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Midem 2008

I went to Midem in Cannes again this year (that was last week) and I just recovered from it now so I can write a few words about it. Feels like the first think I want to mention is the Qtrax disaster. It was all a bit of a comedy development, every time you talked to another person the story got more bizarre, the numbers of money they spent at Midem increased and less labels had actually signed a deal with them.

For everyone who is not aware what happened, Qtrax announced this p2p service which allows you to download 25m different tracks for free paid for by advertising. It then turns out that the major labels hadn’t actually signed deals with Qtrax. They spent huge amount of money at Midem to promote their service: they were one of the main sponsors, had huge billboards everywhere and sponsored parties with LL Cool J and James Blunt. Funny stuff…

Other than that the mood was fairly uplifting the number of attendees was down a little but when you went to the Carlton or Martinez late at night you would not notice that, it was rammed with people. I was thinking about that: the record industry is complaining about revenues going down every year but when you go to these hotels you see everyone drinking heavily overpriced drinks and going to the very expensive restaurants. It just shows you that there are various parts of the music industry that are doing very well (for example the publishing and live music arms of the industry).

It was no surprise but the number of people working on the digital side of the music industry seemed to have increased again which is nice to see. It is interesting how people react much more positive and open when talking to new digital businesses. Feels like in the last 12 months many people had a bit of a wake up call in regards to digital music services.

All in all I had a good time but I stayed for a bit too long (I was there for six days) so at the end I was very much worn out. Can’t really complain about being tired in the south of France having amazing food and drinking great wine.

One more thing: a bit of a highlight for me was to see Larry Lessig talking as part of MidemNet. I know his presentation was recorded but I couldn’t find it online yet. It was very similar to his presentation at the TED conference in March of last year which you can check out here, very interesting stuff:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=7Q25-S7jzgs]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 8:25 pm and is filed under On the road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Midem 2008”

  1. Dominic Pride Says:
    February 4th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    Jonas

    Like you I was amazed at the number of people still caning the Carlton Bar(€10 beers anyone? ) from major labels.

    Lessig’s speech was the highlight, and an inspiration in how to use keynote / powerpoint to support your arguments, not to repeat what you’re saying! McGuiness was the low point.

    I felt that this year, in fringe meetings, it was acknowledged that this is the last year that the industry can come together and say ” we have to do something. ”

    Keep up the good work over there.

    D