Two music industry "swiss army knives" walk into a bar could be an appropriate way of introducing this one. One thing they have in common is they are both reshaping how artists get paid and connect with fans by rewiring music's core economics - one through a novel user-centric streaming model; and the other through fan-powered royalties and AI-driven rights innovation.

Neil Sheehan is President of Vocana, the independent-only social streaming platform tackling unfair payouts, broken discovery, and the artist-fan disconnect. A 30-year music entrepreneur who has founded and exited two music companies. He has also helped develop a Billboard No. 1 artist and 25+ Billboard-charting acts, and is now reinventing streaming with a true user-centric payout model and direct artist-fan connections.

Mike Pelczynski is a music industry executive and strategist working at the intersection of rights, technology, and new commercial models,. He currently serving as Chief Strategy & Impact Officer at Voice-Swap and EVP of Digital Strategy at Rostrum Pacific. He previously co-developed SoundCloud's Fan-Powered Royalties system and steered Sureel through its acquisition by Warner Music Group. And in his spare time, he is helping shape the music industry's response to AI through roles with WIPO and the Creative Rights in AI Coalition.

The Smartest People In The Room® is a series of one-on-one conversations between music industry executives and personalities hosted by Tom Truitt, Managing Director of the Music & Live Entertainment practice. These hour long conversations draw an audience of hundreds and feature every type of global music industry executive, including agents, managers, attorneys, business managers, promoters, publishers, working musicians, songwriters. The audience is global, with strong concentration in music business centers like New York City, Los Angeles, Nashville, London, Toronto, San Francisco, Austin and more.