Digital Dollars 2012

Let’s Get Video

Saturday April 21, 1pm-4pm – Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas St W)

The fourth in a five part series of seminars bringing together experts from the field to assist musicians in determining best practice in the new digital landscape. The popularity of videos has afforded music writers, artists and managers a whole new avenue for promoting and marketing their music. For April, our panel will share their experiences with a variety of blogs and the ups and downs of music blogging,

David Newland (Roots Music Canada, host)
Based in Toronto, David is a successful songwriter, the force behind The McFlies and co-founder & co-host of the Corktown Ukulele Jam community. Former Director of Social Media Canoe.ca, a leading Canadian web portal, David was the main contributor to The Canoe Dossier, a finalist for the 2009 Online Publishing Awards for “Best Blog”. David is now the Editor-in-Chief for Roots Music Canada, the portal for original organic Canadian music. He does frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist, specializing in using new media to build community. David served for 3 years on the Board of Directors of the Shelter Valley Folk Festival and is currently a Director of the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals. David is also a writer for MacLean’s Magazine. davidnewland.com, Follow him on Twitter: @davidnewland

Joel Goldberg (Joel Goldberg Productions)
Joel Goldberg is an Award winning Producer/Director of television shows, television series, documentaries, music videos, commercials, and web content. His ground breaking music videos have won every national award possible. He has worked with Colin James, Amy Sky, the Dream Warriors, and Zappacosta among others. He has directed lifestyle series including Party Mamas (Slice), Big Voice (W/OWN), and Glutton for Punishment. Joel has also directed commercials for clients including: Nokia, The Hockey Hall of Fame, Wrigley’s, Kelloggs, Ford, Winners, and Energizer batteries. For 14 years he was Managing Director, Creative/Production Services for CHUM Television. In this job, he supervised all Creative and Production for CHUM Television’s international MuchMusic and Citytv affiliates. He also consulted on the building and development of the channels. While at Citytv, he also Produced “Toronto Rocks”, Developed and Produced the hugely popular “Electric Circus”, and developed and Directed the Fashion series “Ooh La La”. Joel’s latest project, a full length feature documentary on the Downchild Blues Band continues to air on HBO Canada, TMN and Movie Central. He is currently in production on “Bruce Cockburn, Pacing the Cage” a documentary on Canadian musical icon and activist Bruce Cockburn which will air on VisionTV. He is also in his fourth year as Producer/Director of the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. Joel is President of the Film and Video Production Company, “Joel Goldberg Productions Inc.” joelgoldbergproductions.com

Eric Alper (eOne)
eOne Music Canada Director Of Media Relations and Label Acquisitions; has handled the PR for Ray Charles, The Wiggles, Steve Vai, The Prodigy, Sesame Street, Steve Earle, Sinead O’Connor, Frank Black, Underworld, All Time Low, and hundreds more. CTV’s Canada AM Music Correspondent. thatericalper.com, Follow her on Twitter: @thatericalper

Tiffany Ferguson (MuchFACT)
Tiffany’s music industry career began with internships at The Orange Record Label/Orange Lounge Recording studio and S.L. Feldman and Associates. Previously the office manager for True North Records and executive assistant to manager Bernie Finkelstein, Tiffany is the Program Coordinator at MuchFACT (formerly known as VideoFACT), a music video production fund, sponsored by MuchMusic and MuchMore (divisions of BellMedia). muchfact.ca, Follow her on Twitter: @muchfact

Mako Funasaka (Talkin’ Blues Media)
Mako Funasaka of Talkin’ Blues Media Inc. has been documenting the blues for the past 12 years. Mako was the recipient of the 2006 Maple Blues “Blues Booster” Awards and the 2010 Blues Foundation “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award in the category of Television, Film and Videos. He recently finished work as a story editor on Joel Goldberg’s Bruce Cockburn documentary and is currently working as an associate producer on Riddle Films 5-part documentary series entitled “God’s Greatest Hits”. Over the past few months, Mako has also completed a number of promotional videos for artists such as Shakura S’Aida, Steve Strongman, Aradia Ensemble, Slocan Ramblers and The Cecilia String Quartet as well as for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Koerner Hall. talkinblues.com

Digital Dollars: Let’s Get Social
Saturday February 11, 1pm-4pm – Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas St W)

The second in a five part series of seminars bringing together experts from the field to assist musicians in determining best practice in social media. The series is FREE to the public and each seminar will be streamed and archived at www.livestream.com/torontobluessociety

Johan Hultqvist (Pinwheel Music)
Our host for session #2, Johan is a musician, curator, and co-owner of PR company Pinwheel Music. Since 2003, he has toured extensively as the frontman for JUNO-nominated dancefloor activists Mr. Something Something. Aside from working as a publicist, manager and career consultant to some of Canada’s finest songwriters, he also teaches Do-It-Yourself publicity workshops to young and emerging artists. — www.pinwheelmusic.com, Follow him on Twitter: @johanhultqvist

Jason Loomis (Ariel Publicity)
The opportunities and unpredictability attracted Jason not only to the music industry, but to Ariel Publicity in particular. Inspired by the ever-changing dynamics of todays music business world, Jason is driven to make a difference and help musician’s master the digital domain. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Jason graduated from Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville with a degree in Music Business.Jason joined the team as Ariel’s personal assistant and internship coordinator after completing his own internship with the company. Since then, his duties have expanded to include managing all of the New Media Maker (bloggers, podcasters and DJs) relations, talking to incoming artists, helping to create and customizing campaigns for Cyber PR® artists, managing the day in and day out office activities and writing the Musician’s Arsenal blog series (which features the best apps, sites and tools to help independent musicians sort through the seemingly endless number of choices available). When not working in the Cyber PR® office, Jason can be found doing freelance recording, or playing guitar in his band, Ibex. arielpublicity.com, Follow him on Twitter: @jloom718

Bob Ledrew (Translucid Communications)
Bob Ledrew is Principle Consultant at Translucid Communications which specializes in public relations, social media and communications strategies. He is also membership services manager for the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals. Bob is a pioneer in social media, starting Flacklife, Canada’s first PR blog, in 2003 and has worked and has a public relations columnist for the CBC Radio program “The Business Network.” A contributor to the book The Age of Conversation 2: Why don’t they get it? Bob was the MC and one of the organizers of the first Case Study Jam, a new social media meetup in Ottawa. Bob has lectured and conducted conference workshops at Algonquin College, for Infonex Conferences, and was an organizer and speaker at TEDxOttawa, Ottawa’s first TED event. He is co-host of the PR podcast “PR and Other Deadly Sins” with Mark Blevis of Fleishman-Hillard Ottawa, and is creator and host of “The Kingcast“, a podcast devoted to the writing of Stephen King. Translucid.ca Follow him on Twitter: @bobledrew

Suzie Vinnick (Musician)
Blues artist Suzie Vinnick models best social media and audience development practices. While on the road much of the year, this communications savy musician has found ways to efficiently manage her web site, gig announcements, twitter feed, bandcamp, reverbnation. Suzie’s recent awards include two 2011 Maple Blues Awards, a 2011 Folk Music Award, a 2012 JUNO nomination and a nomination for best independent CD at the 2012 International Blues Challenge, www.suzievinnick.com Follow her on Twitter @suzievinnick

Emma Julien (Jane Harbury Publicity)
Emma is currently a publicist at Jane Harbury Publicity and arts administrator for artists such as Peter Katz, Corin Raymond, Rob Szabo, and Tangents North Music. Emma also recently created and distributed a free database of 2011/2012 folk festivals with Dave Cool. Follow her on Twitter @emmerlou
.