On February 26, 2010, over 600 students from 40 different business schools gathered at the Media and Entertainment Conference, an annual conference covering all aspects of the industry, from entertainment finance and venture capital investing to marketing, digital distribution and gaming. This year, the conference reflected an increasingly internationalized marketplace with the inclusion of the panel Artists Going Global, a deep-dive discussion on how entertainment and management experts are taking local music acts to all ends of the earth.
When it comes to music, globalization is a difficult subject to tackle: From language barriers down to cultural folkways, isn't entertainment one of the most highly localized industries out there? Not so, argued the panelists of Artists Going Global at the 2010 Media and Entertainment Conference. Increased mobilization (migration, as well as simple traveling) has exposed audiences across the world to a variety of cultures and increased the call for music access across borders. But the real nail in the coffin of localized music is the advent of the digital age, which has driven demand for globalized content on smartphones, computer screens and mp3 players across the world.
Image credit: University of Miami School of Business Administration