Roy Elkins is the Founder and CEO of Broadjam Inc and Between The Waves Madison Music Festival and Conference, both of which serve independent musicians. He's also the Chairperson of the Madison Area Music Association and serves other community organizations as well.
Roy was born and raised in Michigan, is a pianist, Hammond organ player, guitarist and prolific songwriter. He lives outside of Madison with his wife, dog and two cats.
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Roy Elkins Bio
Roy Elkins is a well-known music technology entrepreneur who has been leading industry innovations for over 30 years. Elkins is the Founder and CEO of Broadjam Inc, a music technology company that serves independent musicians and industry giants such as The Academy of Country Music, Warner/Chappell, the TEC Awards and many others. Broadjam.com, the company's popular independent website, currently hosts 200,000 artists and 800,000 songs. The site is known for many musician-friendly services, especially a popular social network. Founded in 1999, Broadjam is one of the longest-running websites for musicians, outlasting mp3.com, napster.com and others through prudent cash management, deep knowledge of the market and visionary leadership able to anticipate and adapt to market trends.
Elkins' latest invention is a set of algorithms that allows certain digital data to be transformed into other digital media. In late 2019, Elkins was awarded a U.S. Patent for this innovative technology.
In 2017, Elkins launched Between the Waves Madison Music Festival & Conference. The event provides songwriters and composers knowledge, expertise, and tools to help them earn a living. The Festival portion of the event is generally comprised of dozens of musical acts performing on several stages in multiple venues in the heart of Madison.
The Conference is comprised of dozens of diverse speakers with topics such as "Yes, Your Band Is a Business," "Music in Film," and "Mindsets and Strategies for a Successful Music Career." Sessions have included Grammy winners and nominees Kip Winger, The Avett Brothers, Butch Vig, Ben Sidran and Michael Boddicker. Other speakers have included Paul Broucek, President of Warner Pictures Music Group, rock manager David Spero and legendary sound engineer Bud Snyder.
Before founding Broadjam, Elkins was the VP-Sales & Marketing for Sonic Foundry, primarily a music software company at the time, overseeing the marketing campaigns and tremendous growth of its popular Sound Forge and ACID products. When Elkins joined Sonic Foundry, the company had revenues of under $1.5 million; he helped those grow to over $20 million in under three years and was on the management team that led the company through an IPO.
Elkins held several Director-level positions with Ensoniq Corporation, a synthesizer manufacturer, including Training (meeting and training thousands of dealer reps over the years) and Artist Relations. His first love was sales, working at Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center and beginning his career in music retail at Amro Music in Memphis, TN where he was selling so many Ensoniq keyboards that the manufacturer arranged to transfer him to the Washington store.
Elkins is highly networked and maintains a growing database of over 6,000 contacts including artists and executives from all over the world.
Elkins' personal mission is to help songwriters and musicians through his company and the numerous charities he is involved with. He is the Chairperson of the Madison (WI) Area Music Association, whose mission is to put instruments in kids' hands. That organization puts on an annual Grammy-type show whose proceeds get instruments to kids. Elkins also serves on the boards of the Milwaukee Area Technical College Music School and the MIDI Association, which promotes the advancement and use of MIDI. He is a charter member of Merlin Mentors which helps entrepreneurs in the Madison area launch new ventures, and he continues to privately volunteer and help entrepreneurs and musicians with their events, companies and careers. He is a former board member of the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music.
Roy has lectured at many colleges, organizations and events around the world about entrepreneurship, making a living in the music industry and simple strategies to cope with the day-to-day challenges of being a musician and running a business. He is a musician and songwriter who thoroughly understands and enjoys the musician's world.