Four days of music, business and culture land in Atlanta November 12–15 under the theme “Old School Rules with New School Tools.”
Atlanta is about to become the center of the independent music business. The 13th Annual Unplugged Music Experience & Conference, featuring the 2026 Icon Awards, returns November 12–15 with four days of industry access, education, live performance and fellowship for songwriters, producers, publishers, executives, sync professionals and independent music entrepreneurs. This year’s event is powered by the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) and FYI.ai.
Produced by Writing Sessions America (WSA), the experience is guided by the theme “Old School Rules with New School Tools” and the message “Your Power Is Limitless.” The idea: honor the creative foundations of the industry while digging into the business practices, ownership strategies and new tools shaping where music goes next.
Get your house in order
At the heart of WSA’s mission is a simple, urgent message about ownership. Founder and President Kevin Shine says it plainly:
“It’s incredibly important, now, more than ever for songwriters to get their house in order. Every songwriter should be an indiepreneur, doing business with industry corporations as their own loan-out corporation. This is at the heart of WSA; business & longevity as a creative doing business.”
That philosophy runs through the programming, from a Friday workshop titled “What’s a Loan Out Corporation in Music Business” to sessions on copyright, royalties and independent entrepreneurship.
The Icon Awards
The 13th Annual Icon Awards, on Friday, November 13, will recognize contributors whose work and influence have helped shape music and entertainment. This year’s honorees include:
- Fred “Toxic” Taylor
- Demmette Guidry
- Keith Thomas
- Raheem “Kilo” Pugh
- Gongu Roach
- Jason Orr
- Traci Hale
- Rockwilder
- Floyd “DanjaHandz” Nathaniel-Hill
- Makeba Riddick-Woods
The ceremony takes place at Morehouse College’s Ray Charles Performing Arts Center, 900 West End Avenue SW, Atlanta. The red carpet and pre-awards ceremony runs 7:00–8:00 p.m., followed by the Icon Awards from 8:00 to 10:30 p.m. Formal dress is requested.
Hitmaker’s Academy
One of Saturday’s marquee experiences is Hitmaker’s Academy: Successful Music Indiepreneur & Hitmakers Forum, set for November 14 from 5:45 to 7:15 p.m. at Rolling Out Magazine. Scheduled panelists include Bernard “Focus…” Edwards Jr., Dana “Rockwilder” Stinson, Khari “Needlez” Cain, Makeba Riddick Woods, Mike Will Made-It, Floyd “DanjaHandz” Nathaniel-Hill and Aldrin “DJ Toomp” Davis.
The forum sits inside a full day of programming that also includes a songwriter workshop, a Quality Control Listening Session moderated by Timothy “Fontainn” Gayles, the SheEO vs. CEO Workshop, a panel on platform solutions to help eradicate gender bias by empowering women in a male-dominated industry, and a WSA Fireside Chat with Lila Haralson and special guests.
The four-day lineup
Thursday, November 12 | Kickoff at Atlantucky Brewing. A keynote from platinum producer Darrell “Delite” Allamby, a Quality Control Listening Session moderated by Timothy “Fontainn” Gayles, and a live radio performance showcase.
Friday, November 13 | Conference at Rolling Out Magazine, Icon Awards at night. The day features The Music Indiepreneur Workshop, “What’s a Loan Out Corporation in Music Business”; a virtual “Panel and Pitch” Film & Television Workshop and Music Listening Session; “Content vs. Copyright: Making Money & Protecting Ownership Rights”; and the MLC Workshop, “Baby, I Got Your Money,” with Dae Bogan, Head of Third Party Partnerships. The Icon Awards follow that evening at Morehouse College.
Saturday, November 14 | Hitmaker’s Academy and the closeout party. Daytime programming at Rolling Out Magazine builds to Hitmaker’s Academy. Saturday night’s closeout at Atlantucky Brewing brings a Film & Television Music “Panel and Pitch” Listening Session, another Quality Control Listening Session and a performance showcase.
Sunday, November 15 | Closing experience, noon to 3:00 p.m. (free). Raheem “Kilo” Pugh, who produced Lauryn Hill’s landmark album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, leads a discussion from noon to 2:00 p.m. on the business of music and what it means to operate as an independent music entrepreneur. The UME 2026 closing event with Kevin Shine follows from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. The Sunday venue is still to be announced.
The man behind the movement
Kevin Shine, a Chicago native, is an entrepreneur, executive and professor who has left his mark on both the music industry and academia. A graduate and educator at Columbia College Chicago, he earned the school’s Outstanding Service Award after securing internships and jobs for 70% of his students. He has also taught at NYU, Full Sail University and SAE Institute.
In the industry, Shine served as an A&R consultant at Jive/RCA under Wayne Williams, where he played a key role in the signing of Jacob Latimore and worked on Ludacris’ Grammy-nominated “How Low.” He helped launch Jill Scott’s Who Is Jill Scott? with Hidden Beach and Carl Washington of A&M Records, and promoted multiple projects for Janet Jackson and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis’s Perspective Records. As Head of A&R at Arrow/Universal, he collaborated with Grammy winners Ann Nesby and Kim Burrell.
His television résumé includes casting work with Peter Cohen on American Idol, TLC’s Are You the Girl, The Missy Elliott Show and Fox’s The Four, plus a stint as a casting scout for MTV’s Making the Band with City Media Entertainment.
More than a decade ago, Shine founded Writing Sessions America, an international membership-based organization that empowers songwriters, producers and engineers to build real businesses through workshops, bootcamps, networking events and the annual Unplugged Music Experience & Conference. Through WSA he has helped inspire the careers of artists including Nina Teapot, Eric Campbell, LaTasha Catour and Vincent Berry.
His motivation is personal. “I became the person I was looking for when I was trying to make it in the business,” Shine says. His motto: “Always be humble and focused, yet F.I.R.M.”
Look back: past WSA events
Kevin Shine 
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – NOVEMBER 10: Nina Teapot Owens attends Writing Sessions America 10th Annual Icon Awards at The National Museum of African American Music on November 10, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images) 
Kevin Shine 
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – NOVEMBER 10: Kris Ahrend attends Writing Sessions America 10th Annual Icon Awards at The National Museum of African American Music on November 10, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images) 
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – NOVEMBER 10: (L-R) Shannon Sanders, Kevin Shine, Phil Thornton, Kenny Smoov and Professor Larry Jenkins attend Writing Sessions America 10th Annual Icon Awards at The National Museum of African American Music on November 10, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images) 
Be there
The 13th Annual Unplugged Music Experience & Conference runs November 12–15, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. For registration and information, email Wsaume2026biz@gmail.com. Programming, speakers, venues and times are subject to change.
