold, and turn a blind eye to the turmoil in the industry we know and love, one might actually realize just what an astonishing time we live in for music fans.  The technology on display that night promises not just to increase consumption of music, but to change the way we think about interacting with music — touching on everything from doing amazing things with the lights on stage at live shows, to further advancing the way we share music experiences with one another.

For one night, we all flashed forward to a world where the focus was on how technology could further the cause of making the world a better place to interact with the music we love.

I can safely say I have never been more proud to be a part of the SoundCtrl family as on that night.

Here’s to another great year for for the advancement of technology, for excellence in blogging, and of course for music itself.