MIDEM Spotlights The German Way

This year’s MIDEM will focus on the German music market, and the annual conference has enlisted a few of the company’s top execs to trumpet the event.

It’s called “The German Way of Music” and will doubtless increase the number of visitors from across the French border.

BMG Rights Management chief exec Hartwig Masuch says the participation of “non-traditional music companies” has led to MIDEM becoming a forum for various businesses.

Dagmar Sikorski, president of the German Music Publishers Association (DMV), described it as “the key event” for national and international decision makers but also for creative minds, politicians and many other industries that use music as a vehicle for conveying their message to final consumers.

“Our industry needs international forums for debate,” said former Popkomm chief Dieter Gorny, now chief exec of the German Federal Music Industry Association (BVMI). “Midem, like our industry, is changing, which is what makes this year so interesting.”

The German Ministry of Economics and Technology is funding a national pavilion for 100 organisations including record companies, music publishers, startups, advertising agencies, brand owners, IT companies, artists and various trade bodies and associations.

The visitors to the pavilion will include German state minister of culture and media Bernd Neumann and Joachim Otto from the ministry of economy and technology.

More than 200 German companies have already committed to taking part.

German royalty collecting society GEMA, which last year stung the country’s live music promoters with a rate hike, is running a panel called “Lost Property – the Future of Collective Rights Management in the EU.”

It’s expected to attract representatives of the European Commission, the German Parliament and various national collecting societies including STIM, ECS and PRS.

In a bid to stem steadily falling delegate numbers, MIDEM is also starting its own festival, which will be put together by Paris-based promoter Jules Frutos.

MIDEM is at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, Jan. 28-31.