This year’s market signaled a transition for the music industry, bringing together brands, artists and technology as well as music’s core business. midem 2012 also welcomed people and companies from outside the music business; it staged a festival that took over the city of Cannes for three nights; it held competitions that showed extraordinary innovation; and it brought together visionary speakers who spelt out the future for music and its wider ecosystem.

The midem 2012 Quick Review is brought to you by the midem 2012 news team. You can also find it here, along with all three issues of our official daily newspaper, the midem news.

Time may be of the essence, but European institutions work within a different timeframe from the rest of the world.

That was pretty obvious at the very informative session Lost Property: The Future of Collective Rights Management in the EU, presented by German authors’ society GEMA at midem last week.

For authors’ societies, the most important person on the panel was Kerstin Jorna, the deputy head of cabinet of European Commissioner Michel Barnier at the European Commission in Brussels. Jorna is one of the policy-makers who is in charge of drafting European legislation dealing with copyright. And if there is one sector in need for such thing, it’s collective management, so that users of music repertoire and those who license it can navigate within clear boundaries within the European Union.

“We want to create a digital single market for the benefit of all. We need security for the market between those who create, those who invest [in creation], and those who enjoy [these creations],” said Jorna.

That’s a declaration of intent, since the Commission caused havoc a few years back by ruling that reciprocal deals within rights societies was anti-competitive. Hence the need for a clear EU legal framework for pan-European licensing in which rights societies can operate with a set of rules and content users can apply for licenses that give them access to the repertoire they need; while creators can get compensation.

Such a document has been expected from the Commission for the past two years. Last year at midem, Barnier said it would happen by the end of the year, then it was pushed back to 2012.

When asked by session moderator Manfred Gillig-Degrave, editor-in-chief of German trade magazine Musikwoche what is the Commission’s time frame for such a framework, Jorna replied that by April, Barnier will present a text on pan-European licensing, opening a period during which the proposed legislation with be discussed by stakeholders, before being presented to the European Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, for final adoption in 2013. That is, if nothing derails the process, of course.

“We hope that a consensus will emerge towards 2013,” said Jorna. An incredulous comment from the audience then highlighted the frustration from many within the world of collective management, who consider that the European Commission is not reacting quickly enough, leaving the sector in a state of limbo.

GEMA CEO Harald Hecker welcomed the process initiated by the Commission, but reminded Jorna that “we need to act very very fast – time is of the essence here.” For Hecker, societies need this framework because they are dealing with “more and more international users who are asking for cross-border licenses”.

Added Hecker, “Collecting societies need the legal framework for two reasons: we have to create a level playing field for fair competition. In the EU, you have 27 rules for societies and we need harmonisation of these rules. Without these rules there is no fair competition. And we need legal certainty. As of today, there is no cooperation with societies because we don’t know what we can do and what we cannot do.”

The urgency was also felt in the comments made by Ansgar Heveling, member of the German Bundestag. “We need fast review from the EC about the way in which it will go,” he said.

Kenth Muldin offered a double perspective, as CEO of Sweden’s STIM, which he described as “a small society from a small country’, and as chair of the board of CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers. As a representative of STIM, Muldin welcomed “the initiatives form EC to get a level playing field for small societies to participate” and speaking with his CISAC hat, he said that the organisation, which regroups 230 societies from around the world, will very closely analyse the proposed legislation.

“Europe still represents over 65% of the income for creators and publishers,” said Muldin, “so it is quite natural that the whole world is watching closely what happens in Brussels, and also watching the planning of what will happen in Europe. Similar situations occur all over the world: the abolition of borders will happen globally.”

Giving the perspective of the creators, Alfons Karabuda, executive chairman of Europe’s composers and songwriters association, ECSA, told the audience that creators welcome competition between societies if it results in better service to users and to their members; but not if it applies to rates, because this will mean less revenues in the end for creators.

Karabuda also made an impassionate plea in favour of collective management. “We need a healthy competitive market and we need also a place for composers who do not have a place in the commercial arena,” said Karabuda. “Collective management societies are the ones that can treat repertoire equally. We welcome the initiatives [from the Commission] and would be glad to be part of the creation of this framework because we fear that if not seen from the authors’ perspective, it will not be a long term solution.”

Emmanuel Legrand is a freelance journalist and consultant.

You can also watch this conference in video on GEMA’s website, here.

The survey notably reveals that “merchandise and branding is only relevant to a small number of musicians“; grants, and funds from fans, are their two key revenue sources.

That said, sponsorship has proven to be one of the new sources to kick in where that from labels may have dropped off. “Corporate sponsorship of videos has been a total revelation,” said one US rock band.

The survey also found that artists are “increasingly strategic about their brands“, investing for example in “dedicated merch guys”, to quote one respondee.

You can also watch Thomson’s midem Visionary Monday presentation in full here:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

More information on the survey is on the FMC’s website.

The 2012 midem Bloggers’ Wrap session featured (left to right) Eliot von Buskirk, editor of Evolver.fm; James Martin, midem’s community manager & session moderator; Will Sansom, writer and consultant for Contagious; and Bas Grasmayer, head of information strategy for Zvooq.

The panel, whose aim was to resume the industry’s key trends as seen at midem, featured a sense of optimism towards the future of music and technology, with this year’s conference trends focusing towards data and experimentation as the age of access begins to enter the music industry marketplace.

Data was the key trend discussed, but questions still remain on how the industry will allow for more innovation the the marketplace and to fully realise the value. James Martin pointed to Dan Rose’s staggering statistic released at yesterday’s keynote session: five billion tracks were shared on Facebook in the last four months alone.

Will Sansom cautioned these findings, “There is a data fantasy. People don’t post content that they are super passionate about. They post content that makes them look cool.”

This points to another key trend: to identify who exactly are the real influencers. Von Buskirk shared, “With music you are sharing what you are listening to, for better or worse.”

For him the future is about allowing different data systems to talk to each other by using Application Protocol Interfaces (APIs).

Eliot gave an example of what can be done by developers when they have access to those tools. “A guy at Facebook created Crowdjuke. It can mine the data that a person listens to allow the venue that a person checks into to alter the music in that place, say a restaurant, to that person’s taste. These kinds of systems will reward the people who give more of themselves. Those people will likely be the influencers. They allow these systems to know more about themselves.”

Eliot pointed to the return on investment of the consumer: “If people are giving you their data, you have to give them something really good.”

midem 2012 saw several global brands such as Coca-Cola and Converse align campaigns with music artists to expand their reach. Said brands specialist Sansom; “midem is a collision of marketing and brands. I couldn’t see that happening a year ago, much less five years ago.”

Sansom went on to address the trend towards to the digital space. “There are so many technology companies (attending midem). Technology should be the key driver. Yet people are still throwing in technology first. Take for example QR codes. They are ugly and pointless. I’m not convinced that people are pirates; they are just sick of barriers (like QR codes). They want content on demand. They want less friction in the process. The first time I used Spotify it felt too easy. It was almost too good to be true. They reduced the friction. There is an interesting tension between technology companies and keeping things about the human experience. It’s what real people want.”

The panel notably discussed another hot question at midem this yeat: whether artists are sufficiently paid by streaming services like Spotify. Von Buskirk noted that of the approximately 250 million people listening to music online worldwide right now, only 10 million do so on Spotify: “so that’s a small slice of the pie. We’re in the early days. For now, the only market Spotify has reached scale in is Sweden. The reality is that YouTube is still the number one music service in the world.”

When asked about how technology such as streaming services and social media may be leveling the playing field, Grasmayer offered  that the question is about entry to market, “The old model says you can’t succeed without radio. Today it’s not about radio and MTV doesn’t play music anymore. You still have to be really talented. You need to have a cool story that is presented in a way people can describe you. It needs to be a story that spreads. Take someone like Zoe Keating (1.3M Twitter followers). She is going it organically and has more followers than Joss Stone (322K Twitter followers) or Mark Ronson (67K Twitter followers). I don’t think a level playing field exists. It’s all about engagement.”

The value of, and need for experimentation has been a key theme at midem. Open EMI, a collaboration with EMI and The Echo Nest to put EMI content out for application developers for collaboration.

With application developers entering the music business, there is an opportunity to grow a commercial approach to experimental partnerships. Von Buskirk pointed to the need for more collaboration in this space. “What I like about it is that developers can get paid. The whole idea that I can build something out of Robbie Williams’ music and get paid is new.”

So, asked Martin, does this mean there should be a split between paid hack days and those, like midem/Music Hack Days, where developers hack just for fun? Von Buskirk conceded that that wouldn’t be such a bad thing… before going on to close the panel on a positive note: “The great thing is that hackers would do it anyway without getting paid. They are people who are passionate and can connect. They have the skills and creativity. This is what makes me optimistic about the future.”

Heather Blanchard is a global communications student at the American University of Paris, has been covering key sessions at midem this year, for midemblog and her own blog. Be sure to follow her on Twitter too!

Left to right: Steven Navin, Music Publishers Association; Michel Allain, SACEM; Jez Bell, Omnifone; Karen Buse, PRS for Music; Jane Dyball, Warner Chappell Music; Ralph Peer II, peermusic; Sami Valkonen, Android/Google (larger image)

If songs are at the core of the music business, the way in which these songs can be identified has become a crucial issue for the industry.

The new digital eco-system has created an infinity of new uses for songs, and made the complex process of identifying works even more relevant. In other words, the metadata that is attached to songs is the crucial element that will allow songs to be identified and, eventually, remunerated.

As a result, one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by the music industry in recent years has been the building of a global repertoire database (GRD) that will regroup in a comprehensive and standardised manner all the music works created in the world.

The GRD, as it is known, was given a full review at midem today, during the International Publishing Summit organised with ICMP, the global organisation for music publishers.

“If GRD did not exist, it would have to be invented,” joked moderator Stephen Navin, chief executive of the UK’s Music Publishers Association.

The project, started in 2008, is moving on, and in February, recommendations should be published by consultancy group Deloitte on the way forward to building this database. A working group, encompassing rights holders and technology companies has been working for the last couple of years.

“There are still a lot of issues up in the air, noted Jane Dyball, SVP international legal and business affairs at Warner Chappell Music, who added that there was “a real commitment to make it happen”. For Dyball, the GRD will will be a much-needed tool at the service of rights holders and digital services alike; even if the road to get there might be a bit bumpy. “Anything that changes status quo presents some concerns to some people,” she said. “What we have to do as a group is always to focus on the opportunities.”

Jez Bell, director of licensing at Omnifone, agreed with Dyball that there was always a risk for the process to slow down or stop, but it has not happened so far. For Bell, the different stakeholders working on the project “managed to maintain momentum throughout process – it gives us confidence that something is going to happen.”

Sacem’s director of organisation and information systems Michel Allain outlined the vision behind the project. “We have a consensus on what it will be and what it will not be,” he said. There were, he added, three keywords to explain what the project is about. First, it is a database, no less but no more, in that it is not a distribution system or an accountancy system. Second, it is global and has the ambition to cover all territory and all usages. And last, it is authoritative.

At the end of the process, the GRD will be, according to Allain, “a unique place where you can have data that is accurate and has been validated”.

There are still challenges: for example, how can the database deal with various languages, and what will be the place of domestic repertoire in the project. Another issue, says Omnifone’s Bell, are funding issues.

On the upside, the GRD should give online platforms the tool to process payments to rights owners “quicker and more accurately”, according to Omnifone’s Bell.

The same theme was picked by Karen Buse, director of international at PRS for Music in the UK. For Buse, it is about “the quality of data”, which will allow for “speedier and more accurate distribution for our members”.

On of the fears in the early stages of the development of the project was that the GRD would first and foremost be a vehicle for the big publishing companies. But the participants to the panel tried to lift that perspective.

“This levels the playing field for the small publishers and the smaller societies,” said Bell. In addition, he said, the fact that CISAC is part of the discussions ensures that in the end, the repertoire from all the different rights societies should also be taken in to account.

Veteran publisher Ralph Peer II, chairman and CEO of US-based peermusic, concurred. For independent publishers like him, the GRD creates indeed a level playing field that “will be useful to the indie community”. But Peer warned that the GRD could also fail if the infrastructure is built and nobody joins in and provides repertoire.

Dropping for a while his neutral hat of moderator, Stephen Navin assured the audience that “all publishers are absolutely committed to the database” and that it will become a reality.

Speaking from the perspective of a technology company and users of content, Sami Valkonen, head of international music licensing for Android at Google, the GRD will be about “efficiency in paying invoices”.

One of the challenges is the governance and ownership structure, it is a public good and benefits everyone. There should not be anything in GRD that is proprietary. It should be there, funded and available to everyone. “Imagine a world with GRD in which we can simply go to the GRD and pay and process quickly,” he said.

But he also warned that one of the challenges faced by the proponents of the GRD is the governance and ownership of the data. For Valkonen, this database should be “a public good” that benefits everyone.

Reflecting the general mood in the room, PRS for Music chairman Guy Fletcher spoke from the audience and said that it was absolutely crucial that the project came to fruition. “It cannot be a no go: let’s get on with it and do it.”

Emmanuel Legrand is a freelance journalist and consultant.

Left to right: Moderator Emmanuel Legrand; Scott Bagby, Rdio; Richard Conlon, BMI; Thierry Desurmont, SACEM; Charlie Lexton, Merlin; Ben McEwen, PRS for Music; Mitch Rubin, Nokia; Jens-Markus Wegener, AMV Talpa (full size photo).

With a full panel during the “The Cloud… Is it Just a Legal Issue?” session in the Ideas Hothouse, today’s session – organised in association with CISAC and moderated by freelance journalist Emmanuel Legrand - started with a definition of just exactly what the music industry means when they say, “cloud.”

The response was mixed, with some saying it’s about content being stored in a “locker”, and others saying it was a marketing term. Regardless, most agreed that this complexity means there are a variety of models which seek better monetisation of the cloud.

Charlie Lexton, head of business affairs for indie body Merlin shared: “We look to licensing. There is a lot of focus on upload only, rather than upload, scan and match. We see that there has to be a scan match model in the future. We want to see these services aligned in the digital space. More like Rdio. That is what we want to see.”

Reflecting up on the marketplace and the consumer, Mitch Rubin, head of music publishing for Nokia, emphasised, “At the end of the day, we have to look at what the consumer is willing to pay. In our business, we have seen our models that have huge quantity might be better than a huge transaction fee. We need flexibility in licenses, so we can do experimental licenses. By and large, rights owners have been amenable to that. If that continues, everything will be in the right direction.”

Governments and rights societies are following closely and creating their own policy recommendations on how to engage in the cloud. Thierry Desurmont, V in charge of legal and international affairs for SACEM, explained the French approach:

“From the French perspective, the question is to know when someone has bought content, and if that content was obtained legally. This big question is being studied in France through a commission that has been created to advise the Minister of Culture on policies to be considered for copyright. (We know the move towards the cloud is inevitable), so we have to go with it and not fight it. We need to understand how this impacts rights holders. Last year, we collected €180M in France. We don’t want to jeopardise this for rights holders.”

Finally, the panel had mixed opinions on whether the cloud is indeed a licensing issue. Ben McEwen, director of online licensing for PRS for Music summed it up best: “From our perspective it is a value issue. It has something that has potential but nobody knows where that is going yet.”

Heather Blanchard is a global communications student at the American University of Paris, has been covering key sessions at midem this year, for midemblog and her own blog. Be sure to follow her on Twitter too!

She was joined onstage by Brian Nelson, general manager of the singer’s own label, Stone’d Records. The overall message was on the importance of freedom: especially important for Stone since her difficult departure from EMI in 2012.

Still today, Stone remains wary: “You’ve got to be careful about who you choose to work with,” she said. Hence the creation of her label. “I’m excited about artists that haven’t gone crazy on the radio,” she said. “If I love it, I want to help it. That’s why I love these guys,” namely the Stone’d team.

So what is Stone’s focus today? Freedom, without a doubt. “I’ve recently been freed from major label stress. So until recently, I’ve had to fight to be creative. Now I have the freedom to do things like make a record in 6 days with Dave Stewart in Nashville;” the result of which was her latest album, “LP1“.

“I’ve also just done another completely different project,” added Stone, “and I can choose which one I push;” a crucial possibility not afforded to her before.

Said Nelson on the making of  LP1: “The band would vibe on it and improvise; and in six days we had a master. There was never any thought of whether it’d be in the radio. It’s like how Joplin or Led Zeppelin made albums in the seventies.”

“It’s all about having the freedom to do whatever works for you, without having a man in a suit tell you what to do,” said Stone. “So we went back into the studio, and then remembered why we started (making music in the first place).”

So is there a business model for this kind of approach? “We won’t lock ourselves into something stifling with one label or partner, precisely because the industry’s changing so much,” said Nelson. “There’s confusion out there, so we need to have freedom to switch. And if you’re not nice we’d rather not work with you!”

Concluded Stone: “There are no rules. If it’s inspiring it will inspire. So I love collaborations. I’m told “You can’t sing with everyone, Joss!” And I say “why not?!” There are no rules in music, so why should there be in the music business?”

1. Taxi: All taxis in the region are out and active right now. Group together with fellow clients as much as possible. Taxi ranks are in front of the Palais’ main entrance, at the Town Hall (Hôtel de Ville) and throughout Cannes

2. Train: Cannes train station is five minutes’ walk from the Palais, and there are regular trains throughout the day to Nice Saint Augustin station, which is in turn 10 minutes’ walk from the airport.

Click here for train schedules; these will also be distributed throughout the Palais and on each stand, and at information points. There may be slight delays, so allow extra time.

For any questions, please ask at one of the Information Points throughout the Palais.

We will keep you updated here and via our Twitter account as the situtation evolves.

midemblog: Rdio has just rolled out in Germany and Australia: why these European countries first?

Scott Bagby: Germany and Australia were numbers 4 & 5, after USA, Canada and Brazil. The entire idea behind Rdio is to have all your music everywhere and anywhere. This includes different access methods, devices or geographic locations. Both of these markets are strong places for music with a tech savvy population. They were natural places to launch our service.

> What countries are next, and why? Deezer aims to be in 200 countries by the end of February (except the US and Japan): are your plans as ambitious?

We have a very aggressive international rollout schedule for 2012. Rdio is available in Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, United States and Canada now and many more countries very soon.

Rdio’s plans remain extremely ambitious and aim to be the best global streaming service available. I think it speaks for itself that we have entered the market after our main competitors and are already available on 4 continents. Throughout 2012 we will be picking up the pace of countries coming on line and you will see expansion in Europe, Asia and South America.

> What would you say are Rdio’s unique selling points?

It boils down to two things: We offer the best music experience across all of your connected devices and we have built the easiest way to discover music.

We are the only service that was built from the ground up on this notion of discovering music through people, and we’ve done it best. We don’t limit you from only following, say, friends on Facebook.

We allow you to follow anyone with good taste in music. They could be your favorite recording artist or label, your friend or someone you found that simply has similar musical taste. No matter who or where they are, you can discover music from them on Rdio. In fact, one of the most frequent pieces of feedback we receive, are comments like: “I’ve discovered more cool new music in the past two days on Rdio than I have in the past two decades.”

Along with discovery, we give you access to music across all genres and we’re now north of 12 million songs and adding thousands of new songs a day. You can listen to music on and offline, as long as you’re a subscriber. And when you sync music for offline, you can save as much as you like, up to your device’s memory card capacity.

> Streaming services are increasingly accused of not paying artists enough (rightly or wrongly). Is this down to you, the labels, the collecting societies or something else?

We have absolutely no visibility on what the various rights holders pay their artists. Those deals are also completely confidential, and often differ from artist to artist.

> What are Rdio’s business objectives at midem?

midem is a great meeting place with all the stakeholders we need to talk to. With aggressive expansion plans it is vital that we meet with people face to face. midem gives us the opportunity to advance the majority of discussions over just a few short days.

Bagby speaks on today’s The Cloud… Is It Just a Licensing Issue? panel, with PRS for Music, Nokia, Sacem and more. 10.00, Ideas Hothouse, level 01.

It’s been a hugely busy day at midem, with the Visionary Monday strand examining all things digital.

The big session was a panel with UMG’s Rob Wells, Google’s Zahavah Levine, Amazon’s Craig Pape and Merlin’s Charles Caldas. Levine vented some frustration at the complexities of licensing music from multiple rightsholders.

“We have a great product vision, and then we have to convince a lot of other players to buy in to that same exact vision… And unfortunately that process ends up compromising products sometimes, because not everyone has the same vision.”

Meanwhile, Wells said that UMG would welcome Apple’s entry into the streaming music market, if and when it chooses to launch such a service.

“If they were ever to move into the subscription space, the product they would launch would be well thought through… I think it will be a success. And hopefully if it is a success, that rising tide will lift all boats.”

Cellist Zoe Keating also talked about streaming during a panel on how artists can build a sustainable career from music, although she said it’s far from the be-all and end-all of her success.

“Streaming is just another way for me to be heard, so it’s great, but I don’t think it’s ever going to be a sustainable part of my income. It’s up to me to convince those listeners to support me, like they would support their local farm.”

Meanwhile, Beggars Group’s Simon Wheeler told the audience that streaming is an increasingly important part of his label’s business. “Two of our top five digital partners by revenues are streaming businesses.”

Other highlights of the afternoon: Mike Masnick’s excellent presentation on why artists need to be “open, human and awesome” to succeed, citing US comedian Louis CK as inspiration: he made more than $1m in a couple of weeks by self-releasing a DRM-free video of a show for $5.

Meanwhile, analyst Mark Mulligan put a convincing case for the next generation of music formats to be more… appy. “The future of music products will be app-like experiences,” he said in his presentation on ‘Agile Music‘.

Then in a particularly packed and frank panel, producer Mark Ronson (photo) also explained why making an Olympic Games track with Coca-Cola has been a creatively interesting project, rather than a soulless corporate sellout.

To make the track, Ronson travelled around the world to sample sporting sounds — like a judoka’s shout, for example — which he then made into an exclusive recording.

“This gives me a platform that I would never be afforded maybe by Columbia Records for doing a song. I have to make it great, because this is maybe the biggest exposure I’ll have for a song,” he said.

“The record industry in the crisis that its in, you have to do these things. As long as the music that you make while you’re doing it is good, that’s all that matters.”

Ronson and Coca-Cola’s Wendy Clark both rejected the notion that an artist being paid by a brand is ‘selling out’. “There’s no question of selling out,” said the artist. “Kids reject brands that aren’t authentic,” confirmed Clark.

Then on to Facebook’s partnerships VP, Dan Rose, who had a killer stat: 5 billion songs have been shared on the social network since its new open graph launched in September 2011.

“If you’re an artist and your content is not already on one of these services, make it available,” said Rose, who went on to talk about the impact Facebook is having on music.

“There’s a new currency that’s emerging in the music industry, which is how many people have shared a given song or a given artist on Facebook. This currency is going to become a new way that people talk about whether music is blowing up.”

There’s real money in social media too, though: Rose reported that TicketMaster makes an additional $5 of incremental revenue every time someone shares their concert ticket purchase on Facebook.

More in our interview with Rose, here.

And that, as they say, was a wrap!

Music Ally‘s Stuart Dredge has been blogging throughout midem. Find all his midem reports here.