VIncent James at TEDxWilmingtonSalon.

VIncent James at TEDxWilmingtonSalon.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in a time when live music was as commonplace as smartphones? Or ever considered that one of the founding fathers could be thought of as a data nerd?

Information is power. That’s what TEDxWilmingtonSalon celebrated as part of Delaware Innovation Week 2016 at the Wilmington Public Library on Thursday. The event series is organized by Ajit George, whom we profiled earlier this month.

Check out some of the highlights below.

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A doomy take on music

Instead of keeping to the normal TEDx routine, Vincent James, founder of Keep Music Alive, played a few songs on his keyboard.

“We hear music every single day of our lives and maybe, just maybe that’s why we take it for granted,” James said.

But the quality of music is in danger, James said. He went on to discuss what he calls the three disturbing trends that are killing the future of music.

First is music education. He asked: have you noticed that schools across the country are cutting music and arts education programs while many others are still greatly reducing them? The second trend is the switch from people buying mp3s and CDs to now listening to music almost exclusively via streaming services like Spotify and Pandora.

Lastly, he talked about live music. It wasn’t long ago when hotels, restaurants and every other hospitality business offered some form of live music on the weekends.

Click here to read the rest of the story.


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Dominique “Peak” Johnson is a North Philadelphia freelance journalist. He is one of the founding editors and writers of the North Philly Metropolis, blogger for The Huffington Post and contributing writer to numerous online publications. Click here to learn more about Peak.