Keynote by Benji Rogers // INES

Benji Rogers is a British-born, New York-based entrepreneur, technologist, musician and the CSO and co-founder of the dotBlockchain Media Project. A pioneer of the direct artist-to-fan model of music distribution, Rogers founded PledgeMusic in 2009, which is now one of leading artist-to-fan platforms online with more than 4 million users and over 50,000 artists.

In his current role at dotBlockchain, Rogers is working to revolutionize the commercialisation and movement of music in the digital economy. The project aims to create a decentralized global registry of music rights through a new music format by leveraging blockchain technology and to forge meaningful industry partnerships to overhaul how artists get paid. Straddling the worlds of technology and music, Rogers advises a range of tech and music companies on how to bridge the divide between their industries and is also an instructor at Berklee College of Music on digital trends in the industry. A dedicated patron of arts and creativity in all its forms,

Rogers’ work is rooted in a belief in the democratizing power of the internet; he will always be ‘loving your work’.

This keynote was recorded on Friday, Nov 16, 2018.3

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The Innovation Network of European Showcases (INES) is a European cooperation project initiated by eight international showcase festivals and gigmit, the European digital platform for artist booking co-funded by the CREATIVE EUROPE program of the European Union. Education is the foundation of a successful industry. INES aims to make knowledge more sustainable and accessible to everyone in the music business by video recording panels, workshops, presentations and discussions that happen live at the INES showcase festival conferences and create an open source video library for music business education out of those videos.

More about INES: https://www.ines-festivals.eu/
More about gigmit: https://www.gigmit.com/
More about Sonic Visions: http://www.sonicvisions.lu/
Benji Rogers is CSO & Co-founder of Pledge Music: https://www.pledgemusic.com/about