MIDEMLAB

‘We need to keep the pace - the industry needs tech partners’

The 20 finalists in this year’s Midemlab startups contest will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of past alumni of the competition, who include SoundCloud, Kickstarter, Songkick and The Echo Nest. Stuart Dredge reports

DIVIDED into four categories, this year’s Midemlab startups contest will serve as a snapshot of music-tech innovation in 2021, at a time when the music industry is keener than ever to collaborate with startups. “Innovation is just as important, if not more so, to the music business in 2021. Particularly as the industry looks to build new revenue opportunities beyond on-demand streaming services,” says Paul Brindley, CEO of Music Ally, one of the Midemlab selection partners. Brindley cites the health, fitness, gaming and metaverse sectors as prime examples of this dynamic at work. “The industry needs tech partners to help create and facilitate these opportunities, and rights owners are wisely investing in these companies,” he says. Midemlab 2021 is the 14th edition of the contest, which this year will be presented by Sacem, with a follow-up online networking session presented by Sacem and LyricFind. “Innovation is important for two main reasons. The first one is because innovation is just happening, everywhere and all the time. It drives new usages, new opportunities, new revenues and sometimes some risks,” head of digital strategy and innovation at Sacem, Julian Lefebvre says. “We need to keep the pace and be aware of what’s happening in order to succeed in our mission and provide the best service to the creators and publishers.” Second is the need for the music industry to constantly seek out new ideas and new ways of thinking about its problems and its opportunities. “Startups, by nature, think and work in a different way than established actors and we believe the collaboration

can be fruitful and be a driver for accelerated evolutions,” Lefebvre says. Yvan Boudillet, founder of TheLynk, another of the selecting partners, agrees. “In 2021 and beyond, innovation considered as a creative, inclusive and problem-solving process will be instrumental to translate creativity and fan engagement into value, in a fair and transparent way.” Midemlab’s earliest incarnations happened at a time when the recorded music industry was still in decline and it played an important role in pointing to some of the routes out of that slump. “The music industry almost capsized by not raising all boats with attention to tech progress and music tech innovation,” senior vice-president of international publishing at LyricFind, Robert Singerman, says. “If the music industry and the music community supports music tech, respecting copyright, nurturing new tech and new business models, all will be served.” Meanwhile Boudillet offers some tips for startups hoping to make a good impression at Midemlab 2021. “What impresses me is first of all the bold vision of the founders. Then, my focus is to evaluate their understanding of their ecosystem and their capacity to elaborate a tangible go-to-market strategy to turn their concept into a sustainable business,” he says. For Music Ally’s Brindley, the key is originality. “What really stands out for me is when you see something you’ve genuinely never seen before,” he says. “Too many companies end up imitating existing companies.” n

Paul Brindley: “What stands out for me is when you see something you’ve never seen before”

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