CANNES: During the first half of day one of MIDEM, the world’s biggest B2B music ecosystem congregation, there was a general buzz of excitement around Cannes’ famed Palais des Festivals centre. That is, even though the headcount at the 49-year old conference is down by 10 per cent or so.
Naysayers and carpers have been complaining about MIDEM, saying that its relevancy is reducing. But the first timers’ breakfast (MIDEM virgins) in the Palais, had more than 250 people show up at 9 am to get to know what was on offer at this year’s edition.
The Reed MIDEM eulogised the sunny weather – as compared to yesteryears when MIDEM was held in cold January every year – and exhorted those attending to do their meetings in the hot outdoors and in the Palais to cool down. “The weather is so great,” said a newbie.
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That done, it was on to the networking village where a long queue waited to connect with those attending from K-Pop in a special B2B session where Korean promoters, publishers, music owners held one on one meets.
The highlight of the morning was the Innovation Factory session held in Riviera 8 where investors and entrepreneurs talked about investments coming into music services. The key highlights of the session were:
· Come up with a business model first, do not just start a service and hope to get traction and money. (Twitter was an exception as was Facebook)
· Investors are opening their wallets with a greater openness of mind to invest in music services and initiatives as compared to earlier. (Spotify has attracted more $500 million in investments and will soon need more money)
· Always ask for more than you need; you cannot keep coming back again and again for the money
· As the founder, learn to delegate, let go and let others lead and operationalise
· Streaming is here to stay, and will only grow. But how platforms will monetise, no one really knows
· Look for game changers, not for the evolution of or adaptation of an existing service or initiative before starting up
· Live streaming services (read concerts) are going to grow and gather in strength.
Strategic Eye editorial director Tom O’Morea then gave some statistics about the music ecosystem and investor moods.
“Music is on the up, and the mood has turned relatively bullish,” said he. “As compared to earlier when there was a bearish sentiment.”
More MIDEM news to follow
