MIDEM Feb. 3 and 4, 2014
Was this the last MIDEM? That was a rumor rolling around Cannes this year, but longtime attendee John Singleton said that rumor goes around every year.
Attendance is down from ten years ago; the event is not crowded. Old timers complain that it’s not about the music anymore. In a class I teach at Belmont, “History of the Recording Industry,” I tell students that the music business is music, business and technology all rolled together, and that, at any given time, one of those is in the lead. It’s easy—and cool—to say, “It’s the music, man” and that is certainly true in the long haul. You may love Bing Crosby or Elvis or the Beatles and not be aware of the business or technology issues during their time.
At the start of the recording industry, the technology came first; the phonograph had to be invented, then the microphone, and then there had to be improvements in the equipment. Business came second because the industry had to figure out how to set up a profitable business foundation and structure or else the music would not survive. The music, though vitally important, came third. We have the same situation today; technology is in the lead and business has to figure out how to “monetize” (that’s a favorite word at music business conferences) the recordings.
Longtime attendees to MIDEM complain that it is more of a technology convention than a music convention and that the tech folks really don’t care about music. They only want to use it to enhance their technology. The fact is that MIDEM is, to a large degree, now a technology conference. There are seminars about social networking, streaming, and other issues connected to technology. There are “hack days” where people compete for the best app. People are trying to find ways to monetize the exposure they receive from digital technology. So the music comes third.
The other issue that arises is the need to have MIDEM. I remember going into my office at 6 a.m. to make phone calls to London, now I send an email and the next day there’s an answer waiting. Long distance calls were incredibly expensive; today phone rates are cheap. Because of technology, people are in constant contact; in the old days, a letter took quite a while.
MIDEM used to be a place where you received distribution into other countries for your product. Today iTunes and streaming services are in a number of countries, while Facebook and YouTube cover a lot of the world.
Face to face contact is important; technology will never replace a handshake and eye to eye conversation. However the cost of doing business in money and time seems to indicate that technology is rendering conventions like this much less important  than they used to be. The fact is that an international convention for people involved in the music industry is vitally important; the question: Is it MIDEM?
• • •
A special presentation from Europeans on “Authors’ Rights: What’s Next on the Agenda” opened Day Three (Feb. 3) at MIDEM. Collection societies led the discussion about “proper remuneration” for writers and it was noted several times that “there’s no quick fix solution—everything is connected to everything.” There was also the observation that “the creative society is looked down on by Brussels and Washington.”
Jean Michel Jarre, a well-known French recording artist and President of France’s CISAC, stated that in terms of getting paid, “We’ve fought the wrong battles. We wanted to get the consumers to pay. When we listened to radio, the rights were collected upstream. Now, we must do the same thing with the internet. The rights must be paid upstream. We need to make agreements with internet companies to get payments upstream.”
In a separate event, Jarre was interviewed by Music Week’s Rhian Jones on the topic, “Fair Share for Creators,” although he said a better title for the talk would be “How to create a sustainable future for the creative community.”
Jarre said, “Royalties have increased to almost 1 billion euros this year, but the bad news is that only four percent came from digital. If digital is the future, what could it be if it was 50-50? In the future, we might have 96 percent digital. We need to send a clear message to these people.”
The artist, who was recently in Los Angeles recording, said, “I have been impressed with how American musicians and filmmakers are watching Europe. We have protected author’s rights. We have increased the VAT (Value Added Tax) in France. Now, it is 5.5 percent for books, 7.55 percent for films, but for music it went from 19.6 to 20 percent. It is intellectual racism. The ticket for a film isn’t that different from a ticket to a music concert. France is good at protecting films and books, but not music.”
Jarre noted, “We need to stop thinking people with the internet are our enemies. Facebook and Google are closer to music than most politicians. We need the internet, but the internet needs us because music will exist long after the internet. Without our content they wouldn’t be able to sell advertising. The music industry has lost its voice. In the ‘60s the music industry did protest songs. We should be protesting now. We were rebels and we’re still rebels. We’re cool and we shouldn’t let the internet companies be cool by using our music and not giving us fair compensation.”
• • •
“The Next Big Thing is Licensing,” featured host Bill Wilson with the Music Business Association (formerly known as NARM, USA) and panelists Charles Caldas, Merlin (Netherlands); Richard Conlon, BMI (USA); Josh Deutsch, Downtown Records (USA); Florian Drucke, BVMI/IFPI (Germany); Melinda Lee, Getty Images Music (USA) and Mary Megan Peer with peermusic (USA).
Conlon stated that licensing is difficult “because there’s a couple of layers. It’s complicated because everyone is a creator now.” Melinda Lee echoed that statement, “Getting the rights to pair a song with a picture is so complicated.”
The remix culture is growing and artists don’t care about getting a record deal; they are getting endorsements and gigs. Mary Megan Peer stated, “We love the remix culture because it gives life to old songs. We just want them to license the songs. It is incumbent on us to make it easy for providers or users pay for music license rights.”
Wilson noted, “There is a format shift from what people were buying to what people are listening to. We must have faith in the power of evolution.”

• • •
Marcus Taylor, Director of Venture Harbour (U.K.), presented a study on “Creating Sharable Content in the Music Industry” which addressed the problem of finding an audience for content.
Taylor noted that every day there are two million blogs posted, 864,000 hours of video posted on YouTube, and 532 million Facebook status updates. So how does something go viral? “Viral is something that happens; it is not created,” said Taylor.
It comes from sharing, but what makes us share? Taylor said there are two reasons we share: (1) self interest and (2) altruism. Our self interest includes nurturing relationships, defining ourselves and promoting our agendas. Altruism means sharing our experiences and knowledge to help others.
So what do we share? According to Taylor, we share “things that are remarkable” because “remarkable things get remarked on.” We share things when triggered, things that are emotionally stimulating (negative feelings and anger are the tops here), we share things of practical value (useful information), and we share “what others are sharing.”
In terms of the music industry, information about royalties, income, sales figures and challenges are extremely shareable. Data driven content is also shareable “because in a world of sharing opinions, data stands out.”
Facebook is the most important social network for sharing in the music industry, according to Taylor, with 62 percent of all share on the music industry made on Facebook. He also pointed out that 55 percent of social traffic to music content comes through Facebook; however, Twitter has the highest number of visits.
In order to “create contagious content” you must “out-think your competition,” said Taylor. Content is contagious “when it stands out from the crowd, is emotionally stimulating, and is remarkable.”
• • •
A seminar on “Getting International With Big Data: The New Eldorado” was hosted by Ken Hertz, cofounder and principal of memBrain LLC (USA); with panelists Ime Archibong, Facebook (USA); Scott Cohen, The Orchard (UK); Gregory Mead, CEO musicmetric (UK); and Christophe Waignier, SACEM (France).
Ime Archibong with Facebook noted that “Facebook and data are synonymous,” adding that “750 million people touch digital devices on a daily basis.” Scott Cohen from The Orchard noted about data that “It’s the analytics around data that are important: who is using it, when and where are they using it, and why are they using it.”
Ken Hertz stated, “There’s good news and bad news about digital data. On one hand, data is the greatest thing for the music business. On the other, it is possibly the worst thing that could happen to people who lived in the music business. The music industry now is bigger than it ever was but the major players are smaller now than they ever were.”
Archibong with Facebook noted, “Music continues to be something that reverberates. Music is a conversation starter in the Facebook ecosystem.” An audience member asked Archibong, “Why isn’t Facebook paying for content?” Archlibong answered, “We believe we are providing transactional value and promotional value. Facebook makes marketing more personal, which helps the artist.”
“Consumers want to discover the next favorite band,” said Hertz. “And maybe data can get them that.”
Cohen countered, “I don’t think discover is the question—they’ve already got lots of music. From the end user, they just want the things they want and that is often bands they’ve already discovered. The problem with data is that it is backward; it’s what has happened… We need to cross into the 3.1 world. That’s where the gap is: What’s next?” He added, “The data you collect from music will be more valuable over time.”
Hertz noted, “Companies use music to sell something and, ultimately, it’s about figuring out what you sell to whom, so data is an opportunity to learn more. Who is taking data and giving back useful information or using it to build a business? The record industry hasn’t done a good job with research or doing something intelligent with data.” He noted that data isn’t very helpful in predicting success because “in the recording industry it’s nearly impossible for someone to succeed. It’s like winning the lottery.”
In a seminar titled “Developers Are the New Rock Stars,” a participant observed that “Brands have customers but want fans, while musicians have fans but want customers.” This means that the future of music is tied strongly to brands, who will pay for the “cool” factor to reach their customers and increase their business while music will see a major revenue stream through their connection to brands.

Sunday, Feb. 2, 2o14
The International Association of Entertainment Lawyers held seminars all day on Sunday. The group is busy with legal wranglings over anti-piracy efforts.
In the United States, the major issue is the consent decree granted to ASCAP and BMI, which allows for blanket licenses to represent all of American song publishers. The issue has been contested because several publishers, starting with EMI, withdrew their new media rights from ASCAP and BMI and negotiated directly with iTunes. Others followed and then Pandora filed a motion against ASCAP to lower their fees. That has gone to court and a ruling could invalidate the earlier publisher withdrawals.
What is at stake is whether music publishers “can cherry pick what rights to license,” explained Deborah Newman, an attorney with MusicStrat, who spoke at the morning session. “The issue is now in freefall.” She said a possible outcome could be “the publishers give whatever rights they want to whoever they want.”
The other major legal issue facing American music publishers, according to Newman, is whether downloads from iTunes are sales or transfers.
Attorneys from around the world gave brief overviews of the major legal issues in their countries. Those issues tend to coalesce around anti-piracy, the taking down of web sites violating copyright law, and whether the consumer, the infringer or the intermediary (like the ISPs) should be the target.
• • •
A seminar on Independent labels was moderated by Tommy Boy CEO Tom Silverman (who also serves as Executive Director of the New Music Seminar) and featured Martin Goldschmidt with Cooking Vinyl Group in the U.K., Kenny Gates with PIAS recordings in Belgium, Emmanuel de Buretel with Because Music in France and the U.K., and Colin Daniels with an Australian indie label.
The panel confronted the belief that “artists don’t need labels,” and explained that musicians need “Artist Enabled Services.” Case in point, said Silverman, is Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who won a Grammy and proclaimed from the stage they did it without a label. Macklemore had an entire team working with them because “you can’t achieve that level of sales and success by yourself,” said Silverman. “They say they don’t need a label but they needed partners to provide marketing, promotion and publicity and those are things that a label does. Now, the perception is that they did it all by themselves so every artist will believe they can do it on their own.”
The role of a label has changed a great deal, and an independent label “does what an artist doesn’t do, can’t do, or doesn’t want to do,” said Colin Daniels. “We do everything an artist needs done. We even promote concerts and handle merchandise.”
“We’re not a record company now,” echoed Silverman, “we are a music company.” Some who call themselves a record label are actually companies that provide services such as promotion, publicity, or publishing administration for a fee.
“At the end of the day,” said Kenny Gates, “it’s all about relationships. For a while everybody talked about DIY and you don’t need a label. But you need a partner. These artist and label services are partners—and that what a label does. You DO need a label!”
The indies are proud of the fact that they stick with an artist longer than the majors. “It takes five to seven years to break an artist,” said Emmanuel de Burstel with Because Music. “Major labels spend three or four months working an artist and if they don’t hit, they go on to someone else. They have so many artists and so much to do so if an artist doesn’t hit quickly, they drop them.”
Silverman touched on changes at the annual conference: “MIDEM used to be the center for licensing music all over the world. People came with headphones to listen to music for licensing deals. Now, labels make deals for multiple territories by striking a deal with iTunes… People now think that distribution is marketing, but unless you have a partner to help break an artist in a territory, you have nothing.”
Colin Daniel noted that “People used to come to MIDEM once a year to get licensing and distribution done. Now I travel all around the world during the year to get license and distribution deals.”
Daniel also told the story of an indie artist who is “the hardest working artist I’ve ever been involved with.” The artist used to busk wherever he played a show. Years later, the act sells out venues, has sold almost two million albums—but still busks in whatever town he’s in. “The difference now is that we have to hire security,” said Daniel.
Silverman noted that “tech companies are looking for content, not music.” Colin Daniel said he was comfortable dealing with Beats and Spotify “because they’re music people. Google isn’t music people. Spotify wants to work with us but Google just wants to use us.” Martin Goldschmidt with Cooking Vinyl Group, noted that YouTube is the fifth largest revenue stream at major labels so Google is paying for the use of music. Still, Google often comes up as the bad guy in many discussions. “Google monetizes attention—how many eyeball are watching—but they’re getting that attention from our music,” said Goldschmidt. “Facebook is using everything we do.” He also noted a decrease piracy in recent years because “people don’t need to pirate any more—they can get everything streamed or on YouTube.”
There have certainly been major changes in the music business during the last decade, but Colin Daniels insisted that “it comes down to music. That hasn’t changed and it never will.”

Recap: The Grammys

Several stars are enjoying a rise in sales (primarily digital) following Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, which drew in millions of viewers and honored some of Country music’s finest artists. Sales for Kacey Musgraves’ Same Trailer, Different Park have surged 147 percent, rising from 3,900 units last week to 9,800 units this week. The double Grammy winner’s singles “Follow Your Arrow” and “Merry Go Round” have also received a boost in sales, rising 190 percent (9.7k units last week, 28k units this week) and 158 percent this week, respectively. In the past year, Musgraves’ popularity has soared; besides winning several accolades at MusicRow‘s 2013 Awards and Nashville Scene‘s Country Music Critic’s Poll, the singer-songwriter recently announced plans to open for Katy Perry’s Prismatic World Tour. The Grammys fueled album sales for other Country artists, including Taylor Swift (105 percent), Willie Nelson (48 percent) and Hunter Hayes (39 percent), in addition to track sales for Keith Urban (154 percent), whose single “Cop Car” rose from selling 7k units last week to 19k this week.

Albums

Country album sales are down 16 percent from last week, while overall album sales are down 4 percent week over week. The top Country debut this week is Now Country Ballads 2 (Universal) by Various Artists, landing at No. 9 (No. 56 overall), selling 5k units. Another noteworthy debut is Jason Eady’s Daylight and Dark (Old Guitar Records), coming in at No. 45, with 1,100 units sold.
Jennifer Nettles’ That Girl (Mercury Nashville) remains the top Country album (No. 12 overall), selling 19k units this week (73k RTD). The top overall album is Frozen: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Various Artists, selling 93k this week (769k RTD). YTD, overall album sales are down 13.5 percent, while Country album sales are down 17.6 percent. Around the same time last year, Gary Allan’s Set You Free debuted at No.1 overall, selling 106k units.

Tracks

Luke Bryan’s “Drink A Beer” is the top Country track (No. 29 overall), selling 53k units this week. Bryan will undoubtedly perform his hit single at Rock The Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival in April.
Hayes’ “Invisible” is the top Country debut, ranking at No. 7 (No. 47 overall), with 35k units sold. The singer debuted his latest single at the Grammy’s Sunday night. Katy Perry and Juicy’s “Dark Horse” continues to reign as the top overall track, selling 293k units this week. YTD, overall track sales are down 11.7 percent, while Country tracks sales are down 16.7 percent. Around the same time last year, Allan’s “Every Storm” was the top Country track, selling 70k units.
Next week’s numbers will include Vince Gill and Paul Franklin’s Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition, Ronnie Milsap’s Summer #17 and North 40’s Sing Your Own Song.

Revlon, Inc. announced today that Carrie Underwood is joining Almay as a Global Brand Ambassador.
Underwood will represent the full range of Almay products, including the newest 2014 launches. As the face and voice of Almay, she will appear in global, multimedia campaigns spanning television, print, in-store, digital and social platforms. Underwood’s first campaign will break this week, highlighting her unique style and personality.
“Carrie embraces Almay’s approach to beauty and products. Despite her enormous success, she is still a real girl from Oklahoma at the core and a self-professed makeup junkie who likes to try out new makeup looks in her spare time. Almay makes it easy to play with makeup and helps women look their most beautiful which is why we could not be more excited for her to join the brand,” said Julia Goldin, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Revlon, Inc.
Underwood stated, “Honestly, I could never be associated with a company I didn’t believe in. I love Almay’s positive approach to beauty because it’s so important to celebrate our natural beauty and enhance what makes us unique. I’m also really impressed by their products, which I use in my daily life and when I’m working. There’s really something for everyone and every occasion – whether you want to get that perfect ‘no-makeup makeup look’ or create a fun, amped up ‘date-night’ smoky eye.”
Exclusive behind-the-scenes content from Underwood’s campaigns will be available on Almay.com and Almay’s social media channels throughout Underwood’s partnership with Almay.