Artificial Intelligence: A Boon or a Threat to Music?
Michel Zgarka is an experienced executive with a successful career of over 35 years in the fields of production (movies, television and music), communication (guest speaker/keynote speaker at over 25 international business events), marketing, financial engineering (media), and business development. He is highly skilled in strategic and creative planning, marketing, and personnel management for the media industry. Mr. Zgarka has produced, directed and distributed numerous film and television productions for the international market, including “GUMMYBAR”, which has been viewed over 6 billion times on YouTube. He has been the managing director of several film festivals. He is persuasive and has excellent communication skills that allow him to build strong relationships locally and internationally. Mr. Zgarka has a B.ED. (McGill University), a B.A. (Concordia University) and a master's degree in international communications (University of Nice). For the past ten years, Michel has been the CEO of the Hitlab Group, one of the original creators of patented artificial intelligence technologies for the music industry. Michel is also the executive president of the music production group Mackadamion.
Nicolas Baudoin is president of Billboard France, a new edition of the world's leading music media brand (+100M subscribers) created with the support of the So Press group. Previously, he participated for 4 years within Warner Music Group in the launch in France of the international distribution label ADA and then in the structuring of a division bringing together the labels Atlantic Records France, ADA France, ADA France, Rec. France, Rec. 118 and Elektra France.
A songwriter, screenwriter, and novelist, Brice Homs has also worked as a screenwriting consultant for major video game brands. He is a member of the board of directors of Sacem and chairman of its innovation council.
Global Head of Creative Innovation at Believe, Salim Jawad has a rich background in digital marketing for brands such as Apple, BNP Paribas or Redbull, and in music journalism at Vice/Noisey in particular.
For him, innovation and creativity are vectors of incredible opportunities, but they must meet a need and not be used incorrectly.
Passionate about technological innovation, Michael launched the “New Technologies” team at Sony Music France. Collaborating with Sony R&D teams in Tokyo, in particular Sony CSL, which he joined in 2019, he has spent the last few years contributing to the creation, development, and promotion of tools focused on the artist and creativity, powered by AI. His work extends beyond the traditional music industry, aiming to bring positive solutions to the fields of music, arts and culture and recently joined SONY AI as a music creator and R&D trust lead and focuses on “AI For Good ”.
An expert in the creative industry and innovation with more than 20 years of experience, Yvan Boudillet is the co-founder and honorary member of MusicTech Europe, the European network of musical innovator hubs.
Yvan previously held leading roles in digital transformation and management at Warner Music and EMI Music and founded the consulting firm TheLynk, where he helped drive innovation within the music ecosystem by enabling connection and collaboration between music organizations or institutions, artists, and startups. A regular international speaker (SXSW, Wallifornia, Slush Music, Sonar+D, Midem, Music Inc. India, 4YFN, ISMIR, Eurosonic, Eurosonic, Linecheck, Linecheck, Athens Music Week...) and a speaker specializing in the intersection between innovation and creative industries, Yvan has been an important voice advocating for inclusive and collaborative innovation across the music value chain.
Yvan is also the co-founder and president of Metal Social Club, the first network of metal entrepreneurs and creators.