Student-run music business conference returns to U-M for third year

This story is part of a series about arts and culture in Washtenaw County. It is made possible by the Ann Arbor Art Center, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, Destination Ann Arbor, Larry and Lucie Nisson, and the University Musical Society.

The third annual Michigan Music Business Club Conference will feature panels, workshops, and speaking events by music industry professionals, topped off by a Q&A and acoustic performance by Isaac Slade, former lead vocalist for The Fray. The event will run from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on March 22 at Robertson Auditorium, 701 Tappan Ave. in Ann Arbor.
 
The Michigan Music Business Club (MMBC) is a student organization run through the University of Michigan’s (U-M) Ross School of Business. It focuses on hosting events and providing supplementary education to students interested in pursuing careers in the music industry. The group currently has about 80 members, and it accepts 10-20 new members each semester. It recruits students of any major, not just business students.
 
In planning the event, organizers "try to hit all the boxes within the music industry, so people can either stop in for one panel or come for the entire day's worth of programming and really find out what they're interested in and what makes them excited to work [in the music industry]," says Lily Bartels, MMBC’s head of conference.
 
The conference is open to all. Students receive discounted ticket prices and the first 400 participants to buy tickets will receive gift bags.
 
Bartels refers to the annual event as "the culmination of everything that MMBC does" throughout the regular semester, which involves providing students with learning opportunities they might not otherwise be able to find.
 
MMBC aims to book at least one live show a semester to give students experience finding venues, booking artists, selling tickets, and promoting shows, for example. The club also brings in speakers from various wings of the music business – "anywhere from production to music marketing to publishing to copyright law," Bartels says – to speak to MMBC members.
 
Bartels says part of the conference's goal is to "give the [wider U-M] campus the opportunity to learn all about these different" aspects of the music industry. That allows campus community members to share in MMBC members' wealth of knowledge without requiring them to join the club, which is application-based.
 
"We understand that someone might be super interested in merchandise, but they might not want to apply to MMBC because they don't see the value in coming to a meeting every week," Bartels says.
 
For that reason, she says, organizers "try to get a fairly wide range of different speakers."
 
This year’s keynote address will be delivered by Jeremy Zimmer, CEO of United Talent Agency. Other speakers include Gene Salomon, managing partner of Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown, & Passman; Matt Young, president of Bravado at Universal Music Group; Ari Nisman, CEO of Degy Entertainment and a U-M alum; and many others.
 
Bartels says she hopes that conference-goers "are able to connect with different speakers through coffee chats and potentially do projects with these speakers or become interns, which can lead to career growth in the music industry."
 
More generally, she says, "I'm hoping people learn a lot and find something that they're passionate about."
 
Tickets to the conference are available here.

Rylee Barnsdale is a Michigan native and longtime Washtenaw County resident. She wants to use her journalistic experience from her time at Eastern Michigan University writing for the Eastern Echo to tell the stories of Washtenaw County residents that need to be heard.

Photo courtesy of Michigan Music Business Club.