The Innovation Stage: where ideas take the floor

It’s all in the name - the Innovation Stage at Music Summit Malta is bustling with music industry talent, ready to share their concepts and expertise with the world, from innovative startups and pitches to roundtable discussions.

Day 1

01 / 06 / Day 1

Startup Showcase
Mediterranean & Maltese startups - live demos

An open-floor showcase giving startups from Malta and across the Mediterranean the chance to demo their products directly to summit attendees.

Forget pitch decks and time limits — this showcase is focused on founders, their products, and the people who might become their next customer, investor or collaborator.

02 / 06 / Day 1

Artist Session: The Artist/Promoter as Founder:
local artists on building around their work

For a growing number of artists and promoters, the job no longer stops at the stage. Building a sustainable career now means thinking like a founder: managing a brand, a team, revenue streams and a business model alongside the creative work itself.

Moderated by Nikki Camilleri, this session brings together three people who've built exactly this, locally.

Víctor Güell, originally from Spain and Malta-based for the last five years, founded Oracles Productions, a platform connecting music, art, and community through curated experiences, and serves as Events Manager at SiGMA World, bringing that same experience to large-scale international events.

Luke "Funky Monkey," founder of 141 Records since 2014, has built an independent label while staying active as a DJ, producer, and multi-instrumentalist across genres from pop to jazz to hip hop, and has spent years organising events to grow and foster talent in Malta's hip hop scene.

Christian Xerri, known as PHYNYKS, co-owns and creative-directs Neolitika, a Malta-based events and brand collective, drawing on 17 years as a performing DJ and producer to shape everything from lineup curation to lighting design and brand identity.

Together, they will share what this shift in what being an artist or promoter means, has actually looked like in practice, covering the decisions, trade-offs and lessons learned from building something lasting around their own work in a small market.

03 / 06 / Day 1

The Creator's New Toolkit - How technology is empowering the next generation of music creators

Technology has transformed almost every aspect of the creative process. Today's artists have access to sophisticated production software, AI-assisted composition tools, audience analytics, collaboration platforms, digital distribution and rights management systems that were unimaginable only a decade ago — but technology alone does not guarantee creative success.

Moderated by Costantino Oliva, an academic and game designer whose research explores the musicality of game players and who has shown experimental music games at Ars Electronica and BitSummit, this panel brings a wide range of relationships to music technology under one roof.

Pierre Blaise Dionet works at the intersection of art, technology, and perceptual research. Approaching technology as an artistic instrument, he turns music into geometric shape through Synegram — an innovative music tech startup — described as “helping people understand and create”.

Robert Babicz, veteran of European electronic music with 3 decades of experience, is known for his fully improvised live sets, and is now building his own audio plug-ins and production tools for other artists.

Ken Lythgoe takes the business side as a Fellow of TMC2 Global — currently one of the UK's leading creative venture studios. He’s repeatedly turned AI music technology into something attractive to investors, and held corporate development roles at DAACI, which built a patented, ethical AI music ecosystem of adaptive and generative tools.

Edwin Balzan, Chairman of Electronic Music Malta since 2015, intertwines artistic practice, technology and community building, developing platforms through EMM for people to engage with electronic music not just as listeners, but as creators.

How should creators choose the tools that genuinely add value? Where should automation support creativity rather than replace it? And what responsibilities do technology companies have when designing products for artists? If the answers to these questions intrigue you, don’t miss this discussion.

04 / 06 / Day 1

VC Office Hours & Mentor Roundtables
Startups meet investors - booked 1:1s

Not every conversation needs an audience. This is a structured block of pre-booked one-to-one sessions pairing startups with investors and experienced mentors from across the music and technology sectors.

Rather than pitching in front of a room, this gives you the opportunity to get direct feedback on business models, fundraising strategy and go-to-market plans, from people who have experience in building and backing companies in the space.

Day 2

05 / 06 / Day 2

Startup Showcase - Heats: Shortlisted startups pitch to judging panel

Get ready: this is where the pitch competition properly begins.

Shortlisted startups take the stage one by one, in front of a judging panel of investors and industry leaders. Judges score on the strength of the idea, the team and the business case, narrowing the field to the finalists who will pitch again for the prize.

06 / 06 / Day 2

Startup Pitch Showcase - Final Top startups pitch for the prize

Finally, the final round of the pitch competition, where the strongest startups from the heats go head-to-head for the summit's prize.

The last chance to make your case in front of judges, investors and a room full of potential partners, before a winner is announced (no pressure).

Every idea in this room started somewhere smaller. Show what you’ve got at Music Summit Malta on the 8th and 9th of October — who knows what opportunities you might find?