The music industry as of late has been blazing a new trail that merges both music and technology in ways that are shaping the future as we know it.
Though many artists and labels are just now catching onto the trend, music and tech platform The Digilogue just celebrated four years as a leader in the music world working to innovate technology and impact the community at large.
The Digilogue — which stands for Digital Dialogue — is a community-driven music and tech platform connecting and educating the global music community through digital marketing, artist development, publishing, sound production, and customer acquisition.
The company was created in 2016 with the intention to build up a real community in the music industry starting with co-founder Drew de Leon‘s core network.
Drew — VP of Digital Marketing at Alamo Records and former Director of Digital at Def Jam — has used his 10 years of industry experience and applied it to The Digilogue to create more networking opportunities in an industry where they’re already so scarce.
“I had been working in the music industry for 6 years, but always found it challenging to network,” he said. “I remember going to a paid music networking event that Summer and was very disappointed about the experience.”
Combined with his desire to do better by other fellow industry folks and pay it forward, Drew helped to establish a tech-based solution to deliver reliable resources and tools to navigate the music space.
As opposed to producing events that felt transactional, The Digilogue made it a point to develop substantial networking events that honed in on the community forming as a result of each successful turnout.
Additionally, The Digilogue began elevating the experience for attendees by tapping up-and-coming executives like Quinelle Holder from Medium Creative Agency and Trenton Pratt from BET to be speakers.
Over the past four years, The Digilogue’s passion for both music and technology has allowed the platform to organize over 50 programmed events across cities like Washington D.C. Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Austin, and more.
In October 2017, The Digilogue was able to program its first music and tech conference that included nine master classes, three panel discussions, and a full day of live music.
Moreover, the platform has since had a chance to work with powerhouse brands and companies such as Microsoft, Wix, Def Jam, Genius, Republic Records, SoundCloud, Interscope, and more.
This year, the tech platform had plans to host a U.S. tour to program in a new city each month but pivoted to online programming due to the pandemic.
Now, their current programming consists of posting music job opportunities each Monday, sharing an online directory for freelancers — who are highlighted each week — and hosting a weekly live performance show on Instagram live and Twitch for their community called “Digilogue After Dark.”
In addition to these initiatives, The Digilogue also releases a weekly podcast series called “The L’s” aka #LessonsLearned, and panels and masterclasses via Zoom on Sundays and Wednesdays.
Although the music community, along with the rest of the world, is experiencing the effects of the pandemic, The Digilogue is still making an effort to provide much needed digital resources and support.
“As we experience the new normal we understand the major challenges music creatives are facing from an educational, financial, and mental standpoint,” said co-founder Drew. “However, as an organization, we’ve combined our music and tech resources to let music creatives know there’s a diverse community here to support them now and throughout their careers.”
Most recently, they programmed a massive virtual Music Career Summit that featured more than 33 speakers and had over 1100 attendees across 18 countries around the world join.
To learn more about The Digilogue, visit their website.
