Anyone who has a desire to thrive in the music industry would do well to make room in their Friday schedule for the free music conference, Musician, Inc.: The Working Artist.

The conference will feature five different panels of speakers with varying expertise in the music industry. The panels cover topics such as recording and mastering, press/publicity, music law and business, and booking.

Matthew Crumpton, a co-sponsor and panelist in the event, is responsible for putting together the panels. Singer and former Buckeye Marti Dodson, from Saving Jane, will also appear as a panelist.

Crumpton said that Dodson volunteered to speak on the issue of going from wanting a career in music to having one.

Eddie Ashworth will be another panelist who shares expertise.

“Eddie was the engineer and mixer on every record by Sublime; … on all the popular records that people know,” he said.

Ashworth is discussing what needs to be done before going into a studio in addition to the expectations a person should have, Crumpton said.

“Chris DeVille, who’s a music columnist from Columbus Alive! – he’s going to speak about what bands need to do to get press,” he said.

Each speaker’s knowledge will help the aspiring musician to make better choices in furthering a realistic career in music.

“It’s helping new artists and entry-level musicians think about music like
a small business and then execute the business plan to have a chance at success,” Crumpton said.

Crumpton and Kristi Wilcox are responsible for spawning the vision of this conference.

Wilcox is involved with the Sports and Entertainment Law Association at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law as she works toward her master’s degree in arts policy and administration in addition to a juris doctorate.

When she was a first-year law student, the president of SELA introduced her to Crumpton because they had common interests in their field.

“I have been kind of the campus liaison,” Wilcox said.

Even though SELA, a co-sponsor of the conference, is supposed to be for Sports and Entertainment Law, she said many of the past speakers and events have been aimed at the sports aspect.

“So we were really looking for a way to beef up the ‘E’ in SELA,” Wilcox
said.

She would like to see the event become annual.

“We’re starting small, but we’re hoping to grow it and eventually have it cover more things,” she said. “Also, in the future I’d like to see it incorporate some performances by musicians.

Even if someone does not have the intention of directly affecting the music industry, there are still valuable pieces of information to be heard.

“While there’s this theme running through it, the working artist, I think there’s a lot of component parts that people can learn in this context but then take it back to their own major and use it,” Wilcox said.

The plethora of potential advice will be open to all students, faculty and staff that are interested, and people are welcome to arrive whenever they prefer.

“It’s not cumulative, where you would have to attend the first one to understand what was going on in the third one,” she said. “It’s definitely flexible — where people can pick and choose or see the whole buffet.”

The conference will last from 1 to 5 p.m. Oct. 9 at the RPAC.