Line-up
Bart Becks
Internet and media entrepreneur
Can crowdsourcing be the start of an alternate model to empower the creative industry, and startup ventures in general?
Session info
SonicAngel was built with the ambition to unleash creative music talent based on the power of the crowds.
By involving fans in every step of the music process, emerging artists have the opportunity to be discovered, financed and released based on levering the strength of social media, direct to fan methods and leveraging the strength of individuals willing to make a difference.
More generally, crowdsourcing is drastically changing the classic process of top-down selection and venture financing, towards involved and engaged fans that can enable entrepreneurs to realize their creations, projects and even companies.
In this session, Bart Becks will explore if and how crowdsourcing can be the start of an alternate model to empower the creative industry, and startup ventures in general.
About
Bart Becks is a Belgian internet and media entrepreneur.
In 2010, he launched SonicAngel together with Maurice Engelen (Praga Khan, Lords of Acid & Antler Subway Records). One year later, SonicAngel has an artist roster of 30 artists across 5 countries, and is rapidly expanding across Europe and the US.
Previously, Bart Becks was CEO of Belgacom Skynet, and thereby at the forefront of free and high-speed internet, online media and digital television revolutions. Next, he became chief innovation & new media of the SBS Europe Group, which was acquired in 2008 by pan-European media giant ProSiebenSat1. Since then he was involved in a series of startups in Europe and the US, such as Netlog, Storify and Zamante. He is also Chairman of he Flemish IBBT, the innovation center for ICT & Media.
He graduated from the University of Hasselt in Commercial Engineering, and obtained his MBA from the University of Liège, and followed executive education at the Columbia University (NewYork) and Berkeley (SanFrancisco). Bart alternately lives in Brussels and Los Angeles with his wife Femke & son Charlie, but was born and raised in Bilzen, Limburg.
