Over the past decade or so Chicago, has become a hotbed of the music industry. The names of Common, Kanye, ring bells in the industry and keep a bright light shining on the city; however, for some reason the presence of a formal “industry” has always been lacking in Chicago.
The Global Mixx Music and Film Forum has been addressing this lack of structure for the past nine years. Global Mixx is the largest urban creative media and entertainment conference in the Midwest. This conference is where music and film professionals can share information and exchange ideas.
This year’s panels included film editing workshops, screen writing workshops, discussions on how to create your own media empire, and information about publishing and making money in the music business.
Rolling out sat in on the “Create, Publish and Making Money in the Music Business” panel. Panelists included Hustle Simmons, Daryl Jones and Kevin McFall of Ebony magazine. Jones touched on the fact that he is currently working with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to push legislation that will change the way artists are getting paid. For instance, many artists have songs on the radio, but if they didn’t write the song, they are not getting paid. Legislation is being created to change this.
Hustle Simmons discussed how he uses social media as his resume of sorts to promote himself and show potential investors and sponsors what he has done and how he has grown over the years.
“It was the tremendous labor of love that made this year’s Global Mixx Music and Film Forum successful from our team of supporters, sponsors to our event partners. The wonderful knowledge and resource sharing from panelists, moderators and organizations this year was priceless. We will continue to build and work with great sponsors such as ComEd and SAE Institute Chicago in contributing to enrich our community,” said Mary Datcher, the founder of Global Mixx, of this year’s conference
We asked Datcher about what to expect for the upcoming 10th anniversary of Global Mixx Music and Film Forum, she just promised that it will be big. We are looking forward to it.
Take a look at a few pics in the gallery below.
