The time has come! Between the 26th and 29th of January, the French city of Cannes will be home to one of the biggest and most traditional business conferences of the world: Midem 2013.
Focusing not only on the music business, but also open to discussions on internet, technology and communications, the conference gathers exhibitors from around 90 different countries, and more than 6 thousand attendees. Record labels, editors, shows, festivals, private digital companies and mobile technologies will all be represented at Cannes, aiming their efforts on closing deals, strengthening networks and meeting new talents.
Brazilian participation
Since 2003 BM&A has guaranteed the Brazilian attendance at the event. For the institution’s president, Jose Carlos Costa Netto, the conference is the most expressive one in its own segment, and has significantly helped to improve the Brazilian music business. “Midem has been a very important event in terms of spreading out the word on Brazilian music. Specially on the last decade, the event has been particularly important for gathering information on the market, and phonograms that have been produced by our independent scene – that has grown a lot during these past years”, he says.
During the 2013 edition of Midem, it is scheduled to happen at the conference, on Saturday, 26th, a series of meetings, one of them entitled “Meet the countries – Brazil”. During quick 5 minutes sittings, the attendees will have the opportunity to talk to representatives of the Brazilian music industry in person – names such as Luciana Pergorer, from ABMI; Fábio Pereira, from Veirano Advogados; Felipe Llerena, from Venture BR and Claudio Silberberg, from ST2 have confirmed their participation.
Also, John Telfer, from Basement Brazil, will participate on the scheduled “Meet the Publishers”. On Monday, 28th, Fábio Pereira, will be attending the “Meet the Lawyers” series of meetings. On the same day Deborah Sztajnberg, CEO of Debs Consultoria, will participate on the following panel: “Winning Strategies to Approach Brands & Agencies”.
At midemLab, segment dedicated to upcoming start-ups and the development of apps, our country will be represented by “o Queremos!”, project developed by journalist Bruno Natal, who will also be attending the event.
Honoring Brazil
Great expectations lean towards the 29th of January, when Midem organization will gather to announce the choice of country to be honored during the 2014 edition of the conference: Brazil! The announcement will be followed by a press conference with Costa Netto, president of BM&A, João Zílio, from Sesc/SP and Antônio Grassi, president of FUNARTE and delegate from Brazil’s official Culture Office. “The main reason of my attendance this year is, with no doubt, to straighten our paths towards conceiving midem/Brasil 2014”, says Costa Netto. Project manager David Mcloughlin and BME’s international PRs Dirk Schade e Robert Singerman will also be at Cannes, scheduling meetings and assisting companies who aim on making deals with Brazil.
Our music has already been honored by Midem, in 2003. And after this decade of gap between both editions, Costa Netto believes that our market has encountered new challenges. The biggest one being the transition to the digital era, specifically the internet, in a way that does not exclude authors, musicians, labels and editors from collecting legit payments. “This scene has been evolving gradually and Midem is, today, one of the main proponents of this discussion”, he explains.
