Cannes, France — So I'm writing today from Midem, the 42nd version of what has to be one of the most impressive music industry shows of the year. Mind you, I'm partial to South by Southwest, particularly its Texas blues roots, but Midem draws much more of an international crowd (in a five-minute period this morning I met the cultural minister for Estonia followed by some artists from Finland, as well as a singer-songwriter from the Bahamas who I suspect will find a label to sign with here resulting from his sheer powers of self-promotion alone).

In subsequent posts I'll address some of the very interesting policy and business questions being debated here (right now it's a pre-show called MidemNet that debuted around the time of the original Napster and focuses on digital issues) but I wanted to give you a sense of the flavor of this show. Some folks, like the Estonian minister, are new to the show, but many have been coming here for decades. To them, Midem is like returning to college after a summer away — an opportunity to catch up with old friends and make friends with the newbies that just hit campus. The restaurants and hotels lining the harbor around the Palais des Festivals were full to bursting last night with industry insiders.

Now mind you, "industry insider" doesn't mean the same thing now as it did a few years ago. The digital freedom crowd will deny this, but the music industry really has transformed itself, and there are far more players finding far more roles for themselves (one of the people at my dinner table last night manages the digital strategy for Kanye West, for example).

One thing all of these people have in common, however, is a love of music, and as a corollary to that, the hope of discovering a new talent. Another guest at dinner last night was a mother promoting her 18-year-old daughter's singer-songwriting skills, and she seemed to have at least a few cheerleaders here hoping she makes some traction for her daughter. At the end of the day, music is only as good as the songwriters and performers, and the executives here recognize that; a significant number of them started out in that category themselves.

Some people are quick to criticize the music industry, but ultimately different songwriters and artists need different services. Some want a do-it-yourself approach, others want what they call a 360 model (one organization handles all your needs from recording to touring), others want to pick and choose. That's all available now. Some people quick to criticize the music industry propose "solutions" that in fact lock in only one or two possible options for creators. The musicians I'm meeting here don't want some advocate for the Internet or consumer electronics telling them what they can or cannot do; they want to make their own choices. I am with them.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 5:26 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under copyright opponents, creators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.