Mastering The Music Business (MMB) 2026

Behind countless albums, tours, TV shows, and live performances are session musicians, the highly skilled professionals who bring other artists' music to life. But what does it actually mean to build a career as a session musician, and is it a viable full-time profession?

This panel explores the realities of life as a session musician, from finding your first gigs and building a reputation to navigating the freelance nature of the job. How do session musicians get hired? What skills and mindset are essential? How stable is the income, and what are the biggest challenges and opportunities in this career path?

At Untold, Visa built a partnership that puts creators front and center, not as content vendors, but as voices worth investing in. In this panel, the key players behind the collaboration share how the model was designed, what the business case looked like, and what it means for a brand of Visa's scale to genuinely back emerging talent. A conversation for anyone working at the intersection of artist management, festival programming, and brand partnerships.

The road to one of the biggest Romanian performances at Eurovision with a very young band.

The festival market is becoming increasingly crowded, making it harder than ever for festivals to stand out, remain relevant, and build lasting relationships with their audiences and partners. With so many events competing for the same audiences, attention, funding, and resources, success often depends on having a clear and distinctive position.

But what does “positioning” actually mean for a festival? It goes beyond having a strong identity or a catchy slogan — it is about defining what makes a festival unique, who it is for, and why people should choose it over the many alternatives. It is also about understanding how a festival positions itself towards potential partners and sponsors: what it can offer them, what makes the partnership meaningful, and how its identity, audience, values, and cultural relevance can translate into a compelling proposition for brands.

This panel will explore how festivals can define and communicate their position, differentiate themselves in a competitive market, and build partnerships that go beyond traditional sponsorship models.