MUMBAI: Nokia Music Connects is back in its fourth edition to showcase and highlight the national and global music industry. As the consumption of content is moving more and more towards the digital platform, whether it is music, video gaming or social, the theme this year is ‘Digital Transformation’.

With audio and video consumption increasing at a rapid pace towards streaming or downloading through mobile, the CD and DVD are receding into the background. The ‘Digital Transformation’ will be a time to go into pause mode to take stock of what is happening where, look at the changes on the business, technology, innovation and consumption. The idea: build a more robust holistic way forward for the various constituents of the ecosystem and work collectively to enhance business prospects.

The conference will discuss topics like ‘The new music ecosystem’, ‘Emerging online streaming services’, ‘Film producers retaining their own music rights’, ‘The role of government in music and culture’, ‘Overview of the TRAI guidelines on VAS and reviving revenues’, ‘ Future of the music label’, ‘Music festival culture is developing in India’, ‘Indian publishing industry’, ‘The future of music apps and gaming’, ‘Is the media segmenting music?’, ‘The creative view on copyright act’, ‘Monetizing piracy’, ‘Future of retailing music’ and ‘Electronic dance music’.

With the conference spotlight being on the Australian music industry, the event will also include sessions by one of the world’s most prominent rock promoters, Michael Chugg sharing his experiences of working with the  biggest acts and discussing the current state and future of live music in the Asian region.

The music fraternity will come together to discuss the current state and the way forward for the music business. Leading executives from the Indian and international labels, digital platforms, live music industry and device manufacturers will be present at the conference. The keynotes will be addressed by Nokia global head of entertainment Jyrki Rosenberg, Australian MP and  minister for regional Australia, regional development and local government and minister for arts Hon Simon Crean, OML Entertainment Private Limited CEO Vijay Nair and DisneyUTV Digital MD Vishal Gondal.

Other eminent panelists and speakers include Ralph Simon, Bob Lefsetz, Steve Lillywhite, Savio D’Souza, Raghu Dixit, Andrew Jenkins, Atul Churamani, Anil Wanvari, Anshoo Sharma, Guy Fletcher, Guy Henderson, Jane Dyball, Mandar Thakur, Neeraj Roy, Siddhartha Roy, Vijay Lazarus, Viral Oza, Anthony Zameczkowski, Ashish Joshi, Brandon Bakshi, Dan Ghosh-Roy, Glenn Dickie, James Bradbury, Jasper Donat, Jonathan Dworkin, Larry Heath, Lavina Tauro, Mehmood Curmally, Millie Millgate, Nick Halkes, Niels Munksgaard, Nikhil Mathur, Rahul Ajatshatru, Ruuben Van Den Heuvel, R Madhusudhan, Scot Morris, Soumini Sridhara Paul, Swapnil Shinde, Tank, Ted Cohen, Vikas Varma and Vipul Pradhan.

To cap off the event, five Australian acts will be presented at Nokia Music Connects 2012. The bands performing are: Big Scary, Jinja Safari, Karnivool,  Sheppard, and The Aston Shuffle.

Backed by global mobile devices leader Nokia for the fourth year running, the two-day long conference will be held on 6-7 November at ITC Grand Central, Mumbai. Produced by Hong Kong–based Music Matters and Indiantelevision.com group’s Radioandmusic.com, Nokia Music Connects is supported by the Indian and international music industry trade bodies IMI, SIMCA, PPL, IPRS and BMI amongst others.