The Music Business Association’s annual Music Biz conference, held in Nashville and scheduled for May, has been postponed until August, due to ongoing coronavirus concerns. The event is now scheduled to take place from Sunday, August 16 through Wednesday, August 19, 2020 at the JW Marriott Nashville. All conference registrations and hotel reservations will be honored and automatically transferred for the postponed dates.
“As concerns for the health and safety for people across the globe have grown, the Music Business Association has continued to monitor the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, in conjunction with the JW Marriott Nashville and local governing authorities,” the announcement reads. “The safety of our conference attendees, the greater Nashville area, and the communities from which our attendees hail has always been our paramount concern in making decisions about the future of the event.”
The announcement continues: “We are formulating plans to expand our support to everyone — members and non-members alike — through this crisis; after all, we will only get through this by lending one another a helping hand. This will start by making our back catalog of webinars available to all, as well as sharing our other educational materials — stay tuned for more details in the coming days.”
Music Biz President Portia Sabin said: “Thank you to our registered attendees, speakers, and sponsors for your patience and continued enthusiasm for our event in this extremely uncertain period. The music industry has survived many turbulent patches throughout its long history, and once this health crisis is controlled, we look forward to an opportunity to come together and support our industry’s collective path forward.”
The announcement concludes by encouraging “everyone to support our colleagues who have been hit hardest due to this crisis, particularly those in the independent retail and creative communities. Click here for information from our independent retail store partners about buying gift cards and shopping via their online storefronts. In addition, we encourage everyone to extend financial support to the artists and labels you love via livestream concerts and by purchasing music and merch either from retailers or directly from artist and label storefronts. Please also refer to Billboard’s running list of resources available to industry professionals during this ongoing crisis.”