Dave Haynes

I can’t decide whether there are more conferences these days or whether I just seem to be going to more? Would love to hear your opinions on that.

Anyway… October has been no exception and today I’ll be in Manchester for In The City. This will actually be my first time at ITC, I’m curious to see how it compares to other events given it’s history and focus on bands and music. I’ll be speaking on what I hope proves to be an interesting panel entitled ‘New Digital Weaponry’. I’ll be joined by friends, Anthony Volodkin (Hype Machine), Ian Hogarth (Songkick) and Sean Adams (Drowned In Sound).

It’s up and down to Manchester in one day because the following day I’m off to Amsterdam ahead of Music & Bits. I’m moderating the Music Hack Day section of the event. Not quite sure how it’s going to pan out yet as unlike the usual 24hr Music Hack Days (like London, Berlin & Boston) we only have 9am - 6pm. But there are some really great people going: Anthony Volodkin (again), Justin Oulette (Muxtape), Jonty & Matt (Last.fm), Brian Whitman (The Echo Nest), Andie Nordgren (RjDj). Plus Eric from SoundCloud is doing an interview with Speedy J. So I think it’s going to be a LOT of fun in any case. And apparently Henrik Berggren will be treating us to a final version of the CitySounds iPhone app!

The following day it’s back to more normal proceedings for the Amsterdam Dance Event. The conference brings together the finest from the dance & electronic side of the music industry and is always a great event. This must be something like my sixth ADE now but only the second time speaking there. This time round I’ve somehow been asked to take part in 3 panels. It’ll be interesting to moderate a panel on mobile music apps and what their role is for artists and labels involved in electronic music. But the highlight looks like it could be a panel led by Richie Hawtin that I’ve been asked to sit on that also includes Ableton and Native Instruments. Looking forward to asking him about his Twitter DJ project (which I talked about here). The night program is always fun too and I’m sure I’ll be soaking up plenty of Amsterdam culture.

Then I have a few days to recover before getting on the Eurostar and heading over to Brussels to deliver a keynote at Muziek Digitaal. It’s my first time back to Belgium since the days when I was DJ-ing. Looking forward to meeting a lot of new people, spreading the word about SoundCloud and putting together a more formal presentation on the topic of ‘Access vs Ownership’ of music. Plus, I’m sure you might catch me propping up the bar with Dubber, Lykle and Ard at some point during the proceedings!

So there we have it. It’s going to be a busy end to the month. If you’re attending any of these events then please make sure you come up and say hello. I’ll be easy to spot, most likely pimping my new SoundCloud attire that I had made up especially