Introducing The Virtual Electronic Music Summit

01 June 2020 - Press release

Free Virtual Summit Launches to Tackle Challenges Faced by the Music Industry Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The future of events and nightlife still shrouded in uncertainty. Everything we do is based around locations, gatherings, events, and shows — and those have disappeared. The financial security of many people working in the music industry has become concerningly unreliable. The policies and projections around re-opening are constantly changing, vary drastically by region, and are frankly quite ominous for independent artists, venues, and production companies.

In this time where physical proximity is impossible, conversation and sharing knowledge are vital for our industry’s survival. We need resilience, innovation, & creativity to thrive in a post-COVID-19 world. The Virtual Electronic Music Summit (VEMS) is a new electronic music industry platform, designed for the COVID-19 era. The very first free to attend VEMS will take place June 4-7, 2020.

The Summit will tackle industry issues such as The State of the Scene, Staying Safe And Sane, Fostering a More Diverse Digital Economy for Music, Digital Marketing for Artists, and Virtual Collaborations, Digital Events & the Future of Festivals. There will also be several production streams, including Soundscapes & Immersive Compositions in Ableton Live, Advanced Vocal Production and Mixing, and Scratching & Creativity.

This experimental digital conference is designed to start the conversation and bring together music industry thought-leaders from across Canada and the world. The goal is to connect, educate, and empower electronic music industry professionals, amateurs, brands, and fans who have been affected by COVID-19 through a series of online workshops, panel discussions, Q-and A’s, and keynote speakers.

The aim is for this event to bring hope, purpose, and structure to many artists and industry workers whose lives have been greatly impacted by the industry shut down, for what looks to be the rest of this calendar year.

Currently announced speakers include:

• ●  Skratch Bastid, Live Performing Artist

• ●  Mungo’s Hi Fi, Soundsystem and Music Production Collective

• ●  Cherie Hu, Founder, Water & Music

• ●  Jeroen Fontain, CEO, Audio Obscura

• ●  Fliptrix, High Focus Records

• ●  Vel Omazic, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Canada’s Music Incubator

• ●  Nick Middleton, Westwood Recordings & The Funk Hunters

• ●  David Sikorski, Senior Editor, EARMILK

• ●  Arlen Cormac, Sr. Vice President of Touring and Production, PK Sound

• ●  Liz Thomson, Co-founder, Bass Coast Festival & The Art Guild Co.

• ●  Pete Emes, Smalltown DJs, the Hifi Club

  Alongside 20+ other industry leaders.

  Virtual events have the potential to be increasingly inclusionary by eliminating any restrictions to attend. VEMS hopes to create an easy-to-access platform to host thoughtful discussion and inspirational content, in order to address the current challenges the industry is facing, explore possible solutions, and navigate a successful path into the new normal. This free to attend program was made possible thanks to the support of our partners: Factor Canada, Ableton, Pioneer DJ, ILIO, Spectrasonics Virtual Instruments, Alberta Music, Warp Academy, and Westwood Recordings.

  To view the program schedule, speaker lineup, and to reserve your spot visit

  http://virtualelectronicmusic.com/