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Hook 918

Did MIDEM 2013 hit the target?

01 February 2013

by Lars Brandle

Richard Gottehrer
Co-founder, The Orchard.
It’s been great. We’ve done a lot of really interesting deals and met the right people. That’s the most important thing, and that’s what makes Midem really valuable. It’s not the specific thing that you take away something tangible from it, but it’s about the relationships that you gain. It has a big place in the business. When I first started coming to Midem, I’d come over from America and bring some masters and I could walk down the aisle and find a deal with a German company or Scandinavian company, or British and Orchard could license music back. It’s no longer that kind of business. You have to understand that with the changes (in the business), we grow in a different way. You don’t need the same structure that we had then, but you need this meeting place. I think that’s critical. It’s a place where people can gather and exchange ideas and reinvent the future together. That’s the value of it.

Rich Bengloff
President of the American Association of Independent Music
To a certain extent the decline has been helpful to us, because it’s weeded out a lot of people who weren’t good, prospective business partners, people who weren’t ready for prime-time so to speak either as a buyer or seller. You’d have to waste 20 minutes to figure that out with people. In addition to that, we used to get a whole line-up of certain artists who’d walk up and they’d say, I’d love you to take my disc. We’re really not too interested in that. It’s better for us. We prepare all our members when they come here so they usually have half or two thirds of their meetings in hand. Midem has the best database by far of any conference that we go to in the world. It just facilitates good research, figuring-out who it is and setting up an appointment. A smaller Midem is better for us. We’re as busy as we ever have been, in terms of business meetings.

Mark Jones
Founder, Wall of Sound
I actually prefer to see the positives as is it with the new layout. It’s not crazy busy. But it was like a market stall before; where you were wondering around confused, staring at stands and stalls. It was like being in a market. Now you can actually converse, and see people. The new layout is actually more positive. It’ll stay important for a while yet, because it appeals to the industry as a whole, and not just a small part. I’ve come and I’m free for the world having split with the PIAS guys, so it’s going back to that basic thing I did with the beginning of the label, which is communication and relationships with people globally. It is a different world, obviously, to what it is. Have I picked up business at MIDEM? Absolutely. I haven’t been for a while, but people have been grabbing me and chatting with me a lot. The sun has been shining. It could be worse. I’d definitely come back.

Lars Brandle
Australian correspondent, Billboard Magazine
There’s an inescapable truth about MIDEM; it’s only a fraction of what it was. In its glory years when the record industry was also at its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s, MIDEM was a beast. Attendance was somewhere in the region of 15,000, and the foyers of the Majestic, Martinez and Carlton were overflowing, night after night. Attendance now has dropped to 6,400, down 7% from last year. And only the Carlton has any action going on at the bar. And yet, this year’s event was a success. A leaner Midem means less time-jackers. The new format of building debate spaces into the main conference areas is a tactic that works; in years past, the convention element dislocated from the action on the floors. After last year’s torturous event – it bucketed down all week and the live music venue was erected in another timezone – Midem pulled it off this time. Midem is still the most important music trade fair on the planet. But for those of us who experience the best years, it ain’t what it was.

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