Preparing For MIDEM 2010

By Andrew Apanov | January 8, 2010

MMIDEM, the world’s largest music industry trade fair, will kick off on January 23, just two weeks from now. Preparing for the event, I decided to give you a brief list of key facts about Midem 2010. Why brief? To not be boring, as there is so much exciting info about the conference, that it could make a hell of a long post.

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!