There are a few things that will be different this year. First, there are no single-day passes; you must purchase the full 3-day pass, which costs a hefty $269 plus fees. Second, onsite camping is available by renting out 300-square feet areas where you can also park your car.

A few lesser-known acts that are worth mentioning

Jonsi

Jets Overhead: This Canadian indie rock band has yet to receive the commercial success it deserves. Their first album was released as a “by donation” download over a year before Radiohead applied a similar strategy to “In Rainbows”.

Portugal. The Man: The band has slowly been gaining popularity, all while continuing their experimental yet pleasant indie rock sound.

Jónsi: He is the lead singer of acclaimed Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, which has been on hiatus since earlier this year. His first solo album is to be released this April.

De La Soul: This hip-hop group sang in “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz, and are also featured in “Plastic Beach”, the latest upcoming Gorillaz album.

Sia: Lovely-voiced Australian pop singer Sia has sang for Zero 7 but has also released three solo albums, with a fourth to be released this April.

A few of several artists (and reunions) that we would have liked to see in the lineup

Lady Gaga: Let’s face it, she’s one of the hottest artists in pop culture today, and certainly would have been able to attract a myriad of concertgoers on her own.

System of a Down: Although it could be too soon for a collective return to the stage, Coachella would be the ideal event for a reunion of the Californian band.

Lady Gaga. Photo credit: »grahamblackall on Flickr

Dr. Dre: With an upcoming (and allegedly) final album due to be released this year or the next, Coachella could have been a natural event at which Dr. Dre to perform, also due to Coachella’s close proximity (100 miles or so) from his hometown of Compton.

Pretty Girls Make Graves: Also would require a reunion, this unique yet underrated post-punk revival band played at Coachella in 2004. They broke up in 2007.

Interpol: New York based indie rock band Interpol have reported working on a new album, and although they are set to tour with U2 this summer, Coachella 2010 could have been a good starting place beforehand.

Yes, it will be crowded. As one person worryingly wrote on the event’s message board about how having a large camping site with cars and alcohol could prove to be dangerous if someone were to decide (rather stupidly) to drive their car on the camp grounds after consuming too much alcohol.

But Coachella is bound to be an entertaining weekend to say the least. It certainly is a bit of a financial stretch for those who are on a tight budget and/or don’t live within a 60-mile or so radius (and thus cannot drive back home at the end of each night), but this festival has brought together a myriad of talented artists and is one of the few times and places that one will be able to see supergroups Them Crooked Vultures (John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin, Dave Grohl from Nirvana and Foo Fighters, Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age), Atoms for Peace with Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Joey Waronker (R.E.M., Smashing Pumkpins); as well as The Dead Weather which includes Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs), Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age), all of those in the same weekend!

So think twice before dismissing attending this unique and promising musical activity.

Palais des Festivals

This year’s event saw a decline in the number of attendees (13% less compared to 2009), even despite the fact that MidemNet was free. Many blame the economic climate, which is pretty fair. It’s notable, as the event was all about the money (music monetization, to be specific).

I spent the first day of MidemNet at panels. Basically, this was the only day I spent at MIDEM 2010 panels…

Amanda Palmer and The Young Punx’ Hal Ritson started up the conference program with a bang. Amanda sang few verses from Radiohead’s “Creep” with her ukulele, and I had a chance to film the full version of the cover performed in the Palasis’ hall in the evening of the same day, but let’s get back to it later.

Amanda told a story of building a strong relationship with her fans throughout the years, and Hal revealed the three principles that he thinks you have to do to success in music today (paraphrased):

1. Make people hear your music.
2. Establish an emotional contact with your listeners.
3. Find revenue streams.

Rock Band: The Beatles booth

Amanda Palmer found out that it’s much more effective to put all her efforts into many projects, instead of just one (e.g. sitting in the studio for a year and then touring for two years ain’t too good). That’s not all though. “Everyone knows tools like Facebook and Twitter, but the trick is to use them with passion,” she said.

The same day I attended panels with Pharrell Williams and Pete Wentz (unfortunately both were pretty boring), MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, Kodak’s Jeffrey Hayzlett (surprisingly, he sounded more interesting than most representatives of the actual music business at the conference), and many other industry experts.

I seriously recommend you checking out this survey conducted by The Music Matters and Synovate and presented at MIDEM by Jasper Donat. Interesting facts.

Probably everyone’s main buzz word of this MIDEM was MusicDNA, the technology aimed to replace MP3s. It’s been developed by Dagfinn Bach, who worked on the world’s first MP3 player in 1993, and has the backing of Karlheinz Brandenburg, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology in Germany. He’s been credited as the inventor of the MP3 itself.

MusicDNA is billed as an “enhanced, unified media format” that enables music to be tagged with lots of metadata. Attributes such as tempo, instrumentation, mood and ‘colour’ can be added, which has consequences for the way people search for music, create playlists and discover similar material. Find more at a Billboard report.

MidemNet Lab

Not having invites to NRJ Awards, held on the Saturday evening, we also stupidly missed a fabulous Jay Z party at Baoli (oh Cannes..)

Sunday was literally full of meetings, and ended with a MOG party at Morrison’s. As I said, I missed all the panels on Monday and Tuesday, aside from several MidemNet Lab showcases. They were held in Palais’ Hall 01, and I found the place sort of confusing (it was small and everyone had to stand or sit on the floor). I will cover some of the start-ups from MidemNet Lab in separate posts.

The exhibition areas seemed pretty calm this year, we could find a free table anywhere most of the time (this was only my second MIDEM, but veterans told me it used to be much, much more crowded).

Rock Band had two booths with the latest editions of the game, and overall there were quite a few interesting companies presenting their services / products. I loved a demonstration of Vinylrecorder T-560. Would be HAPPY to be able to burn vinyls at home this way:

That’s it for the promised brief roundup, but that’s not all for this year’s MIDEM. The event was rich on news and events, and I will keep providing you with the best of info brought from there.

PS: As promised, here’s a video of Amanda Palmer performing Radiohead’s classic “Creep” with her ukulele in front of Palais des Festivals’ Auditorium Debussy for MIDEM 2010 attendees. Filmed this on January 23rd, leaving the last panel of that date. The quality is crap, but hope you’ll still feel the vibe:

Midem has been held at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, since 1967. The annual event “provides a forum for musicians, business people, cultural policy makers, and journalists to discuss business, political and legal issues while showcasing new artists, musical trends and music-related products.”

General Midem information can be found on Midem official website, but read on to learn more.

At Midem 2009

Basic Info / New This Year

• The Midem 2010 Preview magazine is available online at this location.
• MidemNet is free. Access to the cutting-edge digital business conference is included in Midem registration (that’s why by “Midem” I actually mean Midem and MidemNet).
• MidemNet Lab. Discover the latest digital innovations through the selection of 15 promising start-ups, chosen by a jury of successful entrepreneurs (details below).
• MIDEM+. Innovative networking solutions and one-on-one expert guidance to boost business efficiency.
• The Fringe. A friendly and efficient manner to showcase artists to the world.
• Redesigned exhibition floor. New zones and smarter space planning, find description here.
• MidemNet Academy. A professional digital training program, aimed at artists, producers, managers, marketing professionals, who want to expand their digital reach. The program can be found here.
• South Africa is the “Country of Honour” at this year’s MIDEM. The program includes a number of concerts by African artists, as well as a music industry conference that will put SA issues and those of the continent in the spotlight.
• Mobile Roadie has released an official Midem iPhone app, but I can’t find it in the iTunes Store (hmm has it been removed? or does it have country restrictions?) it is now available and looks awesome!

Conferences / Speakers

The conferences list is really, really tasty this year, be sure to grab the latest schedule. Below are highlights of some of the speakers.

• MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta will make his first keynote appearance outside of the United States on Saturday 23 January. He will outline MySpace’s vision of the future of musical content on digital platforms, the evolution of the company as a next generation content distribution platform and the new revenue opportunities for MySpace and its partners.
• Chairman & CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group, David Renzer, will give his vision on today’s opportunities and challenges facing music publishers and on the right model to better service the needs of songwriters and copyright holders. Renzer sits on the Boards of ASCAP, NMPA, the International Music Publishers Association, and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.
• Todd Interland, who handles Lily Allen and James Blunt; Chris Morrison, manager for Blur and Gorillaz; Ian McAndrew, co-manager of Arctic Monkeys; Jean-Charles Carré, business manager to David Guetta; are among the confirmed participants in the international manager summit.
• Pharrell Williams, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and producer of such artists as Justin Timberlake and Usher, has been added as one of the Midem keynotes (other speakers among artists include Amanda Palmer, Paul van Dyk).

The full speakers list can be found at this location.

Concerts

Davy Knowles. Photo credit: Adrian Cowin

This year’s list of Midem performers, meanwhile, doesn’t look to me as sexy as the 2009th one, but maybe it’s just me. Check out the program yourself.

These thirteen artists will perform at the Carlton Hotel as part of MidemTalent:

• Alex Hepburn (Warner-UK)
• Depedro (Pias Recordings-Spain)
• Diving With Andy (Universal Music Classics-France)
• Francois Bourassa (Effendi Rec.-Canada)
• Hindi Zahra (EMI Blue Note-France)
• King Charles (mi7 Records-UK)
• Lisa Hannigan (Hoop Recordings-Ireland)
• Paco Volume (Discograph-France)
• Plastiscines (Because-France)
• Sophie Hunger (Two Gentlemen-Switzerland)
• The Black Swan Effect (Real World Rec.-UK)
• Tigran Hamasyan (Plus loin Recording-France)
• Wayne Beckford (Believe Digital-UK)

MidemNet Lab

MidemNet Lab is a showcase for cutting-edge digital music initiatives. The 15 start-ups that have been chosen by Music Ally and a jury of entrepreneurs cover a range of digital fields that offer opportunities for the music industry including live apps (Awdio, Songkick, Streamjam), digital licensing of sheet music and lyrics (DigiClef, TuneWiki), artist management (BandCentral), managing key data for artists (Band Metrics), digital distribution (Pops Worldwide), web radio (Radionomy), remixing (Aviary, GoMix and Tracksandfields), musical discovery (Thesixtyone), artistic financing (Kickstarter) and online advertising (Silence Media). At Midem, the start-ups will have their own dedicated area.

Find more about the companies showcasing at MidemNet Lab at this location.

Quotes

Just few Midem-related quotes to further catch your interest.

• “Midem is now more about gathering some valuable information from meetings and less about commercial opportunities.” – Ralph Peer II, CEO / chairman of leading independent publishing company Peer Music.
• “The emphasis is now on hybrid business models where brands, Web and mobile communities can converge to bring new revenue streams.” – Stephane Gambetta, marketing manager for Midem and MidemNet
• “Many companies that used to only do publishing or recording are now coming to the mart looking to learn about 360-degree strategies.” – Dominique Leguern, director of Midem.

All In All

This is going to be an exciting event with lots of fruitful meetings and truly interesting conferences and panels. I will do my best to be constantly reporting from the event via Twitter and this blog (hopefully my iPod Touch won’t let me down).

Tip: Cannes-or-bust blog has some useful info on Cannes and events like Midem – especially recommended to first time goers.

If I forgot something important in this intro post, or if you’d like to meet me in Cannes (Jan 22 – Jan 26), let me know in the comments!