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Hackers welcome chance to innovate and collaborate PHIL Quartararo, managing director of online music service Guvera, speaking at yesterday’s Music As Currency In A Branded World. The session was held at Brand Central, which is sponsored by MINI, Guvera and in-store media specialist Mood Media. Brand Central is offering a learning programme run by industry experts, designed to enable Midem delegates to better understand the synergy between music and brands.
Martyn Davies introduces the third Hack Day
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THE CONCERT format has stayed pretty static for nearly 200 years. Is it time for a change? A Midem audience heard how best to manage the balancing act between attracting new audiences and retaining the traditional concert-goer from Nicholas Kenyon (pictured), managing director of the UK’s Barbican Centre, in conversation with BBC Radio 3 presenter James Jolly at yesterday’s New Initiatives For Live Music In 2013 session.
ACK for a third consecutive year, Midem Hack Day featured a group of cutting-edge music developers who had just 48 hours to create a fun, clever or useful website, service or application, to be revealed to delegates in the Innovation Factory tomorrow at 11.00. Participant Amelie Anglade of SoundCloud explained why she is involved in Midem Hack Day, which was introduced and coordinated by technology advocate Martyn Davies of Hacks & Bants. “I am addicted to hackathons and, particularly, to those that involve music or audio,” she said. “I like the energy, collaborative spirit and freedom that such events bring.” Anglade said she was constantly amazed by what developers, designers and artists could build over a weekend. “The craziest ideas are turned into beautiful music apps,”
she added. “For me, it’s always a great opportunity to try out new technologies, get to work with new people and implement apps I would not find the time to work on otherwise.” Songkick developers Vivien Barousse and Aaron Randall emphasised that hacking is positive for the music industry. “Hacking is a good way to innovate and spend time working on great ideas we are passionate about, outside of everyone’s day job,” Randall said. “Any kind of innovation or problem-solving is positive for an industry — and even more so for the music industry, which is infamous for its reluctance to embrace new trends and technologies. New ideas from outside the music industry can help to improve it. Hackers can help to solve other as yet unfulfilled requirements for music consumers.”
Indies don’t have to play by the rules TODAY’s artists are masters of their own destiny, Dick Huey, founder of digital marketer Toolshed, told delegates at yesterday’s Music Industry 101 session, which examined the changing role of labels, distributors, promoters and marketers. “Artists now have much more direct inyuence on the ways in which their careers develop, and social media is playing an increasingly important role in every aspect of the business of being a label,” Huey said. “In terms of who to sign with, the choice these days is stark. If you want to be a massmarket artist, you need the support of a major, but what they do is very formulaic. However, if you see yourself as a person who doesn’t want to play by those rules, the indie sector is the only place to be.” Indies are also wnding new ways to market their output. “Independent labels are proving to be both resilient and often very creative in the ways they market their acts,” Huey added. “I particularly like Ghostly Records’ drip.fm, which aggregates 15 or so excellent labels. Users pay a subscription fee and then get all of the output of a label. It works because these are very, very good labels.”
Toolshed’s Dick Huey
GEMA@MIDEM Meet us at Germany‘s mutual stand. Riviera Hall, stand R07.20 Discuss with us during our panel discussion „The future of Collective Rights Management – how to ensure fair competition for the benefits of European authors“. Palais, Auditorium I, Monday, 10 a.m.
www.gema.de