Technology is continuing to expand and transform music and our human systems around it.  The Innovating Music podcast, launched in 2017, launched to look at Innovation in Music from all sorts of angles and beliefs.  It has grown to looking at possible Futures in Music, both locally and globally. Some episodes are funny, some are deep in tech talk, and others are inspirational. Our Executive Director, Dr. Gigi Johnson, talks with start-ups, long-time industry leaders, new technology creators, artists, and others. Each shares how new technologies are transforming how we create, collaborate, and create communities around music in a connected age — in our home towns and in communities across the globe, plus in systems that connect these futures together.

So far, we’ve shared our digital fireside with innovative guests on topics ranging from virtual reality, blockchain, and streaming to finding love, intractable problems, trust and relationships, and unanswered questions in innovation.

The UCLA Center for Music Innovation (CMI) explores how technology is changing how we create, consume, and collaborate around music — locally and globally. CMI faces outward and inward, creating programs and conversations between musicians, tech companies, labels, distributors, startups, and other music community members, as well as connecting these conversations with our own students and faculty.

Our projects around tech and music include:

• The Lab, our next-generation marketing boutique music marketing lab, working with students who have completed our Internet Marketing and Branding for Musicians course
• The Future of Music in Los Angeles events in 2019 (soon to be announced), a planned series of events with partners including the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Dept., part of our Research Focus for this year and next.
• Innovating Music, our half-hour podcast series found across all major podcasting services
• Programs on issues including playlisting and future trends with SXSW Music, MusicBiz, and other industry conferences
• Industry seminars on current music technology trends
• Music 2020, a 2016 one-day conference with Digital Hollywood at the Skirball Cultural Center, to explore foretasted changes in recorded music, live performance, and community engagement

CMI is supported in ideas and connections by our Industry Advisory Council, which helps keep us at the cutting edge and connected with industry thought leaders. The Center also is supported by our Faculty Advisory Committee, including our three HASoM departments plus innovators from Theater Film and Television, UCLA Anderson, and Design Media Arts.