SF Music Week: Industry Summit Recap

Last Friday, I attended the SF Music Week: Industry Summit. The day was a journey that I think highlighted a lot of the positives & negatives that we’re seeing across the music industry right now. It was all specific to the Bay, but I think this is probably something other areas are also dealing with.

The day started with Ruby Ibarra, an artist who grew up in the Bay. She has been doing music for many years but in 2025 won NPR's Tiny Desk Contest (which had over 7,000 submissions). She talked about the long road to 'overnight' success. She also highlighted how important it felt to have a mic in her hand at this time... she is an immigrant from the Philippines who grew up in the Bay, & her existence is inherently political right now. That platform gave her the ability to go across the country performing over the last year, & she was grateful for the timing of it. She also had a baby around the time she won the contest, so she talked about what it was like to be a mother & an artist. She said the two things go hand in hand for her. She shows up as a better mom because she gets to be her whole self with music, & she gets to include her daughter in the process. On top of all of this, she has started an independent label in the Bay & talked about how important it is for her to stay here & help grow the culture.

That was a big theme that continued throughout the day... how can artists have successful careers in the Bay without immediately needing to move to LA or NYC?

After Ruby, SF mayor Daniel Lurie came in & spoke. He has been a huge advocate for the arts & music in SF since taking office, & I think it has been great for the city & morale. He mentioned that independent venues generated $1.4 billion for the local economy last year. He also emphasized wanting to support artists having sustainable lives here (which tech has actively made harder to do over the years) since this city is built on arts & culture. I loved the sentiment, but it will be interesting to see how it actually gets implemented.

You could see the contrast happen immediately when the next panel featured owners of prominent independent venues in SF. August Hall, Great American Music Hall, The Faight, & Bottom of the Hill were represented. The first thing you heard was: Wow, that's great that independent venues are bringing in $1.4 billion to the local economy, but we are all struggling at the independent level. These venues are the ones at the ground floor of investing in local musicians. They talked about how it feels like a thankless job... they do all the early investment, & then as artists get bigger, they move on to larger venues. It's like they do the work only to have the artist poached by Live Nation. Meanwhile, the independent venues actually talk to each other & have a community within the city that isn't rooted in competition.

They are struggling with licensing fees, insurance fees, & fighting to pay bands a living wage while trying to keep the lights on themselves. A lot of them heavily rely on liquor sales to drive revenue, & that's becoming more of a struggle as people are drinking less. Bottom of the Hill, which has been around since 1991, is closing this year... on their own terms. A lot of people in the city love that venue & are showing up to celebrate it this year. On the other hand, one of the owners of The Faight was on stage, & they just opened 1.5 years ago. They're just getting started, but are already seeing some of these same struggles. They are actually applying to become a nonprofit this year, since they aren't making a profit anyway. This may genuinely need to be the path for independent venues in this city.

This was my favorite panel of the day. They are the ones who are the most passionate & actually know what is going on. They are tapped into the scene in a way that nobody else on stage for the rest of the day was. One quote from the GM of the Great American Music Hall stuck with me: "Unfortunately I am so romantic about music." All of them agreed they are in it for the love of the music & the community, & definitely not for the money.

At this point it was lunch, & I was so energized by the first half of the day. The second half was a bit more nuanced.

The first panel after lunch was Women Leading the Bay Area Music Scene, & I was genuinely looking forward to the topic-centered around women’s experience in the music scene. I left feeling conflicted though... not about whether the conversation matters, because it absolutely does, but about how it's being had.

Most of the women on stage had been in the industry for years, & their experiences are real & worth honoring but it felt like the conversation was skewed heavily towards the corporate experience. We didn't hear from women musicians or women earlier in their careers. It also could have been powerful to include a male ally in the conversation (someone who actively advocates for women & could directly influence other men in the space).

Overall, the conversation around women in the music scene could have benefited from fresher, more diverse voices of people, rather than a select few with established careers & in leadership roles.

The next panel I attended was Beyond the Bay: Strategies for Global Reach in a Hyperlocal Scene, & I really enjoyed this one. It came back to the central question of the day... how do we build the Bay Area scene so that people can make it here the way they do in NYC or LA? The Bay has so many musical resources, a vast music history, & the infrastructure. So why do people still feel like they need to leave?

Marc E. Bassy spoke, along with Nima Etminan, the COO of Empire, & Nina Sacco, founder of a boutique agency in the Bay. Marc grew up here but built his career in LA, although collaborating with people from the Bay like Kehlani & G-Eazy. He has now moved back & started his own independent label. All three were thinking about how to grow artist careers to the level that's possible in NYC or LA. What they really drove home is that none of them care about virality anymore. They care about the quality of fans & community.

We are just coming out of the hyper-viral TikTok era where everyone was maximizing for snippets that would blow up & create a moment. It got to the point where people were trying to hack an algorithm to orchestrate something that can't be orchestrated... & even when it worked, those moments translated to streams, not a fanbase. What's interesting now are artists who can build a community that grows with them over time. A song with a bunch of algorithm-driven streams is not impressive to anyone anymore. It doesn't have to be millions of people to create a sustainable career. Authentic, intentional, original artistry is what matters.

That was genuinely refreshing to hear from people at the label & agency level. I am someone who rides hard for artists I believe in, but the bar is high for me to engage at that level. What I'm always drawn to is the story. Authenticity radiates through the music, the storytelling, the way someone just shows up as a person. That stuff matters. Someone who can actually resonate with their fans.

Now to the last panel of the day. This one... this one left me quite agitated. The Innovation & Technology Shaping the Future of Music panel had three CEOs of music tech companies on stage, & the conversation was heavily focused on pushing their own products & talking about how consumers are thinking about music. What was missing entirely was any real respect for artistry.

The amount of times I heard "anyone can create music now with AI" was staggering. The question also got posed "what really is the definition of music anymore?" During the Q&A, an artist in the room asked the question everyone should have been asking: I'm hearing a lot about consumers & listening, but what about us as artists... how do we continue to thrive & make a living from our work? & essentially got told that the music industry will figure it out & find new monetization paths. “That's what's been done before.” Total deflection & zero accountability.

This felt like a pattern I’ve seen with some tech companies entering the music space... they come in to disrupt & reshape consumer behavior while completely neglecting the thing that makes the industry worth caring about in the first place… the artists. One company on the panel builds tools for remixing songs inside video games, & their CEO kept describing music as one of the only mediums that is "read-only" & not interactive. In a room full of local artists, that comment didn't sit right with me.

This is exactly why we have been so intentional about how we’re building Pearl Music. Artists & independent venues have been used & exploited over & over again... by both their own industry & by technology companies. If I were an artist, I wouldn't trust anyone in tech either. That's the bar I hold myself to.

Overall, the day left me with so much to think about, which I think makes it a success. I love what NoisePop & SF Live have done with SF Music Week. You can feel, despite everything happening with AI & tech & the industry at large, that the SF scene is thriving & creativity is alive here. Now the work needs to begin to make sure it can continue... & that venues can thrive & artists can build sustainable careers in the very city they are helping to make so special.