New Music Seminar To Return

The premier music conference of the 80's and early 90's, the New Music Seminar, will return once again on July 21st at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. The brainchild of Tommy Boy Record's Tom Silverman, NMS was the place to be once upon a time.

Like most conferences, NMS started off really small with just a couple of hundred people, but soon became a large, must-attend event. And also like most conferences, became so large and unwieldily by the end of its 15 year run that the movers and shakers stayed home. Once the word gets out that something is cool and there's access to industry insiders, every kid that can dig up $400 is there looking for their big break. At that point the conference starts rolling down the mountain of indifference by the very people that it's built upon and it's not coming back (it seems like South By Southwest is nearing that point now).

Silverman is wisely keeping the attendance limited this time around, but tickets are only $99, which makes me think that he's doing this for the right reasons and not to make money.

According to Silverman, the new NMS will serve as a guidepost for “disenfranchised artists disheartened by the state of the industry and desperate for change.” The Seminar will be presented in association with NYU Steinhardt’s Music Business Program.

I don't know if you can ever go back to the good old days, but I'm glad that Tommy Silverman's trying. Good luck. Click here more information of the New Music Seminar.