Michigan’s Music Econ Summit attracts musicians for ‘the business of being an artist’

GRAND RAPIDS — Hailing from the Lake Michigan shoreline to Detroit, last weekend’s Music Econ Summit in downtown Grand Rapids drew a wide variety of musicians embracing “the business of being an artist.”

The daylong event hosted by the nonprofit Michigan Music Alliance covered a lot of ground for emerging artists and veteran musicians — from taking advantage of rapidly changing technology to the proper etiquette for marketing music to media outlets to tips on songwriting, recording and stage presence.

The conference attracted about 120 registrants from across the state, along with a dozen presenters, panelists, volunteers and music industry experts who offered up a day filled with information designed to help musicians create successful enterprises from their art. 

As Nicholas James Thomasma, MMA executive director and veteran musician/songwriter, put it: It was all about “the business of being an artist,” with plenty of opportunities for attendees to network, ask questions of those in the know and hand out business cards “like candy.”

There was plenty of all of the above with notable experts such as recording studio owners Michael Crittenden and Robby Fischer, Christian hip-hop star Steven Malcolm, Lutely CEO Kyle Jekielek, Sounds of the Zoo founder Jennifer Hudson-Prenkert, Opnr CEO Dre Wallace and more on hand for presentations and panel discussions.

Attendees heard about ways to release their music quickly with the help of AI tools and how to improve the way they present their songs visually.

Panelist Yessina Gomez called it amplifying the “physical movement in storytelling. … At any point that you’re ready to take your music to a visual aspect to be seen, that is when you should be considering having movement in your speech presence and in your setup. … What is the message that you’re sending out to the world?”

In that same vein, Local Spins founder John Sinkevics emphasized that this message from artists with new music or upcoming performances needs to be presented to media outlets in an organized, precise fashion with biographical information, updated photos, website and track links, and other basic details. “If you want to be treated as a professional, you have to act like a professional,” he stressed.

The second annual conference hosted by the MMA also featured various vendors, one-on-one mentoring sessions and free photo portraits by Chelsea Whitaker Photography.

Learn more about the alliance, membership opportunities and more online at michiganmusicalliance.org.

— Find more Michigan music news and concert listings at LocalSpins.com. Email John Sinkevics at john@localspins.com.