EQ No. 2 | Your DIY Music Industry Summit | Aug 18 at Ampersand Studios

Why this room exists

EQ No. 2 flyer. PPTM and Ampersand Studios present EQ No. 2, your DIY music industry summit. Learn. Connect. Create. Workshop: Contracts, Decoded with Somara Jacques. The Demo Room. Free headshots. Aug 18, 6PM to 10PM, Ampersand Studios, 31 NE 17 St, Miami.

EQ exists to close the distance between Miami's talent and the music industry.

Most of what you need to build a career in music gets handed out privately to people who are already connected. EQ takes that same information and puts it in a free room once a month at Ampersand Studios.

The other half of the night is the people standing next to you. Everybody in this room is missing something and it is almost always a person. The engineer who finally gets your sound. The manager who actually answers. The videographer whose work you have been following for a year. The producer sitting on the beat you have been trying to describe to everyone. They are all in the same building for four hours and every one of them walked in looking for the same thing you are, so talk to them.

PPTM has been covering Miami since 2021 for locals who trust our word enough to follow it into the room. We built EQ because the artists we cover kept asking the same questions and nobody was answering them in public.

If you make music in this city, or you work behind the people who do, this is built for you.

Itinerary Aug 18

Free / 6PM to 7:30PM

Free Headshots

Courtesy of 3.2.Juan Flash Studios

Walk out with photos you can put on a press kit, a booking email, or a profile. 3.2.Juan Flash Studios shoots them on site and there is no charge to you.

The camera comes down at 7:30, so get yours early and bring the outfit you want to be seen in for the next six months.

Somara Jacques speaking with a microphone during a session at EQ

Workshop / 7:30PM to 8:30PM

Contracts, Decoded

With Somara Jacques, entertainment attorney

Somara walks the room through a mock contract line by line. You leave able to read what is actually in front of you before you sign it, which is the single most expensive thing an independent artist gets wrong.

Bring the deal somebody sent you. Bring the one you have been sitting on for six months. Nobody is going to read it in front of the room, but you will know what you are looking at by the time you get home.

The room at EQ watching and reacting during a session

Showcase / 8:30PM to 10PM

The Demo Room

Feedback & collab sessions, recorded

An artist plays about a minute of a demo or an unreleased song, introduces themselves and the work, and gets honest feedback in real time from the room. Nobody gets roasted here. The whole point of the segment is to move the artist forward.

Every set is recorded and goes up on YouTube after the edition. That means the minute you spend up there keeps working long after everyone goes home, and for a lot of people it ends up being the first real footage of them talking about their own music.

Sign ups close at 7:30PM and you will need a Dropbox link to your file, because we play it off the file and not off your phone.

Who this room is for

EQ is for people making original music and the people working directly behind them.

The programming assumes you have your own recordings. The workshop covers contracts that matter when you own masters and publishing. The Demo Room runs on unreleased material you made yourself. Both of those land very differently depending on what you actually do all day, so we would rather be direct about it now than waste your Tuesday night.

Built for you

Come through

Artists, singers, rappers, and bands sitting on original material.
Producers, beatmakers, and songwriters, including producers who also DJ their own catalog.
Audio engineers, mixers, and mastering engineers.
Managers, booking agents, labels, publicists, and attorneys working with Miami artists.
Photographers, videographers, and designers who build the visual side of a music career.

Not this one

Catch us at another PPTM night

DJs who play other people's records and do not produce. The Demo Room needs music you made and the workshop covers rights you would not be holding.
Anyone coming to promote a club night or hand out flyers.
People who want a party. EQ runs sessions and a filmed showcase, and the whole night is work.

We read every RSVP before we confirm it.

There are a fixed number of spots and every one we hand out is one somebody else does not get. That is the only reason we read them at all.

We are not sorting anybody by how far along they are, how many streams they have, or who they know, and we never will. We are checking one thing, which is whether you are going to walk out of here with something. A packed room of people the night was not built for helps nobody standing in it, least of all them.

How to get the most out of it

Six things the people who got the most out of the last edition did.

1
Come at 6, not at 8
The first hour is the mingling hour and it is when the headshots run. Most of what makes this worth your night happens before the workshop starts.
2
Say what you are missing out loud
Nobody can introduce you to an engineer if you never mention you need one. Tell people what you are working on and what you cannot do yourself.
3
Have one link ready
Whatever you would send somebody who asks what you do. One link that opens fast, not a folder tour on your phone.
4
Sign up for The Demo Room before 7:30
Especially if you are nervous about it. Nobody gets roasted, and the footage ends up being yours to use.
5
Ask the question you think is dumb
There is an entertainment attorney in the room for an hour. That hour costs real money anywhere else, and somebody else is sitting there wondering the same thing.
6
Do not leave at 9:45
Sessions end at 10 and the room keeps going after. Some of the best things that came out of the first edition happened in the twenty minutes once everything was over.

We check the door against the RSVP list, so fill the form out even if you are certain you are coming.

Every edition, filmed

EQ is produced as an ongoing series and not as a one night event.

Every Demo Room set is somebody's first public moment on tape. Each edition brings new artists into the room, and the series gives their work a place to live long after the doors close. That is also why the sessions are worth sitting through twice, because the episode outlives the night.

One night in the room. A permanent place in the episode.

The EQ stage and seating set up at Ampersand Studios

The room is capped

Entry is free and we read every RSVP by hand. Once we hit the cap we stop confirming people, and there is no walk up on the night.

RSVP for Aug 18

Takes about two minutes

Selling something?

A small number of vendor spaces go out each edition to people whose product belongs in front of a room full of Miami music creatives. Spaces are $50 and applying costs nothing.

Vendor Application

We answer within 48 hours