Midem 2011 - The Geisha Music story
Breakfast at Music Export Finland´s office
Last autumn, more precisely on September 17, the Geisha Music team attended a breakfast entitled Midem Road show, which was held by Musex Finland, together with the Finnish Mobile Association. The idea, besides the breakfast, was to offer a good information package for Finnish companies interested in joining the Midem Festival in Cannes France. We, like many of the people present, were in fact representing digital start-ups, as opposed to more traditional music business companies.
Present at the breakfast was also Anne-Manuèle Hebert, a director in Global Sales at Midem, who talked about Midem and especially Midem Net Lab. She reckoned it would be a great opportunity also for the Finnish digital start-ups to get to pitch their product in front of the international music forum. We at Geisha Music agreed on that and as a result we applied for the Midem Net Lab´s B2C category.
Midem in a nutshell
The Midem Festival has been held in Cannes France since 1967 and it´s regarded as the biggest music industry trade fair in the world: in 2008 it was attended by 9,093 delegates from 4,545 companies and 482 journalists- from a total of 88 countries. Midem´s importance in the music industry is well-described by a much-used phrase: “if you´re not at Midem, you´re not in the music business.”
During the past few years, as the industry has gone through big changes, the event has also evolved- and the Midem Net Lab is a good example of this. It´s aim is to provide an international platform for the world´s most innovative music start-ups and mobile apps. Midem Net Lab´s debut in 2010 was so successful that they decided to take in twice as many companies in 2011, with 30 finalists in 3 different categories. 2011 proved to be a good year for the Finnish music start-ups, as 5 of the 30 finalists came from our northern homeland.
Palais de Festival - the heart of Midem.
Making the trip to Cannes
We were thrilled to learn that Geisha Music had indeed been chosen as 1 of the 10 finalists in the Net Lab´s B2C category. This was a great opportunity to let people in the music industry know about some of the great ideas and features in Geisha Music that had been already at beta-testing stage for 6 months. The original idea behind Geisha Music - a real-time online music making tool, was the invention of sound designer Lauri Saine back in 2007. One of our goals in Midem was also to scan for suitable partners for co-service and distribution -as well as investors.
With these thoughts in mind we headed for Cannes, the renowned film festival town situated on the legendary Cote D´Azur - the French Riviera with approximately 70 000 inhabitants. We were told upon arrival by the taxi driver that Midem is the only event during the off-season that the brings in big numbers of people. And indeed the hotels are commonly quite fully-booked during the event. Luckily we found one that was quite close to the centre and to the Palais de Festival, the home of the Midem event, situated along La Croisette- the waterfront avenue with palm trees and the poche hotels.
Palais de Festival as seen from La Croisette.
Midem 2011
Geisha Music attended Midem as part of the Finnish Pavilion - along with most of the Finnish companies. The Finnish Pavilion provided us a good home base for the meetings with interesting companies and also a chance to mingle with our Finnish collegues. Along with a few interesting meetings (with possible future actions) the first couple of days provided us a good chance to come in grasp with Midem in 2011.
Noticeable right at the beginning was how much smaller the event is now compared to it´s heyday, the declining sales in the music industry are clearly visible. Evident is also the abundance of digital and mobile start-ups: the old industry might be on the verge of collapsing, but the new generation is hot on the pursue of finding what the new music industry will look like. It was good to share the energy and excitement along with the other start-up´s - in contrast to the constant negative news one sees about the music industry these days.
Midem Net Lab
Integrated to Midem are of course the several showcases and get together- events put by different countries and companies. Naturally we also joined in the festivities and enjoyed ourselves in Cannes. The Get together Party at the Scandinavian Terrace, The French Vibes at the Hotel Martinez and Canadian Blast at Morrison´s, with Saidah Baba Talibah´s unforgettable performance, come to mind for being great events.
Hotel Martinez, the venue for the French Vibes party.
The influence of Midem is quite visible in Cannes during the event, as many of the people you see at town seem to have the Midem badge hanging from the neck. This is one of Midem´s charms: you never know who you´ll run into. This proved also to be the case for Geisha Music, as our first distribution partner was found by talking to some (then) random people sitting next us at a coffee shop. Some great ideas really are found after a cup of coffee!
Pitch-day approaching.
By the third official Midem day, we had already found our routine of meetings and conferences - and by now we already knew the right restaurants to have lunch at. Luckily the weather remained sunny throughout the whole affair. This was also our final day to prepare for our pitch that was scheduled for the fourth day: the 25th. So of course we took advantage of the possibility to check out some of the pitches in the other categories. There were some great companies and pitches, for example Playmysong did an excellent job at theirs.
So finally at midday on the 25th of January it was our time to pitch Geisha Music in the Midem Net Lab´s B2C category, in front of the judges, audience and media. Our CEO and co-founder, Costi Snellman, had stepped up for the opportunity. The pitch went well and the beta version of Geisha Music was successfully launched in front of the music media. After all the pitches were done the winners were announced- and despite not winning our category, we were glad to having taken part in a great event in even better company- with the ideas that will shape the future of the music industry.
Co-founder Costi Snellman pitching Geisha Music in front of judges.
Last day and looking back to Midem 2011
By the fifth day at Midem most of the work had already been done and there were few if any meetings in peoples´calendars. The vibes were clearly more mellow and everybody seemed to be packing up. It was a good day to take it a little bit easier and enjoy the ever-sunny weather by strolling on the streets of Cannes. It was also a good time to look back and wrap up our Midem 2011 experience.
We had had very interesting meetings with co-service, distribution and investor partner candidates and Geisha Music´s beta version was launched at Midem Net Lab. We got invaluable feed-back not only from the judges, but also from the people we met and talked with, that we´ll use in the further-development of Geisha Music. We got to share the enthusiasm of the start-ups at Midem Net Lab, and also to witness the industry-reforming innovations at Midem Hack Day. All and all - a trip well worth making - big thanks to all the people we met and hope to see you all next year!
To check out what Geisha Music is all about and try out the beta-version- click this link.
Upgraded interface alongside with new features are under development. Release date tba later.
