Music Technology Hackathon: Build a Creative Hack in 2 days

Music Technology Hackathon: Build a Creative Hack in 2 days

Get ready to flex your tech skills and creativity at our Music Technology Hackathon where you'll build an awesome hack in just 2 days!

By Music Hackspace

Date and time

Location

https://maps.app.goo.gl/gDQwKVRwEXPSkMkVA

Engineering Building, East Entrance London E1 4NS United Kingdom

Agenda

10:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Check in and registration

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Tea and coffee

11:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Introduction

JB Thiebaut

Welcome to the event, hack themes, house rules, how to join a group, introduction to the experts

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Find your partners

Find your partners and start the brainstorming session. Come to speak with us if you need help! Mentors will be on hand to help you get started.

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

Lunch

We'll order pizzas for everyone – please let us know of any allergies and dietary restrictions.

1:30 PM

Kickoff!

We're on! Find a table with your team to start brainstorming. Use pencils, whiteboards, or post it notes to sketch out a plan for your product. Be creative and bold, but make sure your app can built ...

7:00 PM

Day 1 curfew

We'll break for the day. Teams can continue to work from home until the next day!

9:00 AM

Day 2 start

Start your day with tea and biscuits! Get organised with your team and plan ahead: the product should be 90 % ready at this point. Start practicing the demo and writing the documentation in parallel ...

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

Lunch

Pizza delivered (or salad, based on popular demand)

1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Final push

It's time to stop coding and start working on the presentation. You'll only have 3 minutes to demonstrate your hack, so make sure you've had time to practice. You can record the demo in advance or pl...

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Presentations and winners announcement

About this event

  • Event lasts 1 day 6 hours

Music technology hackathon: build a creative app in 2 days

Date: 06/07 September 2025

Location: Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary, University of London

Get ready for an epic 2 day challenge at our music technology hackathon!

Open to anyone: coders, product managers, musicians, designers, sound engineers, musicologists, and more. Join the Discord channel to speak with us and find a team.

Join us at the Centre for Digital Music and collaborate with fellow attendees in groups of 3-4 to build a creative hack from scratch. You can select a challenge from one of our sponsors or build a hack of your own. Each team gets to decide what they want to build.

You will get access to cutting edge technologies allowing you to build tools faster. Experts will be on hand to help you with the technical parts.

Selection process

Register to the event, answer the few questions, and we'll be in touch to assign you with a team. IMPORTANT: registering doesn't guarantee that we'll offer you a spot, we will prioritise participants working on one of our official challenges.

A jury will evaluate the best hacks at the end of the hackathon.

Each team will have 3 minutes to present their hack to an international jury at the end of the event. Winners will be announced right away. This is the ideal launchpad for new ideas and future startups.

Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to showcase your skills and passion for music and technology!

Challenges

  1. MuseHub challenge: Build an app or plug-in for music creators: from utilities to sound effects or libraries. The app can build on the company's open source products MuseScore or Audacity, or be dedicated to guitar players (Ultimate Guitar) or piano players (musescore.com)

Prizes

MuseHub: the best app or plug-in will be featured on musehub.com as the indie app of the month, guaranteeing traffic of 10k+ to your product page

More prizes and sponsors will be announced shortly.

About the organisers

This event is organised by Music Hackspace, in partnership with the Centre for Digital Music.

Frequently asked questions

Can I attend remotely?

Sorry, no! In-person interaction is integral to team's creative dynamics. We also want to be able to focus on the people in the room. We will make an exception if you have already agreed to join a team, but we won't be streaming any presentation (except the final presentations).

I'm not an engineer, can I join?

Yes! The best teams have complementary skills and we strongly encourage designers, musicians, teachers, UX designers and other skills to join.

I would like to showcase my technology for others to use, who do i speak to?

Awesome, please get in touch with JB (jb@musichackspace.org) to discuss. We welcome open source and commercial technology providers, as long as they support the development of creative apps, e.g. coding frameworks, AI servers, signal processing or UI libraries, etc.

Who owns the intellectual property of the hacks created?

100% of the IP created during the hackathon remains with you and your team.

I can only do one of the days, is that a problem?

We don't encourage attending for parts of the event only. If you can attend only Saturday, then make sure to disclose this to your teammates and be available to help them remotely for the final push. If you can only attend Sunday, then we recommend that you don't sign up this time.

What criteria will the judges use to evaluate presentations?

Creativity: How original and innovative is your idea? Functionality: Does the app work as intended? Is it reliable and user-friendly? Relevance: How well does your app fit within the themes? Impact: Does your app open up exciting possibilities for users? Presentation: How effective was it?

Am I guaranteed to join if I register?

No, registering is just the first step. We will chat with you on our Discord channel to find you a team if you don't already have one. We will prioritise access to participants who are participating in one of our official challenge. Any questions? Hop on Discord here: https://discord.gg/dNvBejKYjv

Tags

Organised by

Music Hackspace
FreeSep 6 · 10:00 GMT+1