On March 3–4, Barcelona Music Lab took part in the first edition of Talent Arena, a new MWC Barcelona space launched by Mobile World Capital Barcelona to connect professionals, companies and institutions around digital talent.
As part of the event, we organized the talk “The Next Track – Technology & AI Remixing Music’s Future”, led by David Poblador i Garcia, a software engineering expert with an extensive career at Spotify, where he led the migration of over 15,000 servers to Google Cloud and founded the Site Reliability Engineering department, and Doris Obermair, Head of Strategic Projects at Barcelona Music Lab. Poblador is now the founder and CEO of All Tuner Labs, a startup focused on building simple, efficient and user-centered tech tools.
The session brought together a diverse audience of technologists, creators, musicians and music industry professionals, all keen to understand how technology and AI are reshaping the future of music.
During the talk, David Poblador emphasized that the real challenge today is not the power of the available technology, but the lack of truly useful products for creators and users: “We have the technology, but we’re missing products,” he stated. He criticized how companies often focus on building impressive technical capabilities without translating them into empathetic, user-focused experiences.
Another key topic was the analysis of where we are in the current technological evolution. According to Poblador, after a phase of building the foundations and another of content creation, we are now entering the era of personalization at scale: music and other creative expressions will be able to adapt in real time to each user, driven by a combination of generative AI, sensors, edge computing and advanced personalization. He warned that this transition is happening faster than many industries anticipate.
Infrastructure will play a critical role in this new era. Poblador highlighted the need for robust systems to manage real-time data flows, feedback loops and integrated creative processes. He recalled how the development of cloud computing provided powerful solutions, but also often brought unnecessary complexity — a mistake he believes must be avoided as we move into personalized creation.
On the role of AI in musical creation, he argued that it should be a tool for creative amplification, not a substitute. He advocated for hybrid processes, where human artistic sensitivity guides the use of machine capabilities.
Finally, the talk explored the future outlook for startups in the musictech space. Poblador called for a pragmatic approach: building solutions that solve real problems, not just ideas designed to attract investment. He also highlighted the positive trend of integrating artists and creators into tech development teams, a strategy that can lead to more authentic and truly valuable products.
With its participation in Talent Arena, Barcelona Music Lab strengthens its commitment to fostering strategic debate on the future of music and technology, and reaffirms its mission to position Barcelona as a leading hub for musictech innovation.
