By Antony Bruno
The Denver/Boulder area isn’t very high on the list of places people in the digital music business think of as a destination for new innovation, recruitment, and innovation for their business. But it should be, and that’s why the first-ever Denver Music Hack Day is coming to town July 20-21.
These hackathons provide an opportunity for programmers, developers, designers and artists to come together and conceptualize, build and demo the future of music. Software, hardware, mobile, web, instruments, art—anything goes as long as its music related.
Until now, these events have largely taken place in the major “hub” cities that the music and technology industry typically center around, such as New York, London, San Francisco and others. So it’s time for a change of scenery. Already, representatives from Spotify, SoundCloud, Rdio, the EchoNest and more have confirmed their participation in the Denver event. Clearly, Denver has all the components required to really plant a flag in this space.
For starters, one of the biggest success stories in digital music was founded and continues to keep its headquarters here in Denver—Beatport. In addition to being the presenting sponsor for the Denver Music Hack Day, Beatport is known worldwide as the largest online music retailer for DJs. It’s also a leader in redefining what it means to be a digital retailer, having launched several new features designed to better connect fans and the DJs who frequent its site—something more mainstream music services are just starting to work on now—leading to its recent acquisition by SFX Entertainment.
Next Big Sound was based in Boulder during its formative stages thanks to TechStars. There are also a host of smaller digital music startups popping up that deserve national attention. Bitcount’s Cleartune and Stagepass music apps are generating international acclaim. Soundkeep is building an online engine for music collaboration. Tunipop is leading innovation in the online merch business. Wimbo Music is launching a multitrack play-along app. Soundwall is revolutionizing in-home audio.
Yet to date, national digital music services had few reasons to travel here and interact with this community. So the Music Hack Day was created to provide this reason and bring the national digital music industry here to experience firsthand the creativity and passion of this region. And to generate even more bang-for-their-buck, the Hack Day is being held in conjunction with the Denver Post Underground Music Showcase—a four-day music festival featuring 420+ national and local acts across 20 stages—in order to merge our tech and startup community with our exciting music scene.
This is a huge opportunity to put the Denver/Boulder area on the radar of the converging music and tech industries. There will be prizes for the best hacks ranging from fun hardware and gear, to a free trip to a hack day in another city. Sometimes, people get hired, companies get bought, and technology gets licensed as well. But mostly it’s just a way to share ideas, network, and celebrate a love of music.
Music Hack Day Denver will take place July 20-21 at Galvanize. Participants include Beatport, Spotify, SoundCloud, Rdio, Mailchimp, Bitcount, and more by the day. Food will be provided by Gather, Biker Jims Gourmet Dogs, and other Denver-area providers. Please come join us for two days of music, coding, food and fun. Register here.
Antony Bruno is the former digital editor of Billboard magazine and co-organizer of the Music Hack Day Denver event.