Cannes, France — Imagine you held a music conference and someone forgot the musicians.

It wasn't that bad here. But it's important to remember that Midem is not a showcase for artists, as you would find at Austin's SXSW or Berlin's Popkomm. There's plenty of dealmaking here, but the deals don't involve the artists so much as they do, say, business partners of artists.

Music publishing rights. Mechanical, sound recording and performance rights. You name the rights. The artists have representatives, and tables and chairs on the trade show floor are filled with rights being leased and sold.

This is all to the good for artists; it's so refreshing to see money actually changing hands when it comes to music. But it's felt a little odd, like attending the Academy Awards and not seeing the young woman from Juno.

The big party of the show featured DJs from China. The performance hall for up-and-coming artists was a wooden hut that on a good day could fit about 50 people.

I met lots of artists here, songwriters and performers who apparently feel they can get signed with a label by attending. Those trade show booths? If you want to meet with someone there, you first stand in line behind artists handing over their CD to a less-than-interested receptionist. It reminded me of when I was fresh out of college handing out resumes to receptionists for senators and congressmen on Capitol Hill. Will anyone ever see it? I'd wonder. Doesn't that receptionist have ambitions of her own and wouldn't she just toss any resume that was a threat? Let's hope for the sake of the artists here that those booth workers aren't aspiring recording artists.

I did get to hear one of my favorite musicians, Peter Gabriel, talk in a stage Q&A. But it's been years since Gabriel released an album. He acknowledged owing one to EMI, but was honest in saying he's in no hurry; when he was young he rushed to put them out but at his age he couldn't really give a bleep if he releases another one. Anyone who gives the world "Big Time" deserves that much consideration, if you ask me. (Oh, and way cool, he brought his mother here to Cannes with him.)

So what of this music conference without music? I have learned that (a) rightsholders continue to experiment with new business models, even if they suspect some of them will fail, and (b) there remain companies that play fast and loose with the truth when looking to make money off of other people's creativity. 

So for now I'll savor the memory of the risotto and truffles I had at a waterfront cafe, and count the hours until I can get home and dig out my Peter Gabriel CDs. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 12:30 pm by Patrick Ross and is filed under creators, international, market forces. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.