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The fifth annual Measure of Music conference and hackathon took place virtually from February 21-23, 2025, celebrating its fifth anniversary by highlighting the influence of data in the music industry. This event aimed to educate current and aspiring music executives about music and data, featuring collaborations with prominent figures and companies in music data democratization. To commemorate the milestone, the event revisited key moments from past years, including a return of the first year’s keynote speaker, Cherie Hu, alongside other popular panels and a retrospective keynote by founder Christine Osazuwa. Our sponsors this year were Chartmetric, jump.global, The ROSTR Group, Songkick, The Orchard, Luminate, BandLab, Audoo, OFFstep, and Abbey Road REDD. Our location sponsors were Berklee College of Music in Boston and Abbey Road Institute in Boston. We had promotional & marketing support from Industry in Spanglish, Women in Music, BPI Innovation, The MUusic Managers Forum (MMF), and The Country Music Association (CMA).
This year, Measure of Music drew nearly 2,000 spectators and involved 91 project participants, 36 speakers, and numerous other contributors across various capacities. The participants, who came from 22 countries, had 48 hours to develop music data projects, culminating in presentations to judges. These projects ranged from artist development plans to innovations in music creation and live music strategies. Notably, the event celebrated diversity with 62% of attendees identifying as people of color or indigenous, and 60% as gender minorities.
The hackathon winners presented impactful projects. The first-place “GigAtlas” offered a simplified, data-driven approach to tour planning, while the second-place “PITCH IT” provided a dynamic tool for artist promotion. The third-place project focused on a data-driven marketing plan for artist Syante’s new EP release.
