As Amsterdam Dance Event celebrates its 30th anniversary from October 21–25, its business conference is putting music technology at the center of the conversation. ADE Pro’s 2026 program will bring artists, platform executives, technology companies and investors together to examine who controls the tools shaping music—and how creators can have a stronger say in their development.
With companies including Google DeepMind, NVIDIA, YouTube Music, Splice, SoundCloud, Deezer, Image-Line and Believe participating, the program connects music creation with the business decisions behind distribution, discovery and emerging technology.
Artificial intelligence is a major focus, but the agenda extends to artist ownership, independent infrastructure, human curation and the funding needed to turn new ideas into sustainable businesses.
One of the central discussions, “AI Platforms Roundtable: Setting the Terms,” brings together Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava, SoundCloud’s Bina “B” Mistry, NVIDIA’s Shari Reich, Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier, Believe COO Romain Becker and Image-Line CEO Constantin Koehncke. Moderated by Cliff Fluet, the session will explore what workable agreements between AI companies and the music industry could look like. Licensing, attribution and model training are among the issues outlined in ADE’s announcement.
Those questions have practical consequences for producers. For example, using an AI tool to develop a musical idea can raise questions about the material used to train it, the rights attached to its output and how the people behind the original recordings are compensated.
Google DeepMind’s Jeff Chang will also lead “Models and Agents: The Future of Music Production in the AI Era.” The session will examine how emerging AI models and agents could influence the production process, bringing a product development perspective to the discussion about music’s next generation of creative tools.
Artists will contribute their own experiences through “Artists on AI: A No-BS Roundtable,” featuring BT, Portrait XO and Mathame, with additional participants to be announced. The discussion will address how AI affects authorship, studio workflows and the distribution of income.
Elsewhere, ADE Pro will explore what happens when artists become founders. “The Artist Founder – Building, Shipping, Touring” brings together Matt Black, Josh Baker and Nathan Duvall to discuss developing platforms and businesses alongside creative careers. Their experiences open up a broader question: what could musicians build if they had greater control over the systems they depend on?
That practical approach continues with Nettwerk Music Group’s Tomas Luyke. His session, “The Future of DIY Is Shaping Your Own Label with AI,” will examine open-source workflows and data integrations intended to make large language models useful for streaming and release information.
The conference will also consider the value of human judgment in an industry increasingly shaped by automated recommendations. “Beyond the Feed – Taste, Trust, and Curated Communities” features Bessie-Mae, Michail Stangl and Quentin “TinTin” Chambers, exploring whether independent radio, specialist communities and human curation can support financially sustainable alternatives to algorithmic feeds.
Related sessions will examine artist-owned distribution and the pressure to maintain a constant online presence. “If You Don’t Like It, You Build It” brings founders together to discuss alternative infrastructure, while “Rethinking Our Relationship with Social Media” features Marrøn, ANNĒ, Anastasios Diolatzis and Emma Chambers in a conversation about digital burnout and long-term career sustainability.
Financing will be another part of the agenda. “Who Funds The Future: Capital On Different Terms” will explore investment approaches with Rich Britton, Ben Wynter and William Morgan, while “Music Industry As Investor” will feature artist-entrepreneurs Tinie Tempah and Sam Feldt.
The ADE Startups program will culminate in The Chorus Showcase, featuring eight companies: nowon, Exibeat, zig~zag, EventSynth, Groovian, AIDAR, Sonura and Smash. Scheduled for October 22 at Felix Meritis, the showcase will introduce the Class of ’26 to investors, potential partners and the international industry. According to ADE’s announcement, the companies were selected from hundreds of applicants and have completed a 12-week mentorship program.
Together, the sessions place a clear question at the heart of ADE Pro’s anniversary edition: as music technology advances, how much influence will artists have over its direction? The program gives creators, companies and investors a shared forum to work through the decisions that will shape how music is made, discovered, owned and funded.
Amsterdam Dance Event takes place October 21–25, 2026. Explore the program at amsterdam-dance-event.nl.
