It’s worth remembering that students also get absolute rock-bottom entrance fees to Midem. Get the full details about student rates on the Midem student page.

Each year, Midem showcases the best new upcoming music apps and services under the Midemlab sidebar. This year’s finalists -  chosen by UK digital consulting company Music Ally and French specialist open innovation consultancy bluenove – will pitch their projects to a jury of leading international digital experts including potential business partners and leading investment firms. The sessions have proven very popular with the Midem audience, who are given sneak peaks into new ways of combining music with business.

Previous editions have provided a launch pad for some of today’s major technological innovations, such as SoundCloud, The Echo Nest, Songkick and Root Music.

Music Discovery, Recommendation & Creation

ChartsNow.mobi (UK) – mass market mobile music service

MPme by Apsmart (UK) – curated internet radio

musicplayr (Germany) – music discovery & blogging

Navegas (Germany) – connecting the world of music tool

Rexly (USA) – social discovery & recommendation

Songs2See by Fraunhofer (Germany) – music game development

SoshiGames (UK) – game-based social music discovery

Twusic by LemonLab (Belgium) – Twitter music application

Watzatsong (France) – crowdsourced music search engine

WhoSampled (UK) – music discovery

Marketing & Social engagement

BandApp (UK) – free instant artist app creation

Beloola by V-Cult (France) – social music service

CrowdSurfing by LiveOne Group (USA) – live content social viewing app

Flowd (Finland) – music marketing and social music service

iPluggers (Netherlands) – worldwide digital radio promotion

Oocto by GeniusMonk (France) – crowdfunding & crowdsourcing music platform

Pipe (Germany) – file transfer for social networks

RockStar Motel (USA) – fan-centric music social network

Tastebuds.fm (UK) – social events discovery

Webdoc (Switzerland) – fan engagement

Direct to consumer sales and Content Monetisation

Getonic (Israel) – direct to consumer social ecommerce

Menyou (Sweden) – online sales and distribution tool

Musicsoft Arts (USA) – interactive music discovery, playback and sales

My Bee (France) – access control and dematerialized payment

Ondango (Germany) – Facebook commerce solution

SonicAngel (Belgium) – next generation crowdfunding label

TuneRights (Sweden) – stock market for music

Tunipop (USA) – connecting merchandise with digital music

Weezevent (France) – cloud ticketing service

WildChords by Ovelin (Finland) – guitar learning game

Not all these companies are start-ups. Germany’s Fraunhofer was involved in developing the MP3 format and the Potato system for encouraging the re-sale of music by fans. TuneRights has been working on its musical stock market – an idea that is ripe – for several years. So the combination of young talent and experienced developers should make for some exciting ideas.

It would also be interesting to see how these apps could be used in other “content” industries such as movies or TV.

This provides everyone with massive opportunities and challenges. Needless to say, an event like Midem in January 2012 is anxious to point out the opportunities.

Visionary Monday at MIDEM

This year, Midem is inaugurating a Visionary Monday, giving keynote speakers to chance to address the worldwide music community. The shift from push to pull marketing had led to new ways to build lasting, profitable and loyal relationships with audiences. At Visionary Monday, artists, industry leaders, marketing and technology experts share their insights and discoveries on new innovative ways to reach, engage with and monetize audiences, on related key issues:

• What are the new rules of audience engagement and monetisation?
• How to build an artist career as a brand? What are the most sustainable models to achieve it?
• What are the content strategies and tools to engage with your consumers and raise brand loyalty?
• Is the technology the future for music or is music becoming the future of technology?

Speakers this year include Wendy Clark, SVP Integrated Marketing with Coca-Cola, Mark Ronson, Grammy-winning, artist, producer and DJ, mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, Dan Rose, VP of Partnerships and Platforms with Facebook and Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

It would be interesting to see how these principles would apply (or are already being applied) in other industries such as television and cinema. The presence of Coca-Cola and Facebook is interesting as they are both outside the music business, but both use music to support their business.

Are there any special engagement issues you would like to see covered? What significant changes have affected your business over the past few years?

Other resources:

• More about Midem 2012.
• Getting the most from Midem via Cannes-or-Bust.
• Studio rental

What is the Creative Europe programme?

The Creative Europe programme would support European cinema and the cultural and creative sectors, enabling them to increase their contribution to jobs and growth. With a proposed budget of €1.8 billion for the period 2014-2020, it would support tens of thousands of artists, cultural professionals and cultural organisations in the performing arts, fine arts, publishing, film, TV, music, interdisciplinary arts, heritage and the video games industry. The goal is also to stimulate operations across Europe,  reach new audiences and develop the skills that are needed in the digital age. In this way, the new programme will also contribute to safeguarding and promoting Europe’s cultural and linguistic diversity.

Why does Europe need a Creative Europe programme?

Culture plays a major economic role in the 27 countries. The cultural and creative industries account for around 4.5% of EU GDP and 3.8% of employment (8.5 million jobs and many more if account is taken of spill-over into other sectors). Between 2000 and 2007, employment in these sectors grew by an average of 3.5% a year, compared to 1% in the overall EU-27 economy. Europe is by far the world leader for exports of creative industry products. So the goal is to retain this position.

Creative Europe takes account of the challenges created by globalisation, in particular the impact of digital technologies, which are changing how cultural works are made, distributed, and accessed, as well as transforming revenue streams and business models. But these developments also create opportunities for the European cultural and creative industries and the programme seeks to help them seize these opportunities, so that they benefit from the digital shift and create more international careers and employment opportunities.

The move inevitably raises many questions, which the European Commission addressed in a recent press announcement.

Why is the Commission proposing to merge the existing Culture, MEDIA and MEDIA Mundus programmes into a single programme?

These sectors face similar challenges, including market fragmentation resulting from cultural and linguistic diversity, globalisation and the digital shift, as well as severe difficulties in accessing commercial lending. They also have similar needs in terms of safeguarding and promoting cultural and linguistic diversity, and strengthening their competitiveness in order to contribute to jobs and growth.

However the Commission recognises that the structure of these sectors is also diverse. That’s why it is proposing a single framework programme, but with separate strands to provide appropriate support.

How will Creative Europe differ from the current MEDIA and Culture programmes?

The Creative Europe programme will combine the current separate support mechanisms for the culture and audiovisual sectors in Europe in a ‘one-stop shop’ open to all the cultural and creative industries. However, it will continue to address the particular needs of the audiovisual industry and the other cultural and creative sectors through its specific Culture and MEDIA strands. These will build on the success of the current Culture and MEDIA programmes.

In addition, it will create a new financial guarantee facility which will enable small operators to access up to €1 billion in bank loans.

What will the programme achieve?

The Commission estimates that, in 2014-2020, at least 8,000 cultural organisations and 300 000 artists, cultural professionals and their works would receive support to cross borders and acquire the experience which will help them to develop international careers. The programme will also support the translation of more than 5,500 books and other literary works.

The MEDIA strand will support the worldwide distribution of more than 1,000 European films, via traditional and digital platforms; it will also provide funding for audiovisual professionals to help them access and successfully work in international markets, and will foster the development of films and other audiovisual works with a potential for cross-border circulation.

There is a lot to build on: thanks in part to MEDIA support, the proportion of European films among all newly released films in European cinemas grew from 36% in 1989 to 54% in 2009. The Europa Cinemas network, comprising over 2,000 screens in mostly independent cinemas, helps to ensure a broad and diverse mix of films for audiences in 475 cities. Their films attracted 59 million admissions in 2009 compared to 30 million in 2000.

What challenges is the programme tackling?

The cultural and creative industries do not currently make the most of the Single Market. One of the difficulties the sector faces is language: the European Union has 23 official languages, 3 alphabets and approximately 60 officially recognised regional and minority languages. This diversity is part of Europe’s rich tapestry but it hinders efforts by authors to reach readers in other countries, for cinema or theatre goers to see foreign works, and for musicians to reach new listeners. A Eurobarometer survey (2007) has shown that only a minority of Europeans watch foreign language TV or films and only 7% read foreign language books.

A stronger focus on support for audience building and on the sectors’ capacity to interact with audiences more directly, for example through media literacy initiatives or new interactive online tools, has the potential to open up many more non-national works to the public. The Commission estimates that well over 100 million people will be reached directly or indirectly through the projects supported by Creative Europe.

Are individuals eligible to apply for funding?

Creative Europe will not be open to applications from individuals. But around 300 000 individual artists and cultural professionals, as well as training institutions, will be reached through the projects submitted by cultural organisations. This is a much more cost-effective way to achieve results and a lasting impact.

Which countries are eligible to apply for funding?

Creative Europe will be open to Member States, as well as the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), EU accession and candidate countries, potential candidates and neighbourhood countries. Other countries may be involved in specific actions. Currently, EU Member States, the EFTA countries, Croatia, Turkey, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina are participating in the Culture Programme.

EU Member States, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland participate in the MEDIA Programme.

What would happen to MEDIA Mundus?

MEDIA Mundus, the existing programme which supports cooperation between European and international professionals and the international distribution of European films, will be integrated into the MEDIA strand of Creative Europe.

Creative Europe still needs the approval of the Council of Europe and European Parliament. Can you see any implications for your work and relations with international production partners? Let us know in the forum below.

Calculating the return on investment of a trip to Cannes is not easy. Rather than look at that, I’d like to ask a few questions that can help those that have decided to attend a trade fair in Cannes, notably how do you get the most from your visit?

Plan for success

At the risk of stating the obvious, the “secret” of success is to plan. But plan for what? And how? This very much depends on what brings you to Cannes and how you define success. Take a second to think of the one big reason you have to attend either Midem or the Film Market (the other events work along similar lines). Let’s say you have a new product you think you can license worldwide. If you are reading this, you are probably a relative newcomer, so what are your realistic expectations?

Nearly everyone you might want to reach will be there. So how do you reach them? How do you then approach them? With what, and with what expectations?

You should know that very few deals are done directly at Midem or the Film Market. Although you are entitled to try, it is far more likely that what you are getting at Cannes is two very simple but precious things: access to interesting people and – hopefully – the permission to keep in contact with them afterwards. That’s it.

Wait, what about my sales figures? I’m not going to Cannes to waltz around the Croisette! Nope, you are going to build partnerships, to find the perfect fit for your product or service in a few if not dozens of territories. You are going to find people that need you in some way. This is not to say you won’t sell stuff – the trade fairs would crumble overnight if that was the case, and some companies report 75% of their annual sales are a direct result of contacts made at the fairs – but you have to focus on connecting with people first.

 

Midem, TFWA and MAPIC offer great networking opportunities

How do I meet the right people in Cannes?

Don’t wait for Cannes to come around to meet the right people. Start as soon as possible. I strongly advise getting one of the early bird event rates for two reasons: you save money (sometimes enough to cover a cheap hotel); and you have a head start in mining the database. Again, with your new product, you go looking for licensors. First, pick off the big names in territories you know. That part is easy (although getting a reply from them is more difficult). Then comes the time-consuming but fun part: investigating the hundreds of smaller players in each region. This could well be where your business comes from.

Why? Because these people are usually more open to deals. There are far more of them. They are less courted and might have more time for you. Check their profiles completely. Visit their website. Check every angle of their work. What other activities are they involved in? Google/Bing/EntireWeb them. Have they sent out press releases recently? What does that tell you about them? Is there  something else you can suggest them? Think wide.

Offer more to stay in the game

Although some companies can afford to attend Cannes with one hot product, I strongly advise against it. There is  nothing more gutting than to realise after the first three meetings that your product is totally dead in the water for whatever reason and you have three more days of spending money to look forward to. If you’ve done your homework, you’ll know the people you are meeting are also active in character licensing, physical distribution, packaging, music supervision or whatever. Move the subject in that direction and hit them with the back-up plan. Rep someone else, if necessary. Mention your next upcoming project (if it is notably different from the one you did not impress them with right now). It could pay for the trip and more.

And when all else fails…

Never let yourself feel down when all else fails – there’s time enough for that in the plane going home. Analyse what people are telling you. Look for new angles. How could your idea be re-packaged? And in your time off, attend the conferences, they are a source of great ideas and also offer great networking opportunities. Read the dailies and determine to try and meet at least one company mentioned in them per day (I have a trick for that, more of which later).

And lastly, I strongly recommend doing what only about 15% of people do properly: follow up every contact 10 days later and see who is still open to some sort of business situation. Remember also that your Cannes event is usually about five days. The database, however, is open for 12 months. Armed with your new knowledge, you can develop products that fit what you learnt and can then go find exactly the right person to contact in each territory. The fact that you did not make a sale this time does not mean you never will – on the contrary. A slap in the face is often  a great stimulus for business. You are now armed with greater insights and access to the people that can make them work.

I’d really love to get some debate going. So feel free to make comments ask questions (below). I deal with specific aspects of travelling to Cannes on the rest of the site. Keep up to date using the RSS feed, follow me on Twitter or why not get Cannes news straight to your mailbox. I cover Cannes, music and movie biz news.

Michael Leahy

The news is interesting, and is good news for the town of Cannes as well, as it will provide concert-goers from across the south of France with a reason to visit the town. Until this year, the concerts – though often very impressive – were mostly for delegates only.

The concert industry in 2012

It will be interesting to see if this changes Midem’s standing in the industry, as promoters usually chose between attending Eurosonic in the Netherlands just prior to Midem or the Cannes event. If they were primarily in the live concert business, that wasn’t much of a choice; Cannes was losing every year. Yet as Midem itself was always anxious to underline, live music has become one of the most solid foundations in a very weakened industry. Much of an artist’s career revolves around concerts in one way or another. Midem had created special events for live music professionals and artist managers.

The other major axis on which Midem has invested heavily over the past few years is the digital sphere, with incubator events such as MidemLab creating bridges between the developer community and the music business.

The live concerts will be produced by the French company Alias, which has built its reputation on high-profile events such as Les Inrocks as well as concerts by Adele and Muse. In addition to major concerts, there will be a series of smaller “off-Midem” showcase gigs held around  town which will surely bring an extra vibe to the whole event.

Photo of Ct4l Swap playing in Cannes by Jean Sébastien Zanchi

Why not save money at Midem, pre-book your hotel right now!

Early birds get the best beds at the best price.

Facebook and music

In other news, it has been announced that Facebook’s Dan Rose, VP of Partnerships & Platform Marketing, will be making a keynote address. As music is about to make even bigger inroads into Facebook, this could be significant. If you check your own timeline, you’ll probably find music comes in about every three messages. How can the business capitalise on that? Between now and Midem, we are expecting major news from the social media giant.

Heavyweights Microsoft BizSpark, the globally-renowned incubation program, will provide midemlab finalists with personalized coaching sessions and valuable tips to help prepare their most effective pitch. Berklee Music College and other bodies will also be active during Midem. To sign up, visit Midem.

While you’re saving money, why not pre-book your hotel already.

Early birds get the best beds at the best price.

Visitors to Midem in January 2012 will find a completely new layout and focus. First, the bad news: the celebrated Midem opening night party is no more! There have been some sensational ones over the years. The good news is that they are beefing up the interface between music, brands and technology.They are also beefing up the concert programme, which had been less prominent in the past few years.

MidemLab 2012 to showcase music apps

One of the most exciting parts of last year’s event was MidemLab, which rapidly became the haunt of music start-ups and hackers (in the best meaning of the word). The organisers are looking for initiatives that will enable music labels and producers to monetise music. Last year’s winners include Discovr, Next Big Sound and Shuffler.fm. They got to present their apps or services to the world’s music industry and investors.

British company Decibel develop some pretty interesting things using the all-important metadata (check their site at Decibel). They reported getting trials with three major music labels and two major distributors as well as “huge market validation”. Although they didn’t win, here’s last year’s winners had to say.

Applications for this year’s event are open. If you have a funky music app (or know someone that does) apply here.

Midem has also announced a radical re-thinking of its pricing, with special artist-friendly prices. See the site for more details. Follow Midem News or catch the regular updates, tips and links on Twitter.

Book your Midem hotel now,

pay later.

There’s a fee to submit films, and screenings take place in the Palais (which actually features  a large number of small screening theatres in addition to the main auditorium) or “other top screening sites in Cannes”.

More details will be available from April 2011. Check this review of last year’s event. For further information visit Cannes Independent Film Festival. If you have good or bad experiences of the event, please fee free to post comments below.

An interesting figure is that participants from the digital sphere were up some 30%. The combination of MidemNet, MidemNet Lab and the Open Spaces gave a new dynamic to the music side. It would be tempting to jump to conclusions, but let’s be honest: the vast majority of these services and apps are very speculative. None that I know are offering advances to content creators or publishers. Nonetheless, they will play a big role in future business. We just don’t know which ones. It looks likely that staying in business will require nurturing multiple mini streams of revenue rather than relying on sales alone (Dave Kusek says this differently in the slideshow below).

MidemNet Lab winners were Jammbox, Next Big Sound and Shuffler.fm. Rather than going into their individual merits, check the Midem blog.

What does a smaller Midem mean for visitors?

Coming back to the fall in attendance, it’s worth reminding old-timers that the days of Midem with 12,000 visitors are over because the industry has lost 50% in revenue since that time. So what does a smaller Midem mean for visitors? Well, far more availability for one. A smaller, closer vibe among attendees, greater openness and willingness to explore business. Can these be bad things?

Overall, the business is being pulled in two directions. On the one hand, revenue is increasingly being done around the artists (as opposed their individual products). So variations of the 360° model are very much on the table. Yet no solution can be found without bearing consumers in mind. Mastering the ways they discover and consume music are vital.

Labels are also becoming increasingly self-reliant in the early stags of a band’s career. Given the difficulty of securing physical distribution in the UK, European labels are increasingly looking at a combination of digital distribution and local promotion.

Unlike previous years when Latin music or metal dominated the market’s aisles, no one music trend really stood out. The jazz and classical section was one of the most busy. But this could be due to the fact that there are fewer trade fairs that cater to their genres.

And to kill a recurrent rumour, Midem is not moving to Barcelona for a simple reason. In what way would that bring in an extra few thousand visitors?

UPDATE:

I just read Berklee’s Dave Kusek’s summary of the music biz, which is just that: a good summary.