Midem 2015 news

MIDEM

5-8 June 2015

Palais des Festivals Cannes

NEWS

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La Sacem au Midem / Sacem at Midem Vendredi 5 juin

Samedi 6 juin

18h15, Main Room / Riviera 7 Industry Talks (en partenariat avec IAEL / in association with IAEL - The International Association of Entertainment Lawyers) L’impact international de la réforme du copyright aux Etats Unis / The International Impact of copyright reforms in the Usa Avec / with Jean-Noël Tronc, Directeur général / CEO Sacem

12h - 13h, Auditorium k / Palais 4 Conférence de presse Sacem / Sacem press conference Laurent Petitgirard, Président du Conseil d’administration / Chairman of the Board Jean-Noël Tronc, Directeur général / CEO Sacem et l’équipe de direction / and members of Executive Board

Dimanche 16h - 17h, Auditorium I / Palais 4 Conférence de presse Bureau Export / Bureau Export 7 juin Press conference Jean-Noël Tronc, Directeur général de la Sacem / CEO Sacem, Vice-Président du Bureau Export / Deputy President Bureau Export

Pavillon France : R8.E1 Espace commun Sacem, Scpp, Sppf Les Happy Hours - 3 rencontres professionnelles (17h30 - 19h) : Vendredi 5 juin : Welcome to France Samedi 6 juin : Producers Saturday Dimanche 7 juin : French Music Exports cocktail

Et toujours French VIP Une opération initiée par la Sacem en janvier 2011 avec le Midem, le Bureau Export, la CSDEM et le FCM, destinée à accompagner et valoriser, lors de grands rendez-vous musicaux (salons, festivals) le travail de jeunes éditeurs indépendants.

Rencontrez nos trois éditeurs sélectionnés cette année : Myriam Kanou - Les Editions Jules ; Rodolphe Dardalhon - Roy Music ; Thomas Jamois - Velvetica Music Publishing.

Launched by Sacem in January 2011 with Midem, Bureau Export, CSDEM (Chambre syndicale de l’édition musicale) and FCM (Fonds pour la Création Musicale), French VIP promotes and showcases young independent publishing companies on major musical events (exhibitions, festivals).

Meet the 3 French publishers of 2015.

Suivez l’actualité French VIP sur facebook / Follow French VIP news on facebook: frenchvipofficiel

Retrouvez tout le programme de la Sacem à Musicora sur www.sacem.fr pubs_news.indd 6

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WELCOME TO MIDEM

The sun shines on Midem Like the music business itself, Midem is ever-changing. Among this year’s developments: Midem goes B2C and moves from January to June. Midem director Bruno Crolot introduces the new-look Midem in the sun

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HY has Midem moved to the month of June?

Moving the event to June has the advantage of better weather, longer days to work, network, enjoy outdoor music… and party! It’s also the period when many bands and their labels are about to go on tour, a perfect time to meet and greet clients, prospects and partners before the opening of the season. Midem taking place in June has actually allowed us to enrich our programme, and our clients’ experience, by adding more entertainment and new formats.

Convergence means that new markets are continuing to open up. What affect has this had on Midem and the music industry generally?

The music industry has grown to become an ecosystem, and more than ever Midem is the shelter for the entire community of music professionals and its extended segments.

Midem obviously keeps its core activity around music, but today’s toolkit to succeed in our industry involves new channels and newcomers from various creative fields.

This year, Midem offers the opportunity to perfect everyone’s skills.

The Artist Accelerator is new to Midem. What is it?

The Midem Artist Accelarator has engaged an Artistic Committee made up of key players of the music ecosystem, who have chosen 14 artists to play live on the Midem main stage.

Over the past 10 years Midem has managed to adapt swiftly to its changing ecosystem. For example it created a lab for startups, a Hack Day for tech pros and a competition for marketing professionals.

Although these offers are crucial to our community, it felt like new opportunities for our core business music professionals were needed.

This is why we created an Accelerator that truly puts forward what Midem has to offer by supporting managers, labels, agents and artist-entrepreneurs as they look to extend the profile of a creative project — band or artist — on to the international market.

It’s not just about playing live in front

of the entire Midem community, it’s about providing the participants the opportunity to meet the right people, to learn the best practices and to obtain a true tailor-made programme to boost their careers.

It felt important to create an offer matching Midem’s positioning bringing more than just a one-shot opportunity but rather a lasting and premium approach to accompanying our community. None of this would be possible without our fantastic jury of course, and I’m thrilled to see them at Midem and to witness the unique mentoring sessions between these established influencers and the next generation of stars.

Obviously, this also brings a whole new dimension to our sunny Midem with a fantastic array of live acts for the pleasure of the Midem community and the city of Cannes.

We’re really excited about this fantastic programme.

Country Of Honour this year is Armenia. What can delegates expect to discover about this country?

Armenia has officially declared 2015 the Year of Armenian Culture, which involves a series of events worldwide throughout the year to underline the nation’s broad cultural wealth. As part of this initiative, Armenia chose Midem to be its music rendezvous and brings a dedicated programme showcasing some of the most recognised local talent, along with Armenian art, fashion, cuisine and traditions. We are very honoured to welcome icons from Armenian culture to Cannes.

Midem director Bruno Crolot

INSIDE ARMENIA COUNTRY OF HONOUR ................. 4 LIVE MUSIC .................. 6 MIDEM ARTIST ACCELERATOR ............. 7 COMPETITIONS........... 8 VISIONARY TALKS .... 10

There is a B2C offer at Midem this year. What can delegates and consumers expect?

By bringing consumers into the event we welcome not only a music festival but also a whole new zone entirely dedicated to innovation and technology. It’s all about discovering new musical talent, new content, new devices, new consumer habits…

We’re delighted to treat our community and the general public, during the four days of Midem, to a tour around the latest creations, connected goods and modern experiences.

INDIES......................... 11 INNOVATION ............. 13 HACK DAY .................. 14 STREAMING............... 15 MIDEM ACADEMY .................. 16 SYNCHRONISATION ...16

CHINA & CANADA .... 17 JAPAN ........................ 18 ISRAEL ........................ 19 THE UK & AUSTRALIA.. 20 CITIES ......................... 21 VALUE OF MUSIC ...... 22

THE OFFICIAL MIDEM NEWS

June 2015.

Director of Publications Paul Zilk Director of Communications Mike Williams EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor in Chief Julian Newby Deputy Editor Debbie Lincoln Technical Editor in Chief Hervé Traisnel Deputy Technical Editor in Chief Frédéric Beauseigneur Graphic Designers Jordan Carel, Nour Ezzedeen, Carole Peres Contributing Editors Stuart Dredge, Patrick Fennelly, Juliana Koranteng, Gary Smith Editorial management Boutique Editions Ltd. PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Publishing Director Martin Screpel Publishing Manager Amrane Lamiri Publishing Co-ordinator Emilie Lambert Production Assistant, Cannes Office Eric Laurent Printer Riccobono Imprimeurs, Le Muy (France) Reed MIDEM, a joint stock company (SAS), with a capital of €310.000, 662 003 557 R.C.S. NANTERRE, having offices located at 27-33 Quai Alphonse Le Gallo - 92100 BOULOGNEBILLANCOURT (FRANCE), VAT number FR91 662 003 557. Contents © 2015, Reed MIDEM Market Publications. Publication registered 2nd quarter 2015. ISSN 1147-6877

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Armenia is Country Of Honour

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HE PRESENCE of Armenia as Country Of Honour at this year’s Midem gives visitors a unique opportunity to meet and to learn about some of the country’s greatest musicians, designers and painters. Midem will also be hosting a top-level delegation of VIPs to mark the event, headed by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan. He will be accompanied by the Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan. Other VIP guests include: French-Armenian singer Rosy Armen, music legend Charles Aznavour, film producer Alain Terzian and composer, conductor and pianist Michel Legrand.

The table of events scheduled includes an opening cocktail and an appearance by the globally renowned Hover State Chamber Choir in the Eglise Protestante Unie de Cannes. The choir will perform works by one of the country’s most famous composers, the monk known as Komitas who was born Soghomon Soghomonian.

The Midem Opening Night Party on Friday, June 5, at the Carlton

hotel, co-hosted by the Armenian delegation, will present a variety of Armenian artists ranging from pop and rock to jazz. Performers include the jazz outfit Katuner, the Acoustic Colors Quartet, and Miqayel Voskanyan & Friends Band, whose music is characterised by a modern use of the folk instruments of Armenia. The rock band Dorians, which represented Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 with the song Lonely Planet — co-written by Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi — and Ambassador, a traditional ensemble directed by the globally famous violinist Varazdad Khachumyan, will also be performing alongside DJ BeatMan. Other Armenian artists due to perform during Midem include the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, founded and conducted by Sergey Smbatyan, who graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and who has worked with London’s Philharmonia and Symphony Orchestras. The critically-acclaimed cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and who has worked with some Narek Hakhnazaryan of the world’s finest orchestras, will also join the programme of what will be a stand-out classical evening in the Debussy on Sunday, June 7. The Hover State Chamber Choir, a choral ensemble that tackles all genres from the traditional to the experimental, will perform at the Eglise Protestante Unie de Cannes on Saturday, June 6, and the Armenian State Jazz Big Band perform at the Carlton hotel on Sunday, June 7.

Midem also pays tribute to the Armenian com-

The Hover State Chamber Choir

Miqayel Voskanyan & Friends

poser Komitas (1869–1935), regarded as the founder of modern Armenian classical music, to mark the 80th anniversary of his death. This will be part of the Midem VIP dinner on Saturday, June 6, at the Carlton hotel, for which a leading Armenian chef will be flown in to prepare a menu of national gourmet cuisine for the occasion.

In addition, Armenian artist Tigran Tsitoghdzyan has produced two large-scale paintings especially for Midem that will be exhibited during the event also at the Carlton hotel.

And the young and highly regarded fashion designer Vahan Khachatryan

has designed unique original dresses for Midem using ancient Armenian motifs that will also be part of the special exhibition within the Carlton.

“Being the Country Of Honour at Midem is a great opportunity for our country, and at the same time, it’s a huge event which brings with it great responsibility,” Poghosyan said. “I am confident that Armenia will present both its strong traditions and its innovative cultural ideas at their best.”

The Armenia Country Of Honour series of events is sponsored by Samvel Karapetyan, owner of the Tashir Real Estate group.

Sergey Smbatyan

Katuner

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LIVE MUSIC

Twenty billion reasons why live music lives

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IVE music is getting frontrow treatment at this year’s Midem. In addition to the extensive line-up of live performances in Cannes, industry experts are gathering at panels to debate the sector’s future and the role digital convergence will play in it.

Among this year’s much anticipated live-music sessions is Industry Talks – How Digital Innovation Enhances The Live Music Business.

From international tours to electronic-dance music events at nightclubs and concerts in intimate venues, live music garnered an estimated $20bn globally in 2014, according to a Billboard report.

Digital technology and media are also disrupting the live-music space.

At one extreme is the use of holographic technology to resurrect dead artists to perform live on stage in front of real spectators.

A virtual Michael Jackson played at the Billboard Music Awards last year; the late rap legend Tupac

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Shakur did the same at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2012; and Renate Russo, the Brazilian star who died in 1996, was revived as a 3D hologram at a stadium concert in Brasilia in 2013.

At the other extreme are digital technology’s more practical uses, such as ticketless music festivals made possible thanks to sophisticated smartphone apps.

For example, London’s Wembley Stadium is collaborating with its lead sponsor EE, the telecoms group, to develop ticketless events using contactless payment systems and iBeacon (Apple’s Bluetooth technology) via mobile speeds of “4G+”.

In-between are the various uses of new technology to enhance traditional activities, including crowdfunding gigs, managing tours and interacting with fans.

Natalia Nastaskin, CEO of US operations/general counsel of booking agency giant The Agency Group,

Natalia Nastaskin: “There is no substitute for live” and a member of the Midem Artist Accelerator Artistic Committee, said: “There is no substitute for live” when asked about advances in holographic shows. But she is a fan of technology that brings added

value to her business.

“Some of the more exciting developments have been in the VIP-experience and fan-engagement spaces, where more than a handful of companies have been coming up with creative new initiatives to give fans unique opportunities to connect with artists at shows,” she said.

“Also, (concert discovery) platforms such as Bandsintown have been extraordinary for our business, not only from the perspective of never missing a show, but also for the ability for talent buyers using the platform to reach the acts’ affinity fans playing in their markets.”

Among other speakers scheduled to join Nastaskin on the How Digital Innovation Enhances The Live Music Business panel are China’s Billy Koh, founder of music entertainment company Amusic Rights Management, and Fabrice Sergent, Bandsintown Group’s co-founder/CEO. Delegates should look out for opportunities to meet the live-music experts from all over the world during “speed-dating” appointments at Midem’s dedicated Networking Village. These include Meet The Managers, Live Meet Tech, and Meet The Live Reps.

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MIDEM ARTIST ACCELERATOR

Keeping music live in Cannes The Midem Artist Accelerator is just one of the live music offerings in Cannes with perfomances by 14 up-and-coming acts “I have long held the view that there is talent all over the World who do not get a fair chance due to their geographical location.

Also I’m always happy to play mentor role, more veterans of our business should do so.”

Midem Artist Accelerator juror Rob Hallett, CEO, Robomagic ambition in terms of highlighting the importance of discovering and recommending new artists,” she said.

“Our belief in the importance of music discovery, coupled with the fact that Midem is an international organisation and we are a global platform, means that we have a lot to share in terms of international resources and, of course, knowledge,” she said. “We want labels, management and artists themselves to think of Deezer first when launching new artists. We would like to work more closely with them in order to get the best out of the potential of our platform — after all, we are all playing an important part in building the new music economy. We also want to be directly involved so new artists can truly understand the benefits of a digital streaming platform and get the most out of the many new tools we have that allow them to reach and engage with fans in a way they couldn’t before.”

Deezer currently runs several programmes aimed at helping promising artists including the Prix Deezer Adami, the Momentum Music Fund, and the Deezer Sessions. “We’re always trying to get artists to showcase their talent, and these live sessions meet this goal,” Ferre added. “We also use our newsletter to directly target fans of artists to generate interest in their upcoming live shows, and to promote new artists to fans of similar artists, helping them increase their overall fanbase.”

The 14 finalists will be performing during Midem everyday on the openair stage at the Pantiero Esplanade.

The line-up includes Germany’s Hundreds, Alfred Hall from Norway, Alo Wala and Brynjolfur from Denmark, Roo Panes, Ghetts, Andreya Triana and Little Barrie from the UK, Timothy Bloom and Akua Naru from the US, Le Galaxie from Ireland, Hungary’s Middlemist Red and Sly Johnston from France.

Further live action comes in the form of several themed nights including four Armenian concerts covering everything from the pop and rock of Ambassador, Katuner, Dorians and

The UK’s Ghetts

Photo © Jamil

celebrate local Venezuelan artists at all levels, alongside the Pepsi Boot Camp – Middle East, a partnership with Sony Music, the Pepsi Video Accelerator project in the US, and Beats of The Beautiful Game, a short film and music project supporting soccer in 2014. “This was a collaboration of songs and artists from around the world, pairing them with top-tier film directors, all in the spirit of celebrating the world’s most popular sport,” Healy said. “Our goal was to re-invent and reinvigorate the concept of a soundtrack, with the intersection of music, video and sport as the focus.”

She added: “Our biggest successes have happened when we were able to elevate a song through our global television media buys. A recent example that we are particularly proud of is Let’s Go by Calvin Harris and NeYo, that we executive-produced. We partnered the two artists to co-write one of our global football anthems.

When we started, Calvin was early in his artist career and the timing couldn’t have worked out better for all of us. We collaborated closely with Sony around the release of the single which debuted at number two in the UK — at the same time we launched our advertising campaign. The song sold hundreds of thousands of singles and charted in 20 countries, and it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance Recording.”

Deezer’s Delphine Ferre, vice-president of international artist marketing, explained why Deezer decided to become a partner of Midem’s Artist Accelerator: “The programme totally matches with our

The USA’s Alo Wala

LA Reid of Epic Records DJ BeatMan through to the sublime singing of the Hover State Chamber Choir. The choral ensemble tackles all genres from the traditional to the experimental, and they will perform at the Eglise Protestante Unie de Cannes on Saturday, June 6. The Armenian State Jazz Big Band will offer exquisite jazz on Sunday, June 7 at the Carlton hotel, and on Midem’s closing night, the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia performs in the Debussy Auditorium conducted by Sergey Smbatyan and featuring acclaimed cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan.

Further live attractions include a China Night featuring Carsick Cars, Xiaotian Wang and Guo Gan in the Ambassadeurs Lounge, a K-Pop Night Out with Rock N Roll Radio, Loro’s, Coreyah and The Barberettes, and a Taiwan Beats showcase with Miss Ko, My Skin Against Your Skin and Magic Power.

The techno pope Juan Atkins will perform a DJ set at Les Marches Club on Sunday, June 7. And don’t miss the Midem OFF concerts in the bars around the city of Cannes.

Photo © Lee Vincent Grubb

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HE Midem Artist Accelerator (MAA) is a brand new initiative in which 14 up-and-coming bands have been selected by the Artistic Committee — including LA Reid of Epic Records, Pepsi’s Frank Cooper III, promoter Harvey Goldsmith, Pitchfork founder Chris Kaskie and many more — to play at Midem 2015, and receive high-level advice, coaching and mentoring sessions.

Pepsi and Deezer have partnered with Midem on the initiative.

Ellen Healy, senior marketing director at PepsiCo, explained why Pepsi decided to become a partner of the new initiative. “We were looking for a partner to evolve our Pepsi Artist Accelerator programme and after what was an amazing experience last year with Midemlab, we looked to Midem to see if there were any synergies. It turned out there were, and that Midem had similar aspirations — to help artists, creators and innovators reach the next level in their careers,” she said. “Pepsi has a massive footprint in the emerging music stratosphere, including various regional sponsorships of juggernauts like The Voice and X-Factor in multiple countries, as well as developing our own programmes to support new artists in various markets. Of course, everyone would love a big TV sync, but those opportunities don’t come around as often as people think, so we are always trying to find alternative but meaningful programmes that satisfy mutual needs.”

Pepsi’s previous forays into artist mentoring include sourcing the opening acts for Beyonce on her Mrs. Carter World Tour. The chosen artists were highlighted across the global Pepsi social-media platforms, giving them unprecedented exposure to a global audience. The company also organised Pepsi PremiosMusic in Venezuela which takes the form of a TV music awards show, created to give recognition to and

The UK’s Little Barrie

“The Midem Artist Accelerator is a fantastic opportunity to detect and help promising new talent move their career to a global level.

I look very much forward to being part of the Committee and play an active role at Midem 2015”.

Midem Artist Accelerator juror Harvey Goldsmith, CBE, managing director, Artist Promotion

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COMPETITIONS

KASKIE ‘SWITCHES OFF’ TO JUDGE PRIZE FOR IDEAS DRIVEN BY MUSIC MIDEM ACCELERATOR ENTRIES THE FOURTH edition of the Midem Marketing Competition, in partnership with Marketing Week, is an international competition rewarding both creative ideas driven by music or digital music services and creative ideas in any medium (traditional or digital) enhanced by music.

The overall standard was, according to Marketing Week editor Ruth Mortimer, impressive: “The really interesting thing about the entries was how much good work is happening in different global regions, and the wide variety of initiatives. Whether for large corporate banks or charities, for fashion brands or bands themselves, there was genuine passion and creativity on offer. I really liked the way that the ‘1979’ campaign thought about music in a totally different way.

It created a new audiovisual player — a type of projector — and an album experience using it. I liked that the

clicks with a section of the public,” he said. “But being part of Midem’s Artist Accelerator programme, I had to take a completely different approach, and switch off all that everyday stuff in order to focus on the broader picture, to see the music for what it is. It was ultimately a very satisfying experience that I hope results in worthy new talent getting a real chance.”

Reflecting on Pitchfork’s role in today’s music scene, Kaskie makes a comparison with earlier trusted brands: “Because sales are no longer a valid success metric, it also means that a lot of labels who were perceived as trusted purveyors of great music no longer exist, so to some degree we have filled that gap,” he said. “We also work hard to provide people with content that they would most probably otherwise not have had access to, because it frustrates us that music is seen as disposable, and it doesn’t have to be that way. There’s a lot of music out there which needs to be covered, and our audience is very astute, they spot fakes straight away.”

Pitchfork’s Chris Kaskie

CHRIS Kaskie, president of online music magazine Pitchfork, is also one of the Midem Artist Accelerator board members, tasked with choosing the artists that will benefit from the initiative. It was, according to Kaskie, both a challenging and satisfying experience.

“One of the foundations of Pitchfork’s success is that we have become a trusted voice in a world where there are 110,000 releases every year, and that in turn is built on the fact that we have a certain attitude to music that

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team had thought of a new way to consume music and culture, and it’s a good example of pure creativity at work in a very niche way.”

Jury member Lars Duysen, vice-president brand partnership and music licensing GSA, Sony Music Entertainment, agrees with Mortimer’s observation about the entries. Of the 10 entries that he will be judging during the final competition at Midem, he said: “I really love the fact that all these campaigns are created with genuine passion and they all display genuinely different approaches.

“They all treat music as something special even though there is a vast disparity in budgets,” he added.

Other jurors for the competition include Marcie Allen, president, MAC Presents (USA); Jennifer Breithaupt, senior vice-president, Citi (USA); and Christophe Caurret, music creative director, BETC Pop (France).

SUCCEED

IN THE GERMAN MUSIC MARKET Germany‘s trade journal for music Essential read for influential industry leaders and experts In-depth analysis, exclusive data and charts, magazine, online livepaper on the iPad www.musikwoche.de and the app for BlackBerry and iPhone deliver breaking news and reports.

Connect to German... … music publishers and producers … retailers, concert agencies … music festivals … broadcasters

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The Midem Marketing Competition finalists

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Entertainment unlocked Open up a world of great music, films, gaming, sports videos and VIP competitions. Plus special offers on Sony products and partner brands.

• Even more content for Xperia™ users • Available on all smartphones (Android app and web) • Free to download from Google Play • Over 38 million downloads, 16 million monthly users

Download at xperialounge.com & sign up now

Exclusive to Midem delegates: Download the android app and sign up now for a chance to win a Sony 4K TV, a PlayStation 4 and an Xperia Z3

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VISIONARY TALKS

Sony boss Morris gives Midem music lessons

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OUG Morris, CEO of major record label Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and founder of music video and entertainment platform Vevo, will share the lessons he has learned from his long music-business career in a Midem Visionary Talks session on June 6.

He will talk with Rupert Younger, director of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation, part of Oxford

Doug Morris: music lessons

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University’s Saïd Business School.

With a career spanning five decades, Morris now heads the world’s second largest music company.

Before joining Sony in 2011, he spent 14 years as chairman and CEO of the Universal Music Group (UMG), and previously served as head of MCA Music Entertainment, Rising Tide Entertainment, Warner Music US and the Atlantic Recording Group. Before that, he was president of ATCO Records and founder and owner of Big Tree Records.

He began his career as a songwriter and producer, his credits including the Chiffons’ Sweet Talkin’ Guy and Brownsville Station’s Smokin’ In The Boys Room.

In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music in recognition of his achievements and influence in music, and for his enduring contributions to American and international culture.

“I knew very early that I wanted to

spend my life in the music business and be part of the rock culture of that time,” Morris said. “And that is the life I had, managing talent and creativity,

leading change in the music business.

It is now the right time to talk about the lessons I learned along the way.

And I can’t think of a better occasion than Midem to share such learning with the global music community.”

On the following day Morris will be honoured with the Industry Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual breakfast organised by Midem with Billboard — which will be attended by leading industry figures from around the world.

THE CANNES XPERIA EXPERIENCE SONY MOBILE is vowing to offer the most immersive digital-music experience at Midem via the Sony Xperia Lounge mobile app.

The Xperia Lounge delivers exclusive original entertainment content via Android-powered smartphones, including Xperia devices, to boost customer engagement, sales and loyalty.

And Sony Mobile is inviting Midem attendees to join in as part of its global marketing campaign for the app, which has 39 million registered users worldwide, with about 20 million logging in monthly.

“This is the first time we’re doing anything like this at Midem,” said David Chapon, Sony Mobile’s head of consumer engagement. “It is pretty viral, and can be shared via social media. It is also our way of telling the music stakeholders at Midem we’re ready to work with them.”

Chapon will speak at the MIDEM session called Xperia Lounge: How To Use Music As Part Of An ‘Always On’ Consumer Engagement Strategy.

In addition to its film, games, and sports content, Xperia Lounge includes round-the-clock music thanks to partnerships with Spotify, Vevo, major record labels Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Mobile’s sister company

Don’t miss the

Midem Opening Party Presented by Armenia Country of Honour

Friday 5 June 2015 at 19.30 Carlton Hotel – Cannes, France This year’s must-attend Party for all Midem Participants!

Inaugurate the best Midem yet with live music, Armenian food and beverages, non-stop networking.

Open to all participants. Midem badge required at the entrance

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INDIES

Indie veterans remain passionate about music

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IDEM has always been a focal point for the ways in which indie labels have evolved alongside developing technology and the proliferation of online platforms. Ever needing to generate attention on a minimal budget, new indie-label business models remain strong in the face of change.

“It is a very exciting and challenging time for labels in the current music industry climate,” said Midem speaker Josh Deutsch from New York-based Downtown Records — founded in 2006 and home to acts including Miike Snow, Santigold, Cold War Kids, Chet Faker, Mos Def, Wildcat!

Wildcat! and Ex Cops. “With so much change in consumer behaviour, as independents we remain extremely agile so we can adopt new models to adapt to these changes.”

Deutsch added: “There are new models that have evolved to leverage the growth of social influence and digital

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revenue that we have adopted. Much of our methodology has changed over the past five years; most recently, we have become more strategic in aligning how we offer content to music consumers in ways they actually consume content and monetising that content in new ways.”

Other leading figures from the indie world at Midem this year include Mute founder and chairman Daniel Miller. Since he launched the label in 1978 — with his own seven-inch

Cooking Vinyl’s Martin Goldschmidt

vinyl single Warm Leatherette, under the name The Normal — Mute has grown from a one-man operation into a global group, but with Miller still closely involved.

PIAS founder and CEO Kenny Gates is also at Midem. Gates founded PIAS with Michel Lambot over 30 years ago and today he still has a passion for what he does — with the belief that PIAS exists “to help make the world a better place. Hopelessly romantic, I know.”

Mute’s Daniel Miller

PIAS’ Kenny Gates

Martin Goldschmidt, founder of Cooking Vinyl, joins Gates and Miller on a panel The True Meaning Of Independence And Success.

Like his fellow panelists, Goldschmidt’s company was originally fuelled by a passion for music. “I never intended to start a label. I was managing a band called Akimbo and nobody wanted to sign, so we put the record out ourselves,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about the business back then.”

Goldschmidt does not subscribe to the idea that the industry was the victim of piracy: “Labels aggravated the situation by not delivering what the public wanted,” he said. “Looking back Napster was desperate to become legitimate. Now offering music free in certain cases is a means to making money in other ways.”

Downtown Records’ Josh Deutsch

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29/05/15 17:07

INNOVATION

Looking back to when music was truly social

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HEN the music industry thinks about the concept of the internet of things — devices of all kinds connected to the internet and to one another — it shouldn’t ignore the unconnected stereos in living rooms around the world, says Martin Varsavsky, CEO of Fon. He’s certainly not: Fon’s Gramofon gadget gets traditional hi-fis online, ready to access Spotify and other streaming music services.

“Most people have a sound system that they love and don’t want to throw away. Nobody would want to watch a TV from the 1980s, but sound systems from the 1980s still sound great,” he said. ”We are internet-enabling or cloud-enabling those devices that people love and don’t want to throw away.”

In his Midem keynote Varsavsky may be talking about “social” music, but more in the older sense of the word: people gathering in one place to listen together.

“Headphones are cool when you’re running or cycling but not really great with people.

Headphones aren’t social,” he said. “Let’s remember the time we used to come and browse friends’ CD or vinyl collections.”

Varsavsky may also deliver some home truths to Midem’s music industry audience about their battles against online piracy: “They have

Fon’s Martin Varsavsky fought piracy with the law, and that’s a foolish way of fighting piracy. Partly because of the whole image of pirates. Little children want to be pirates when they grow up!

“The music industry doesn’t realise that even the word ‘pirate’ has a nice ring to it. What they have to do is give something that feels better than piracy, which to me is what the best music services do. And products like Gramofon can help.”

Cap Digital nurtures innovation in music

A TOTAL of 30 finalists have been selected for the annual Midemlab startup pitching contest, from June 5.

Presented by Pepsi and Vivendi, Midemlab is an opportunity for startups to find new business partners and propose innovative ideas to enable creative industries to build new consumer experiences.

This year’s contest has three categories: Music Discovery, Recommendation and Creation; Marketing, Social Engagement and Monetisation; and a new category, Hardware/Internet of things.

Finalists were chosen by Midemlab selection partners Bluenove, Index Ventures, Music Ally and Seedcamp.

Among the 30 finalists is Israel’s SoundBetter which describes itself as a “music creation marketplace”.

Pitching in the Music Discovery, Recommendation and Creation category, it aims to help musicians “finish your song” by connecting them with studios, mixing and mastering engineers, producers and session musicians. Artists can post a brief and receive quotes from professionals for how much their services will cost.

In the Marketing, Social Engagement and Monetisation category, Turkey’s Entertainment Factory is a platform for creators that aims to distribute their work, and help them track it across the web and into offline media. According to the company: “We will even prevent online privacy and track offline activities like radio plays, TV plays, concerts, events and official charts.”

In the Hardware/Internet of Things category, Prizm describes itself as “the first learning music player”, a connected speaker that streams from multiple services, but which aims to deliver music by learning your preferences.

SMALL PRODUCT, BIG SOUND AFTER demanding music access via multi-device streaming platforms like Spotify and the Jay Z-funded Tidal, fans will insist on superior high-fidelity (hi-fi) quality audio, according to French acoustic engineering company Devialet.

To that end, the award-winning Devialet is exhibiting Phantom, which combines the speaker, amp and woofer in one device protected by 77 patents, at Midem.

At 25.5 cm tall, the spherical Phantom is 20 times smaller than traditional mega hi-fi speakers; the company spent €25m on research and development of the product, according to Devialet’s co-founder and CEO Quentin Sannie.

“For 20 years the market has focused on music’s availability on every device everywhere,” he said “ We feel the industry has done as much as it can on that side, so now the market will be focusing on sound quality.”

Phantom originally launched in Paris last December, followed by London in February. It launches in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco in June, then Hong Kong and Shanghai in July.

Phantom’s quality sound comes from the proprietary ADH technology said

by Devialet to produce “the best sound in the world”.

“The revolutionary technology is very

“Cap Digital helps its members throughout the year across multiple areas, including constructing useful relationships with targeted entities, continuous monitoring of market conditions and helping with access to innovation funds, fundraising, and the internationalisation of individual business strategies,” Distinguin said.

The 14 companies are 1D Lab, Augmented Acoustics, Blendzik, Blitzr, Fantouch, Heart never lies, Mapado, niland, Snowite, The Best Song, The Hiver, Trak TraxAir and Whojam.

Demo sessions from the companies will take place in the Riviera on Friday, June 5, at 11.00.

Photo: Benjamin Boccas, 2012

F

RENCH startup cluster Cap Digital is bringing 14 companies to Cannes this year.

The idea behind forming a specialised group entirely focused on music-related innovation was to bring together digital entrepreneurs wishing to better understand and deal with issues related to the evolution of the music industry in the digital era. “The goal for us is to support innovative startups and help our members to confront the needs of the market, enabling them to meet new partners and customers, as well as making them aware of the profusion of ideas and innovations in France,” Cap Digital president Stephane Distinguin said. “Currently French startups are particularly strong in developing ideas for the internet of things — six of Midemlab’s finalists are French.”

Behind this music industry focused effort lies an organisation that has 900 members including large and medium-sized companies, startups, research and training companies, venture capitalists and investors.

Midemlab finalists get ready to pitch

Cap Digital’s Stephane Distinguin

scientific, which allows us to get the best of both analogue and digital amplifications,” Sannie said.

Combined with Devialet’s Dialog wi-fi hub, users can listen to audio anywhere in the house via up to 24 Phantoms. But the most common usage is expected to be for streaming music services and home cinema.

At €1,690 each, the Phantom is being distributed at high-end retailers, including London’s luxury department store Harrods. But brand awareness centres on street marketing, private listening and media campaigns.

“The high-end audio market is growing and everyone is claiming to be the best. So our question is: ‘How do you act when you are actually and scientifically proven to be making the best sound in the world?’ So our marketing strategy focuses on nothing but the product,” Sannie said.

Quentin Sannie with the Phantom

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HACK DAY

Developers gearing up for Midem Hack Day

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GAME splicing Skrillex with Space Invaders. A tool for out-hipstering Facebook friends by recommending them a band they haven’t heard of. Music discovery powered by physical hand-claps. An eye-popping 3D visualisation of Ellie Goulding’s song Burn.

Just four of the hacks from 2014’s Midem Hack Day event, where 25 developers came together to experiment with APIs from a range of

music services, then showed their work off to an enthusiastic crowd of Midem attendees.

2015’s event, sponsored by Spotify and Splice, promises to be just as creative: a fertile tech/music crossover that is sure to be fizzing with ideas. Which is exactly why those companies are so keen to back it.

“It’s always been incredibly important and remains so,” said Owen Smith, a product owner at Spotify who works on its developer platform.

“We obviously can’t have all the great ideas and having a developer platform enables people to start exploring their niggling thoughts, which they can hopefully build into something many people will use and love.”

Co-sponsor Splice’s co-founder Steve Martocci is equally buoyant about the prospects for this year’s hackathon in Cannes.

“We’re excited about the Hack Day, Ellie Goulding got the 3D treatment 046_RM ONLINE DATABASE_PRG_DEM at last year’s Midem Hack Day and how it’s inspiring us to think

about the various ways developers can work with Splice,” said Martocci, whose company runs a cloud platform for musicians to collaborate on music then share it with listeners.

“For us it’s about building awareness of what we are doing to the music industry. We have some very progressive ideas that we believe can actually be executed that will connect the fragmented parts of the industry — and the creation process in particular.”

Expectations for the Midem Hack Day are high, for several reasons.

“We’re always excited about meeting smart and interesting people who are exploring new ideas around music, and hackathons are a great place to do that,” Smith said. “Hopefully someone will build something on Spotify that I’ve never thought of before. That or a really bonkers idea that has no practical purpose — I always enjoy those projects.”

Splice’s Steve Martocci: “We have some very progressive ideas” That’s a key point about hack days: anyone going along to the final presentation expecting to see hard-nosed startup ideas will be disappointed.

Hacking is more playful than that.

“Some of the most memorable projects I’ve seen coming out of hack days have seemed completely crazy at the time. But at the heart of most of them is a great idea that might act as a catalyst to something that person might turn into the next massive startup,” Smith said.

“But it’s really all about exploring an idea and taking it as far as you can go in the time you’ve got. There’s a real joy in seeing the range of places people’s minds go when they only have 24 hours, a box of Red Bull and a computer.”

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29/05/15 16:59

STREAMING

Streaming poised for mainstream growth S TREAMING is the growth in music,” said Spotify’s chief executive Daniel Ek, during his company’s May media event to launch new features. And he is right: industry income from streaming subscriptions rose 39% in 2014 according to the IFPI, with 41million paying subscribers fuelling a $1.6bn market globally.

But 2015 will be a crucial year for streaming as Spotify and its rivals — Apple included — try to convince even more mainstream music fans to pay a subscription charge, in order to grow the market further.

“The main overall challenge is developing greater market penetration and consumer acceptance of music streaming services,” said Jeff Liebenson, founder of Liebenson Law and president of the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (IAEL). “Streaming is likely to be the preferred means of delivering music for some time, and it is critically important to the music indus-

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in marketing streaming to a broader audience, much as it did for downloads when it introduced iTunes.”

Streaming has plenty of critics within the artist community: most prominently Taylor Swift, who removed her entire catalogue from Spotify in protest at the company’s unwillingness to let her withhold it from its non-paying users.

Liebenson claims that if streaming can reach many more paying subscribers, musicians’ fears about the size of their payouts will recede. It’s a view shared by Deezer chief executive Hans-Holger Albrecht, who will be speaking at Midem.

“We are really at the very, very beginning of the market development, and to draw any conclusions at this stage about how much money artists get is a little bit premature,” Albrecht said. “The revenue could easily triple in the coming years.”

For that reason, Albrecht hopes that

try that it succeeds. The potential is for us to have a variety of differentiated streaming services and to have a streaming music service in nearly every home.”

Liebenson believes that streaming music can continue to grow in 2015, but that the music industry must not lose the opportunity to capitalise. “We have the buzz right now but it will not last forever, so we should maximise this opportunity to develop the market more widely while it is still fresh and the focus of public attention,” he said.

“I don’t see a big effort being made in this regard so far, but I am cautiously optimistic that Apple may lead the way

Deezer’s Hans-Holger Albrecht IAEL’s Jeff Liebenson

Saavn’s Rishi Malhotra

major labels will have patience with the free tiers of services like Spotify and Deezer, which have so far been the most effective path to convincing people to pay for a subscription.

“We have a fantastic opportunity: the streaming market is the biggest opportunity the music industry has.

Let’s be careful not to kill something too fast if we haven’t been thinking about alternatives,” he says.

Streaming is not just a western affair.

Saavn is one of the services targeting India and its diaspora. “We believe India is the most exciting internet market in the world. What used to be mobile first, is now transforming into mobile only,” CEO Rishi Malhotra said.

“With two million smartphones shipping a week, consumers want music, messaging, and social. Millions of users are shifting to streaming on Saavn and over the next few years, India will become the largest music streaming market in the world.”

Malhotra said that in India there is less controversy around the subject of artist payouts from streaming. “Saavn and YouTube are the largest providers of digital revenue to literally hundreds of labels in India,” says Malhotra.

“Over the past few years, digital services have created a new economy for India’s music industry.”

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MIDEM ACADEMY

Academy will teach you how to kick ass F ROM learning how to negotiate contracts and commercialising artists’ relationships with fans to kicking the music world’s ass, the required skills and experiences designed to boost music industry careers are on hand at this year’s Midem Academy classes in the categories Music & Tech 101, Entrepreneurship and Marketing.

Under the Music & Tech 101 banner, the class featuring Wim Schreurs, music and entertainment attorney at Belgium-based Ubilex, called Dealing With Music Contracts In A Digital Era: 10 Things To Know, will explain how to negotiate signing a deal.

It is precisely because digital technology enables aspiring artists and music-business entrepreneurs to take their career matters into their own hands that legal expertise has become even more essential, Schreurs said.

And the dynamic creative and business tools offered on the internet also threaten to distort newcomers’

the session On Demand, In Demand: Deep Diving Into The Needs Of The Always-on Fan, Mulligan discloses exclusive data that could influence your fan-influenced business model.

“Artist-fan engagement is the magic dust that begets artist success,” Mulligan said. “The huge success of artist YouTube channels shows that artist-fan engagement isn’t just for the crowdfunding geeks, it is for the masses too. But not all artists want to be intimately close to their fans.

Get fans and artists too close and that mystique might evaporate.”

As the music industry grows increasingly fragmented with different distribution formats and various access points (including digital players, online videos, mobile devices and desktop computers), survival of the fittest becomes imperative. In How To Use Convergence To Kick The Music World’s Ass, Stephen Webber, director of music production, technology and innovation at Spain’s Berklee College of Music, Valencia Campus offers survival tips and advises how to harness convergence to take a music career, project or product to the next level.

Other Midem Acadamy classes include Looking Ahead: Exploring New Digital Trends And Their Accompanying Tools with Music Ally’s Claire

understanding of the business itself.

“Many artists today think that most of their revenues will come only from live performances. They consider rights and legal issues not so important because sales from streaming and downloading do not generate much income.

They see streams and downloads as a marketing and promotion tool, not as a source of income.” He added: “But contracts for exploitation tomorrow are often concluded today.” This makes it vital to keep up with ever-changing legal requirements.

“How do you define release and marketing commitments when everybody can upload a track for worldwide distribution in five minutes?” he said. “It’s about balancing rights between two parties that must work together for a long time.”

In the Academy’s Marketing section, international music industry analyst Mark Mulligan, co-founder of UKbased MIDiA Consulting, will share insight into artist-fan engagement. In

Music and entertainment attorney Wim Schreurs

Mas; Building A Bigger Boat: Per-User Streaming And Selling To The Edges, with US-based Toolshed’s Dick Huey; Music Data As A Competitive Weapon with New York University’s Larry Miller; Making The Most Out Of Lyrics Online – Tips And Advice with France-based Music Story’s Jean-Luc Blaulet; Embracing Entrepreneurship: New Music Business Models with Darker Music Talks’ Tommy Darker; Innovating For The Future: Creating And Scaling Mission-Driven Businesses And Innovation Communities with London School of Economics’ Christian Busch; and Innovating Your Music Start-Up: From Founder To CEO with Merry Bright Music Enterprises’ Elizabeth Chan.

SYNCHRONISATION

TODAY’S ADVERTISING IS ‘ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC’ Grey’s Josh Rabinowitz

SYNCHRONISATION is widely perceived as being one of the areas that can truly replace some of the earnings lost from sound-carrier sales. During the Grey Advertising Sync Session at Midem, Grey’s executive vice-president and director of music Josh Rabinowitz is offering delegates the chance to get their music considered for two of its clients: Longhorn Steakhouse and coffee brand Folgers.

“For me it’s all about the music, external details are secondary. I’m hoping to find a diamond in the rough,” Rabinowitz said. “Currently elecronic dance music and twee indie music still seem to be trending. And as always, anthemic music of any genre is popular.”

Today musical ideas are being brought into campaigns much earlier in the creative process. ”Early is the mantra that all

METROPOLIS FOCUSES ON SYNC METROPOLIS, the studio complex based in a former power station in Chiswick, west London and one of the landmarks of the UK music industry, launched a publishing division at the start of this year and named former Imagem executive Rupert Hollier as its creative director.

At the time of the launch, Hollier described the new operation as “a fully integrated music publishing division, with a strong focus on film supervision, original soundtracks (OST), and advertising and video-game synchronisation”. He added: “We have an extensive A&R reach, with consultants in LA, NY and Europe. In terms of acts we are signing to the publishing division, we intend to retain a relatively small roster — we have under 20 acts at the moment and will not

music supervisors share with their collaborators,“ Rabinowitz said. “For example, we have seen a plethora of award-winning spots at the Lions [the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity] that have been all about the music or where the idea was seeded from a music concept.”

Kyle Hopkins, head of music supervision, Microsoft Media Acquisitions, and one of the panelists at the Midem session Concrete Tips To Get Your Music Synched, says he is getting more enquiries today than ever before. ”The global business of music supervision and sync licensing has matured considerably in the last five years. Sync plays a more significant role in the lives of artists, labels, publishers and managers now, and so everyone is more keen to discuss sync opportunities,” he said. “The point at which music is discussed varies wildly from project to project, depending on the product and the intent of the campaign. That said, music is an important and emotive aspect of most campaigns and projects, and we are including it earlier than we did five years ago.”

have more than 25 by this time next year. This enables us to devote the required time to each of our artists that we believe will push them further in the spheres they want to operate in.”

The company’s expansion plans also include a recording studio in Doha, Qatar, “where we will be facilitating the entire score-recording process, as well as foley, ADR and sound mix for feature films”, he said, adding: “This is an area we excel in, with several exciting films in the pipeline which utilise our supervision skills, catalogue, composers and post-sound facilities.”

At Midem as well as celebrating 25 years, the company is introducing the new division to the world. “We are at Midem in order to meet old friends, tie up new contracts and let the music world know more about what we are doing with not only our new publishing division, but our plans for our film recording and supervision side going forward,” Hollier said.

Rupert Hollier (left) with Metropolis CEO Ian Brenchley

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CHINA & CANADA

DIGITAL IS DRIVING LEGITIMATE CANADA BLASTS MUSIC BUSINESS IN CHINA INTO CANNES MORE China Night is an evening of music featuring four up-and-coming Chinese acts. The show takes place on June 6 and features: Carsick Cars, a young indie rock-and-roll band; Wang Xiaotian, an urban folk performer who is set to tour the US and Europe with his band; modern jazz band formed by well-known Erhu performer Guo Gan and three French jazz musicians; and Ruhan&Tony, a band of young Chinese and American singers who deliver a mixed classical and popular style.

The spotlight is also on China during one of the Midem Talks, to be given by Zhu Hong, general manager of Migu Music and creator of China’s largest music subscription system, Migu Premium Member. In his talk Zhu gives an overview of the Chinese music market and the evolution of a legitimate digital music market in China, led by the telcos.

And there are further opportunities for learning about China in Cannes — for example with a visit to the China Pavilion, sponsored by CADPA, the China Audiovisual Digital Publishing Association.

A recent report from the IFPI, called China: Moving Towards Paid Services — part of the organisation’s Digital Mu-

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THE CANADIAN Independent Music Association (CIMA) is a notfor-profit national trade association dedicated to strengthening the independent music industry by supporting small, Canadian-owned companies involved in every aspect of music, creating opportunities for them to progress professionally.

At Midem CIMA is showcasing its Canadian Blast business development brand and is aiming to provide a gateway for Canadians starting out in the music industry to initiate global relationships and create revenue through an international platform, including artist performances and business services.

Kathy Hahn, CIMA tradeshow co-ordinator, said: “In the past four years, Canada stand delegates at Midem reported busi-

Carsick Cars’ singer Zhang Shouwang sic Report 2015 — describes China as “a music market of enormous untapped potential”, with an online user base of 650 million people and a growing number of licensed digital services. However, an undeveloped culture of paying for music and a history of piracy makes progress slow, the IFPI said. The market increased in value by 5.6% in 2014, helped by an increase in streaming revenues. The hope is for further growth in the years ahead as labels and services roll out initiatives to establish a paid model for music.

• For the full IFPI Digital Music report see www.ifpi.org, Resources & Reports

ness deals worth close to $22m, along with nearly 2,700 meetings and close to 3,000 new business contacts. It is the place to do business.”

She added: “Midem provides the largest concentration of music-business opportunities on a global scale.”

Included in the showcase at the Canada stand on Saturday, June 6, are: Mario Peluso & les Hobos Hurleurs (Artic Records); Mimi O’Bonsawin (EMG); The Jonny Debt Band (Sugar Moon Music) and Virginia to Vegas featuring Alyssa Reid (Wax Records).

On Sunday, June 7, showcases include: Ambre McLean (Letting Artists Make Art — LAMA); Claire Mortifee (Bombay Records); and The Walkervilles featuring Glenn Lewis (Fullcc Music Group — Full Capacity Concerts).

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JAPAN

‘Healthy’ Japanese industry is misunderstood worldwide

Kagenobu Kuwahata: “The image of Japan as a closed market is not correct”

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HE Midem mission of Kagenobu Kuwahata, the Music Publishers Association of Japan’s chairman, is to emphasise that Japan, the world’s second biggest music market, is as robust as ever and is keen to grow its international deals.

He will also dismiss fears that Japanese consumers’ continuing preference for physical CDs, as opposed to the fast growing streaming platforms like Spotify in the West, is undermining the global industry.

He insisted that “the Japanese market is still healthy”. The problem, he argued, is that some people in the global music business don’t really understand it.

According to the recently published annual report from IFPI, the global recorded-music trade body, 78% of Japan’s total music sales in 2014 were in the physical format.

At $2.63bn, revenues last year fell 5.5% compared with 2013. But it was also a huge improvement compared with the 16.7% drop from 2012 to 2013. Although digital sales accounted for only 17% of the total, revenues generated grew to $14m last year from $12.5m.

Leading international streaming platforms like Spotify, Rdio, iTunes Radio, Beats Music and Google Play are not available in Japan. Even Sony Corp’s Music Unlimited service, which kicked off in the US, shut down earlier this year.

However these negative experiences in streaming did not stop Japan-based Line Corp, which operates leading mobile messaging app Line, from recently acquiring the MixRadio music streaming service from Microsoft. MixRadio is expected to be marketed to the 700 million-plus global Line subscribers predicted for the end of this year.

Kuwahata is not fazed by digital developments as long as the industry

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serves Japanese consumers well.

“Almost 80% of our market is physical product, and people who are promoting digital streaming services may not be comfortable with that fact,” he said.

He pointed out that Spotify’s launch in Japan has been stalled for two years due to its “low ratio of profitability. So I want to explain the real situation to international music people”.

In the global market, he warned, Japan’s importance should never be underrated. “Japan is the most open market in the world for foreign composers. In terms of performance royalties, for most of last year, 40% was classified as foreign music, which is very rare.”

Moreover, of the top 10 songs of 2013 in terms of mechanical earnings, nine were co-written by non-Japanese authors and composers, thanks to Japanese music companies recruiting foreign songwriters to complement their own stable of Japanese composers.

“My job is to make a profit for publishers,” Kuwahata said. “In Japan, performance earnings are much higher than mechanical earnings, so how do we take advantage of that?

Right now, we’re setting up co-writing sessions with Americans and Europeans, but in the future I want to do the same with composers from Asia.”

The MPAJ chairman is speaking on the Midem panel Dead Or Alive? Japan’s Streaming Future.

During the session he will ask whetherJapan’s music market is really in decline as the music industry suggests. He will also discuss the positive signs that point to a different understanding of one of the world’s most misunderstood markets. “The image of Japan as a closed market is not correct,” he said.

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ISRAEL Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute’s Mira Geshel

The Voca People

Israel heads for the sunshine

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SRAEL’s presence at Midem 2015 is an endorsement of the decision to move the event from its traditional calendar slot in January to June.

This year will see the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, a government-supported organisation, make its debut at the world’s leading international music market in Cannes.

Mira Geshel, the institute’s manager, content: film, TV & music, said its inaugural participation in the Israel Pavilion was inspired by its positive experience at sister events including MIPTV. “This is our first time at Midem, where we’ve come to support companies that we’ve subsidised for the Israel Pavilion,” she said. “Our attendance is possible thanks to Midem now taking place in June, because in January, we would normally not have completed our year’s plans. And we’ve been so happy with the TV markets, we wanted to be able to help labels, music tech and other companies that wanted to be at Midem.”

Among the Israeli participants at Midem is Asher Bitansky, the Tel Avivbased music executive/publisher, who has worked with internationally acclaimed acts including singer Noa, singer-songwriters Yael Naim and Idan Raichel, and jazz artist Avishai Cohen.

Shira Shalit is A&R manager at label

Phonokol, whose best-selling acts include the late rock star Arik Einstein.

“Phonokol is seeking new partners and contacts during Midem, and to strengthen the existing business relationships,” she said.

The attendance of production group Lidor Entertainment signals the growing success of Israeli live theatre on the international stage.

Lidor is behind such avant-garde live music shows as those by The Voca People, who have performed all over the world. Lidor CEO Leeorna Solomons — also a Voca People pro-

ducer — said: “The market in Israel is rather small, but in comparison to the small population, the music and the entertainment industry is large.”

Another Israeli music-industry champion to meet in Cannes is Yaniv Grady, the marketing and communication director at ACUM, the Israeli collecting rights society. He is also chairman of the Communications Experts Group at CISAC, the collecting societies’ global umbrella organisation.

According to Grady, ACUM and the export institute are backing the Israel Pavilion to support not only

established music enterprises but also the thriving tech-music community emerging in Israel, one of the world’s biggest hubs for new-technology investments.

Israel Pavilion member Fusic, developer of social music video apps, is a finalist at this year’s Midemlab, Midem’s tech startups’ pitching contest. “There are many music tech companies with amazing ideas but not big budgets,” he said. “This trend will be even bigger in the coming years with more innovative apps that will amaze the music industry worldwide.”

For Grady, from the collecting society’s perspective, the internet has raised many challenges. This is a country where Spotify has no local presence, but Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging platform is everywhere and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Nicki Minaj’s manager Gee Roberson recently contributed to a $30m investment in new company, Music Messenger.

The ambition is to ensure the royalties these new technologies generate compensate Israeli rights owners. “Business models are constantly changing and although music [on the internet] is becoming more and more common, royalties are only a fraction of what authors still get on other platforms like TV and radio,” Grady said.

ACUM’s Yaniv Grady

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THE UK & AUSTRALIA

Support continues for the British in Cannes T

HE UK music sector has always been represented by a strong contingent at Midem and the companies and delegates at the British Music at Midem stand have built a reputation for innovation and creativity, reflecting a rapidly developing industry — with Britain now one of only three net exporters of music in the world.

UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is an ambassador for the British Music at Midem stand, which offers net-

048_RM MASTER_PRG_DEM The UKTI’s Phil Patterson

working support and enables international connections. Phil Patterson, music sector specialist at UKTI, said: “As one of the lead partners for The British at Midem stand along with AIM, BPI, MPA, PPL and PRS for Music, we are supporting the British contingent at Midem to deliver a strong collective presence at what is still considered one of the world’s leading music industry events.”

Patterson added that at this year’s Midem, ”as well as all the companies and delegates registered to the British Music at Midem stand, we will also be supporting five British companies — CampaignAmp, Cloudy UK, DICE, Laniakea Music and Immersive Album — who are all Midemlab finalists — and the four UK acts performing at the Midem Artists Accelerator event — Andreya Triana, Ghetts, Little Barrie and Roo Panes.”

Away from the British Music at Midem stand, the UK’s Union Square Music (USM), a Midem regu-

Sounds Oz back for a sixth year

USM’s Peter Stack lar for some years now, was bought

by BMG at the start of this year.

And while acquisition by a major can shake up a company, USM managing director Peter Stack said “It’s largely been business as usual”. He added: “USM has a very full release schedule for 2015 and we’ve been busy working on that at the same time as understanding the fantastic catalogue BMG has acquired and continues to acquire, integrating our systems and planning for 2016.”

As one of the UK’s leading reissue and compilations specialists, Stack said Midem’s move to June works perfectly with its release schedule. “The move to a summer Midem gives us a great opportunity to really set up our key Q3/Q4 business.” He added: “We are also more than ever interested in acquiring new catalogue.”

SOUNDS Australia, the export music market development initiative, is back at Midem promoting artists and companies representing the healthy growth Glenn Dickie of the Australian music scene. Last saw Sounds Australia strengthen its international profile further with networking opportunity The Barbeque Showcase.

Sounds Australia export music producer Glenn Dickie said: “We have been involved with Midem for the five years, presenting the Australian stand since 2010.

We continue in 2015, providing a base for the Australian companies to take meetings and to hold our annual reception on Sunday, June 7.”

The Australian contingent at Midem includes the Australasian Music Publishers Association (AMPAL), which works on behalf of its members to promote a better understanding of the value of Australian and New Zealand music, culturally and economically.

Also during Midem, Meet The Country: Australia, at 15.00 on June 7, gives delegates an opportunity to meet with professionals from Australia in a series of five-minute speed meetings.

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The UKTI’s Phil Patterson

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CITIES

CITIES SEEK TO DEVELOP MUSIC-BASED ECONOMY AS ANYONE working in the music industry knows, music exists in a wholly different environment now, one that is barely recognisable to that of 15 or even 10 years ago. And it was exactly that fact that inspired Graham Henderson, president and CEO of Music Canada, to look for new and innovative ways to help music to become a bigger part of the financial life of cities and regions through the Music Cities Initiative.

“The Canadian music industry was worth $1.4bn in 1999, and $400m last year, that’s a lot of money missing, and the golden age that tech pundits predicted would replace those losses did not happen,” he said. “And what we want to do is to restore financial stability by answering altruistic and abstract questions such as, ‘What does music do for a society?’ and more pragmatically, ‘How can local and regional authorities help the industry?’.

Taking Canada’s highly successful programme of support for the film and TV industry as a model, Henderson and his team reached some interesting conclusions: “Filming in the street is highly disruptive, but Toronto’s inhabitants buy in to the benefits, and the same can apply to music,” he said. “Austin,

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NASHVILLE TUNES IN TO TECH NASHVILLE is taking on Silicon Valley via Project Music, which is described as America’s first “tech accelerator dedicated to the future of the music business” — and the global launch pad is Midem.

Nashville is universally famous for being the home of country music.

Dubbed Music City, it is also the country’s third largest media and entertainment metropolis after New York and Los Angeles.

Project Music was launched by local small-businesses hub Nashville Entrepreneur Centre (NEC) and the Country Music Association (CMA) to help promising local music-focused tech startups nab their next level of investment capital.

“Now, we want to give Project Music a global presence,” Project Music director Robbie Goldsmith said. “We want international applicants to know Nashville is the place to launch a music tech startup. And we want to meet potential investors, sponsors, and partners.”

Applicants can pitch for $30,000 in seed funding each, a 14-week boot camp training and mentorship from leading music executives (Universal Music Group is an investor) and hightech leaders (Google is among the sponsors). Winners can use the NEC’s

Music Canada’s Graham Henderson Texas is an excellent example of how to grow a music-based economy.”

Currently several cities have expressed interest or started implementing plans for music incubation: “Chicago is already working on its own plan, and Melbourne and Adelaide have also been in touch,” he added. “Closer to home Calgary, where our national music centre is situated, is going to come on board, and the Province of Ontario has offered to match investment by individuals and companies dollar-for-dollar.”

Find out more at the Focus On Music Cities panel and press conference.

resources for business development.

Among the first eight beneficiaries is Ear IQ, a smartphone app for customising headphones’ sounds for the individual listener.

Goldsmith said: “The industry is looking for ways to grow the revenue pie, and we offer a great platform to do this. Nashville is the perfect city because it’s a growing tech hub, it’s the No.2 place for college graduates to develop their talents in the US, and it sits at the crossroads of the music business and the creatives who practice the art.”

Project Music’s Robbie Goldsmith

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VALUE OF MUSIC

Panel debates the value of music

M

AJOR players affected by copyright in the US seem to be in agreement that existing national legislation is broken. And an upcoming Midem conference session will explain why.

In the session Policy, Copyright And Creativity – Debating The Implications Of Legislative Developments In The USA, industry experts will explain why an overhaul of the US Copyright Act and its “consent decrees” — which govern how traditional and digital music radio license performance rights from songwriters and composers — is long overdue.

A number of the called-for changes, required to protect rights at a time IFPI figures show digital revenues matched physical sales for the first time in 2014, have been proposed in the Songwriter Equity Act (SEA) currently being debated in US Congress, the Department of Justice and other related copyright institutions.

As Dina LaPolt, president of US entertainment law firm LaPolt Law, said: “This is the first time the US government has attempted a comprehensive analysis of the entire US Copyright Act in over 40 years.”

But, copyright issues are always complex. The demands of the different stakeholders vary. US performance rights organisations, including ASCAP, argue that songwriters’ and publishers’ rights need to be strengthened to match the sound-recording rights for labels.

“Unfortunately, our laws are still

on labels. “There’s a series of inequities in our music licensing policies that beg for reform,” he said. “The most obvious is that the US stands virtually alone in not granting artists and labels even the most basic right to be paid for the recordings broadcast on FM and AM radio. With the transition to streaming, the gaps in the law are becoming more apparent.”

US digital music services agree that the US copyright law is too outdated for the streaming-music revolution. “We can’t support the (SEA) legislation in its current state,” said Mike Herring, chief financial officer at Pandora, the US’ most popular digital radio platform.

“We place immense value on music. However, if music makers desire change, we encourage publishers and labels to decide themselves to change the split between songwriters and performing artists of the substantial royalty revenue already paid by Pandora.”

But according to LaPolt, there is also the battle between all rights holders and the tech giants, like Apple and Google, who use copyrighted works

Cary Sherman: need for reform stuck in a time when everyone owned physical copies of records and no one had ever heard of streaming, much less an iPod or the cloud,” said Paul Williams, composer and songwriter, president and chairman of the board, ASCAP (USA). “SEA is a simple and reasonable way to fix laws that currently prevent songwriters from earning a fair market royalty rate when their music is streamed or downloaded online.”

Cary Sherman, chairman and CEO of US recording-industry trade body RIAA, denounced the unfair provisions the US Copyright Act imposes

Mike Herring: can’t support current legislation to sell their services and that is not just a US issue. “The exemptions legislated in the 1990s to help the then emerging digital services are being abused by the major tech companies,” Gadi Oron, director general at Paris-based collecting societies’ global umbrella body CISAC said.

Alexander Ross, music, publishing and digital media partner at London law firm Wiggin, said the fans’ needs should not be forgotten. “It is about maintaining the value of music in the eyes of the consumer.

There is as much value in the means of delivery and in the means of access as there is in the product itself.

If someone is willing to pay $180 for a three-day festival but not $7.99 a month for unlimited streamed music, then something is not right.”

Paul Williams: laws are stuck in time

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