|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| MIDEM 2007: The Results MIDEM 2007 confirmed its position as the international meeting place for the world's music industry, with representatives from 91 countries attending the event. 9, 481 participants, 4, 605 companies, including 2, 376 exhibiting companies, and a packed two-day MidemNet Forum, underlined the industry's resilience in the face of challenging times. "The increase in the number and variety of companies exhibiting this year illustrates MIDEM's continuing importance to the wider music industry, " commented Dominique Leguern, MIDEM Director. "Our goal is to bring all the components of the music industry value chain to MIDEM so that professionals from all sectors can meet, discuss and define the future of the industry." Diversity was not only visible in the range of companies at MIDEM this year, but also in the number of different nationalities attending. Asia's strength was confirmed with China and India taking national pavilions for the first time. Eastern Europe also increased its presence at MIDEM by 15%, with Slovenia and the Czech Republic both up 13%. Also of special note, the 153 US exhibiting companies represented a 35% increase compared to 2006. For its eighth edition the MidemNet Forum attracted a record 1, 319 attendees, the programme focused on key developments in the business and numerous prestigious international speakers participated in the debates including Rob Glaser, Chairman & CEO of RealNetworks; Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine; Will.I.am, (Black Eyed Peas) Head of Marketing for Musicane.com and Miles Flint, President of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. The conference programme at both MidemNet and MIDEM provided an exceptional opportunity to take the industry's temperature and this year's event reflected an industry that is realigning itself with a world built on new business models. Key topics of debate were the future of Digital Rights Management and advertising supported services. MIDEM is also the place where key industry announcements are made and this year the focus of both media and delegate attention was on the world's independent record sector with their announcement of "the first global new-media rights licensing agency, " Merlin. MIDEM proper opened on Sunday 21st January and the prestigious MIDEM Opening Night Party was organised in association with EMI Music Publishing. The evening featured an exclusive showcase with live performances from four of the most promising international bands currently signed to the publisher. Swedish sensation Mando Diao, rising US electronica/indie/rock phenomenon Shiny Toy Guns, New York-based R'n'B septet Naturally 7 and Canada's Justin Rutledge. Montreux Jazz Festival Founder and CEO Claude Nobs was honoured with the MIDEM 2007 Personality of The Year Award. At a prestigious gala dinner, many top executives paid tribute to his outstanding contributions to the music industry and long-time friends, Crusaders' founder Joe Sample, accompanied by the rare vocals of Randy Crawford, gave a moving live-performance to the delight of all attending. New talent was at the forefront of numerous MIDEM concerts including: the ever-popular "British at MIDEM" who's UK chart-topping headliner, Amy Winehouse, brought the house down, the third edition of US-based, SonicBids-partnered, Buzz Bands initiative and the French talent showcase CQFD. Also of special note, the world-music concerts featuring Afro-Flamenco, Reggaeton, Reggae, Taiwanese and French-speaking showcases. MIDEM's Classique and Jazz concert line-up also brought together a fine selection of world renowned talent including the exceptional Korean soprano, Sumi Jo and up-and-coming talent featuring virtuoso performances. MIDEM 2007 played host to three international award ceremonies: the eighth edition of the NRJ Music Awards, the third MIDEM Classical Awards and the fourth European Border Breakers Awards, the latter attracted the interest and participation of numerous European parliamentary ministers. For the fourth consecutive year three listening sessions enabled delegates to pitch their music to be selected for international audio-visual projects. The winner of the session organised by music-synchronisation specialists Zync Music will have their music licensed in a show supervised by Chop Shop (Grey's Anatomy, Shark, The OC, Numb3rs, Rescue Me…) in 2007. The winners of the Sony Computer Entertainment session will see their music placed in a new Sony Computer video game and also be given studio work experience. Finally the Activision listening session jury members retained a tune which will be placed in a future Activision game. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |