MIDEM 2012

09 February 2012

by Lars Brandle

The international music industry gathered in Cannes this January for the traditional pow-wow that is MIDEM.  But for all its evolution and adaptation to today music business climate, the conference will be remembered for its quiet halls and the rubbish weather.

Organisers Reed MIDEM actually reported a slight pick-up in visitors from the previous year, with some 6,900 coming through its doors. The uptick certainly wasn’t felt on the floors, which were anything but busy. The boost, explains MIDEM director Bruno Crolot, came from the brand, tech firms and the artist camps -- German DJ Paul van Dyk and British songstress Joss Stone among them. The latest headline figure is still a far cry-from the event’s heady days in the noughties, when more than double that number would enter the Palais des Festivals. But the downturn hasn’t been ignored. This year’s trade-fair was overhauled, reshaped. Programs like midemlab were a new hit. MidemNet, the digital and tech-focused program which used to open MIDEM, is no more.

The daytime panel discussions across the Jan. 28-31 event typically drilled into digital themes and strategies to build an artist’s career. The most newsworthy was a day-two session which featured U2 manager Paul McGuinness. It was the Principle Management boss who in 2008 used the platform of MIDEM to demand ISPs counter illegal file-movements on their networks, and take control of the war on piracy. This time, he fired shots at Google’s role in undermining the proposed SOPA anti-piracy project. “Why are they not trying to solve the future in a more generous way?” McGuinness said on the panel, Why copyright still matters online?. “Ultimately it’s in their interests that the flow of content will continue. And that won’t happen unless it’s paid for.” When McGuinness talks, folks simply have to listen. Curiously, this particular panel was hosted in a small room, and those folks listening numbered no more than 30.

MIDEM traditionally gives the industry a kick-start to the New Year, and it provides sun-denied execs in the northern hemisphere a taste of spring conditions. Not this year. It rained, almost without respite.  Though it’s unfair to fire arrows at organizers for failing to hold off the rain, the pouring conditions washed-away some of their best-laid plans. In an effort to re-connect live music with the conference, showcases were held in bars about town and the “MIDEM Festival” played host to the Ting Tings and 2ManyDJs at the Chapiteau Croisette, an eye-catching super-tent. One problem – the venue was a handful of kilometres east up the strip from the main show. It was a hike which turned-off many execs with the weather so foul, and few were aware of the free shuttle bus. Bad weather at MIDEM is more than a nuisance. It plays a significant role in how participants get about their business, at both ends of the day.

Behind closed doors, a special meeting of the international independent music community met at MIDEM for a three-hour session, the result of which was an inaugural “manifesto.” The 10-point document is a blueprint to a better future for the indies, and it’s hoped it will be ratified at the indies’ summit in New York this June. One European indie attendee told TMN he wouldn’t have attended MIDEM this year were it not for that particular meeting.

Inertia managing director Colin Daniels visited MIDEM this year as part of the Sounds Australia delegation. “MIDEM is more about new technology platforms now, not foreign trade,” he told TMN after the event. “I don’t think it has the value it used to have for record labels.”

In the past, MIDEM has been the “Mecca” for music publishers. That’s not changed, and the new format created “great opportunities to do business,” according to Peter Hebbes, who says he struck two deals and renewed three others at MIDEM for his company Hebbes Music Group. “Nothing can better a face-to-face meeting,” says Hebbes, who has attended the conference since the early 70s. “Coming from Australia, MIDEM is the only opportunity to do so in one place. It’s not cheap but with the support of Sounds Australia it's the place to be for independent music publishers.”

The reconfigured 2012 MIDEM had some painful teething problems, but change doesn’t come without some hurt. MIDEM will return in 2013 from Jan. 26-29, and for the foreseeable future. Whether it returns to its former glory, time will tell.

Lars Brandle returned to MIDEM this year for the first time since 2008. He has now attended nine MIDEMs, starting in 2001.