PANEL -  Amplifying Impact: Driving Social Change Through Music

Music has long been a powerful tool for activism, raising awareness, and inspiring change. This panel will explore how artists, industry leaders, and organizations can leverage music to drive social impact and create meaningful movements. From innovative digital initiatives to grassroots advocacy, our panelists will share strategies for using music as a force for positive transformation. Join the conversation on music’s evolving role in shaping culture, amplifying voices, and fostering change.

Featured Speakers:

Amy Morrison - Co-​Founder ​& CEO​, Music Sustainability Alliance

Amy operates at the intersection of live music and sustainability, fusing her longtime expertise in the touring industry with her sustainability passion and background. As Co-Founder and CEO of the Music Sustainability Alliance, the music industry’s green association, she leads a team of event and sustainability professionals, along with a growing community of music industry professionals, to move the industry toward more sustainable outcomes. 

MSA seeks to create systemic change by sharing best practices, education, recognition of sustainability innovation, and networking opportunities across all sectors within the music industry. 

Amy has been a trailblazer in the live music world for more than three decades, including as SVP of Marketing for Concerts West/AEG Presents, where she worked with the Rolling Stones, Celine Dion, Paul McCartney, Prince and others. According to renowned music journalist Larry LeBlanc, “Her touch is legendary, and she has unquestionably changed the way music events and tours are being now marketed.” In 2017, as part of its “Women in Music” feature, Billboard magazine named her one of “The Most Powerful Executives in the Industry.”

In 2021, to reinforce her commitment to climate action, Amy achieved a sustainability certificate from Presidio Graduate School. 

Deb Klein, Artist Manager & Partner, Primary Wave Music

Dot Bustelo is Head of Partnerships at Beatoven.AI and formerly an Apple Logic Pro team member for a decade, later founding Loupe Art, a patented digital art and music streaming platform featured on 14 global TV networks and acquired by Stingray Group. She now leads initiatives across emerging AI-powered creative tech companies—including RC.Enterprises and Collimation.TV—shaping product strategy and market development. An Emmy-winning engineer and longtime electronic music producer, Dot has served on the Recording Academy’s P&E Advisory Council and is the author of the Amazon bestseller The Power of Logic Pro.

Geoff Morrissey (he/him) leads The Ally Coalition (Jack Antonoff) and The Laufey Foundation for sailworks, an agency that helps artists transform their vision for social impact into tangible change. Over the past two years, Geoff has led TAC to engage with thousands of fans and raise over $1 million dollars for LGBTQ Community Centers across the country. He also helped launch The Laufey Foundation, which bestows financial grants and world class equipment to youth music programs around the world. He is based in Los Angeles and is a member of the Recording Academy and a 2025 Billboard Pride honoree.

Geoffrey Morrissey, Director Of Operations and Community Engagement, The Ally Coalition

Moderator:

Emily White is the CEO of Impact Concerts & Data, Founder and CEO of #iVoted Concerts and a Founding Partner at Collective Entertainment in New York City. #iVoted produces data-driven concerts on election nights and during early voting periods that the public enters with a selfie from outside their polling place. White is a Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s SNF Agora Institute with the mission of strengthening global democracy. Through this work White and SNF Agora Institute have analyzed the data on the top trending artists in key locations, whose electoral margins are often decided by the size of a concert venue, to determine which artists increase civic impact the most by comparing fan demographic data with local voter files. #iVoted and SNF Agora are currently developing a tool that shows where any artist increases civic impact the most. White is also an Amazon #1 best-selling author of How to Build a Sustainable Music Career & Collect All Revenue Streams and hosts the #1 Music Business podcast globally of the same name. She’s a 2020 Billboard Woman of the Year, has been on the covers of both Pollstar Magazine and Billboard and has proudly served on the boards of Well-Dunn, Future of Music, CASH Music, SXSW, The David Lynch Foundation Live while additionally serving on The Recording Academy’s Education Committee and Pandora’s Artist Advisory Council.