The Hook: Is MIDEM relevant to anyone who isn't a music publisher?

30 January 2012

by Lars Brandle

Ian James
Managing Director, Mushroom Music Publishing

MIDEM is at the crossroads. It needs to attract new participants. I will continue to attend as I have publishers that represent the Mushroom catalogue in various territories and we need to sit down once a year and talk about our acts and how they relate to their marketplace. In the past, the upside has been finding new publishers needing representation in Australia. There have been a lot less new start-ups over the last few years and the attendance at MIDEM has declined. The main crowd were the new record labels looking for licence deals. That still happens and Shock, Inertia and our label Liberator will keep going for the same reasons I do. But the decline of physical sales makes a lot of licence deals no longer viable. Digital deals can be easily sourced and rely a lot less on personal relationships. I did enjoy the days when the people in the label would get wound up about an act and were determined to make it a hit. Somehow digital doesn’t generate that sense of hands-on involvement.

Jake Beaumont-Nesbitt
Executive Director, International Music Managers Forum

For many years, MIDEM has been proactive in hosting tech start-ups and debates about the evolving digital impact on all areas of the music industry. As the interaction between tech and content matures, MIDEM has built on its early foundations to become pre-eminent in hosting music and tech sector opportunities. Artist representatives use MIDEM to access not only DSPs, but brands and other partners from outside the traditional music industry players. Artists’ revenue streams have multiplied and whilst still essential, music publishing and record label licensing are no longer the only games in town. MIDEM reflects this by attracting key players in non- retail exploitations of sound and audio visual recordings, and platforms for artist direct-to-fan relationships.

Charles Caldas
CEO, Merlin

As a global entity operating in the digital sphere, MIDEM is still a key event for Merlin. The key digital services who we are in business with, and the next generation of new services, are all present. And it is enormously efficient to be able to meet all of these companies, who operate all over the world, and see their services in action, all in one place. Also, MIDEM gives us the opportunity to spend time with the many independent music companies we represent, who similarly are scattered across the globe. Our major board meeting of the year also takes place at MIDEM, so for me it is clearly an important event. If you are serious about understanding the new digital music economy, MIDEM is a key opportunity to do so.

Julian Wall
Director of Independent Member Services, BPI

The UK industry – from music publishers to labels to artists, managers and beyond – has always had a big presence at MI- DEM. Even today in the smaller business world that we all inhabit, there are around 700 U.K. delegates going to MIDEM this year - and the British Music stand there is one of the biggest and busiest. In terms of “relevance,” MIDEM still provides the biggest and best B2B event for the music industry per se. UK businesses can meet potential partners from across the globe, learn about new developments affecting their part of the eco-system and it’s a great way to start the year off after the Christmas and New Year break. I won’t mention of course that Cannes in January is not a bad place to be, especially when confronted with an English winter. Though of course, with the price of a beer in the bars and hotels, it’s never a cheap date down sur la Riviera!