Music2Deal members can obtain a discounted registration code for a Reeperbahn Festival Conference Ticket by sending an email to registration@reeperbahnfestival.com mentioning “Discount Music2deal“ (deadline Sept 16). They will then receive a discount code including instruction to register online.

The discount will be €155,00 net (plus 19% VAT and sales fee) instead of regular fee €230,00 net (30% off).

The Reeperbahn Festival Conference Ticket contains the following services:

• Access to the Conference programme (sessions, networking, awards)
• Priority access to the public programme (concerts, showcases, film, literature, and arts programme (subject to capacity))
• Access to the Reeperbahn Festival Lounge (incl. delegates bar)
• Access to the password protected delegates database
• Access to the Hamburg Metal Dayz
• Free local public transportation

 

Music2Deal connecting music professionals and then staying in contact about music opportunities to make deals happen.

 

by  Richard Rogers, Ncompass Music/Silverscope Records

New post in the A&R Topics group on Music2Deal

This week I spoke to a couple of A&R colleagues and I asked them what they felt was one of the biggest changes in the last ten years. The answer was tie-ins, link ups and more marketing deals than ever before but cross merging from music into other creative areas rather than selling packets of crisps a la SpiceGirls. So artists have gone for more kudos and collaborated in areas such as art, photography, installations, sculpture, film making etc. Basically music is working in tandem with other art forms. Why?

Because the amount of money has dropped significantly from selling music only. The physical formats are making a pittance in the short and long run and obviously the world and his wife have been downloading a majority of music for free particularly these last ten years. Therefore artists such as Coldplay, Kate Bush, David Sylvian have led the way for UK artists by working with other creative artists to form a different revenue stream. Recently Lady Ga Ga and famous artist Jeff Koons have worked together on her Artrave evening where a statue was unveiled of her by Koons.for her Artpop album. Jay Z worked with Serbian Marina Abramovic on her instillation of ‘the artist is present’.

By working with an artist in another creative field you are addressing two audiences, firstly your own and secondly those of an artist in a different creative area whose own fanbase will undoubtedly in some degree or another be interested in what you are producing musically thanks to the collaboration with one of their favourite artists.

In my opinion this has all been done to some degree over the last 50 years, think of the graphic designers doing monumental sleeves in the 60’s and 70’s. The dancers and choreographers, video directors used in the music videos of the 80’s and 90’s. The list goes on, For A&R people this has been creative license for those 50 years but in the last ten years this has changed to the fact that now the artist needs to make money in different ways therefore the onus is on ensuring that the A&R is still creative but money can be made at the same time so the goalposts have moved to a degree. So more tie-ins and link ups are needed. More pressure for the poor beleagered A&R person. I went to an exhibition of paintings in 2002 in the UK, saw an amazing painting of the Easter Islands in vivid gregarious colours and attempted to buy the painting (5 people had already done the same). Although I didn’t buy the painting I did buy the rights to use the image and used it as a cover sleeve for a promotional album called Shallow Vessels that featured four artists each performing 4 songs apiece. One of the acts were signed up via Music2deal to City Canyon Records in New York, a good Music2deal user and two of the other acts were signed through distributing the promotional CD at Music seminars such as SXSW and Popkomm where the cover sleeve caught everyone’s imagination. I still believe the sleeve was fundamental in acquiring people’s attention in the first place and to an extent getting those acts signed to deals. After all there is nothing worse than a boring promotional or demo sleeve.

On a personal note I went into a secondary area a number of years ago after lecturing for the PRS that artists needed more than just music and required a second bow to their strings through collaborations because simply put ‘music itself wasn’t selling’. After studying art, it took me another 6 years to devise a 6 formula system called ‘Canvas Music’ of painting any song ever written in any style and each painting would be unique (checkout http://www.bourneart.com for more info). Artists such as Muse and OMD have acquired ‘Canvas Music’ paintings of their own songs. Apologies for a bit of self promotion but if anyone would like to commission a song to be painted either a song written by themselves or any other song by any other artist then please contact me.The song is painted on 12 inch square (old vinyl size) stretched canvas and I am offering them at a discount of only 450 euros each (plus postage) for any M2D member that uses the code ‘Link Ups’.

My advice to music artists and managers is find people to collaborate with at an early stage, find an artist, photographer, installation artist, sculptor, anyone on the creative side that a) you admire and like their work b) are at basically the same stage of their development and career as yourself where you can work together for the mutual benefit and development of both creative artists despite being in two separate creative areas. They say two heads are better than one.

Possibly Music2deal is the best launchpad for finding that creative being?

Richard Rogers

A&R Topics group on Music2Deal

 

 

 

Jérôme Delhaye (Director of Entertainment Division of Reed MIDEM)

 

Mario Christiani: Most music professionals know about MIDEM but can you tell us about MIDEM for those people who don´t already know about it?

 

Jérôme Delhaye: Midem is a unique event with participants from 80 countries. It is a B2B event for the international music industry and the only place where people come together for their music and their business to start and maintain relationships.

The full international dimension of the music ecosystem will be at the core of Midem 2016, and will act as the central theme of the conference programme. Key players from the international music industry ecosystem will be attending Midem 2016 including labels, artists, publishers, platforms (Pandora, Deezer etc…), music industry startups…

 

 

Mario Christiani: This year Midem will celebrate its 50th year. So what was the very first year like?

 

Jérôme Delhaye: Midem was created by Bernard Chevry and was launched in Cannes, France, in 1967. The concept was not to be a music festival but from the start a business event. It was scheduled just after the San Remo Music Festival and Bernard Chevry sent a fleet of 100 cars to San Remo to pick up industry executives and bring them to Cannes! The first Midem was the only one of its kind anywhere in the world and it was a great success. It was the first time that so many music business people could meet up, exchange products and ideas and discuss mutual challenges and projects.

 

Mario Christiani: How did it develop and grow over the years?

 

Jérôme Delhaye: Midem quickly became an international success, bringing together a growing community of international music professionals. Over the years it has become a unique deal-making platform, enabling international representatives from the whole music sector to connect. After just five years 5,000 people from 40 countries attended Midem.

 

Mario Christiani: What were the main changes and challenges for Midem over the last 50 years?

 

Jérôme Delhaye: The many changes in the music industry obviously had an impact on Midem. Some of the most important changes were for example the development of music TV channels like MTV, the launch of the CD or more recently the Internet. As a purely B2B industry event these changes were integrated into Midem to reflect the industry we serve.

 

Key Face 2016

 

Mario Christiani: It appears that Midem has nearly always taken place in January. Last year, however, the event happened in June. What was the reason for the change and did it work well? Seems like it could not be easy to change the habits of so many people who attend each year.

 

Jérôme Delhaye: There was some reservation about Midem’s new dates but we wanted to give new energy to the event. The good weather in June makes a huge difference to our delegates’ mood and the long days and evenings extend the working hours and allow more time to meet people and network outside in the evening. The numerous concerts outside are also very enjoyable in the long summer evenings. Midem is all about networking and we felt that this would be enhanced in the summer.

The feedback we got from our clients to this change was really good. Most of them told us that they met more people and that they had a very positive Midem.

 

Mario Christiani: And what about the cost of Midem? Some people told me that they think that the hotel prices will be much higher than in January.

 

Jérôme Delhaye: About 50% of Midem participants go through our internal accommodation booking service and we have negotiated with the hotels we work with on the tariffs they apply which are approximately the same as in January.

 

Mario Christiani: What are the plans for Midem 2016? What can we expect?

 

Jérôme Delhaye: It’s the 50^th anniversary of Midem and we’ll be celebrating the past 50 years of music with past generations and the next 50 exciting years to come with the game changers of the new music ecosystem.

 

The 50^th anniversary will be a big event there will be 3 evenings of live concerts with a wide range of talent performing at the traditional Opening Night and Closing Night networking events, and also at the Midem 50th Birthday Party on Saturday night. It will be a great time to celebrate and also to benefit from more networking opportunities until late into the evening.

 

This year we will hold the inaugural International Midem Awards’ ceremony and leading industry competitions such as the Midem Artist Accelerator – the programme to fast-track budding musical talent into the global spotlight and Midemlab, the international pitching competition for innovative startups. We are looking forward to keynotes from leading industry leaders such as Timbaland, Pandora Founder, Tim Westergren; Glassnote Entertainment Founder, Daniel Glass; Warner Music Group’s Stu Bergen; Alibaba Music Group Chairman, Gao Xiaosong; Music Supervisor Marie Ramos and UTA’s Neil Warnock.

 

Mario Christiani: What are your future plans? What might Midem look like at its 60th year?

 

Jérôme Delhaye: We have many new projects that we are launching this year like the Innovation factory, the Copyright Summit or the Anchor Program. We move forward with the music industry so as to remain relevant to our clients, our aim is to maximize the return on investment for our participants.

 

Mario Christiani: Thank you very much.

 

http://www.midem.com