Music Tectonics 2026 runs 27-29 October in Santa Monica. What a ticket costs, who it is really for, and how much AI is on the programme.
Getting in Open registration, no qualification needed — buy a ticket and go. Startup pitches are a separate application.
Checked against the published programme. Struck-through items are confirmed absent, not merely unlisted.
The music technology conference that stays small on purpose.
Sessions, pitches and a lot of unstructured time, which is the point.
It has openly repositioned. In its own words it has “evolved from being known as a music tech and startup conference to being the conference where the whole music industry comes to grow its market.” If your impression is of a startup showcase, that is no longer quite what it is.
The first speaker wave runs to 24 names, and the mix tells you more than the session titles:
Seven venture funds on a first-wave speaker list at a three-day conference is the clearest signal of what this event is for.
Yes — early booking is the only lever you have.
Book it if you are:
Skip it if you are:
Present throughout, but framed as a business question rather than a technology showcase.
The distinction against SXSW: SXSW is where platforms and policymakers argue about AI in public. Music Tectonics is where the people building and funding the tools talk about unit economics. If you want to know whether an AI licensing model can actually pay, this is the smaller and more useful room.
Venues around downtown Santa Monica and the beach, Santa Monica, California, USA Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Get directions →Themed A Rising Tide: Growing Music, Growing Value. Merck Mercuriadis of Hipgnosis Artist Partnerships keynotes. The first wave of 24 speakers spans ElevenLabs, Musical AI, Roland, Roblox, NetEase Cloud Music, Sub Pop, Loma Vista, LyricFind, beatBread and seven venture funds.
An annual music technology conference in the Los Angeles area, founded in 2019 and run by the music-tech PR firm Rock Paper Scissors. It brings together startup founders, label and publishing executives, and investors for three days of sessions on where music technology and music revenue are heading. Nothing to do with plate tectonics.
$449 at regular price, rising to $549 for walk-up tickets. Regular pricing expires in mid-October, roughly two weeks before the conference. There is no membership requirement, so the ticket price is the whole cost of entry.
Dmitri Vietze and his team at the music-tech PR firm Rock Paper Scissors. The first Music Tectonics conference ran in October 2019 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and it has stayed in the LA area since.
Music Tectonics' startup pitch competition, run with the Yamaha Music Innovations Fund. The final happens on stage at the conference. The 2026 edition opened entries to companies up to a year old.
Scale and focus. SXSW is a seven-day city-wide festival with over 100 music sessions among thousands of events. Music Tectonics is three days, one subject, and small enough that you can actually meet the people you came to meet.
Only if your interest is the business and technology layer rather than performing. There are no showcases and no A&R. It is the right room for an artist who is building a product or company alongside the music, and the wrong one for an artist looking for a deal.
