We’re all familiar with the concept of pirating music, right? Let’s just agree on that, as you casually ignore the open uTorrent window on your desktop. In fact, one of the problems with music, and indeed many creative mediums, is that it’s easy to pirate.
With the advent of computers, the MP3, and then the internet, music was rapidly devalued. What was once a piece of wax or shiny plastic was now simply a few megabytes on a hard drive that could easily be transferred between two listeners, regardless of whether they’d paid for it.
But according to Bruno Crolot, the director the MIDEM music conference, the less, uh, digital parts of the industry are also ripe for piracy. In fact, an angry Crolot recently unleashed on the industry members he feels have been “pirating” his beloved conference.
For those who aren’t familiar with MIDEM, it’s the world’s leading international music business event. Taking place in Cannes every year since 1967, it’s perhaps best known for its yearly Hack Day, during which programmers are given 48 hours to create a music-centred program of their choice.
“The international footprint of Midem is unique and that is encouraging,” said Crolot, via Hypebot. “So too is the fact that we have major labels, indies, music publishers, streaming specialists, giant digital platforms, major brands, and exciting tech innovators attending the event.”
However, MIDEM attendance is down considerably from previous years. The number of paid attendees fell again during this year’s event. As Hypebot reports, 5,500 attended its Cannes conference this past weekend, according to MIDEM’s own figures. That’s down from 6,150 in 2014 and 6,400 in 2013.
According to Crolot, this is because MIDEM is being “pirated”. Basically, industry stakeholders are flying down to Cannes when MIDEM is taking over the city, but skipping the formal conference while making deals at parties and cafes with the other industry figures who happen to be in Cannes.
“The downside is that Midem is clearly being ‘pirated,’” said Crolot. “By this I mean there are a substantial number of industry executives, who are attending and holding meetings without registering.”
“We have tried to explain why there is real value in signing up for MIDEM and benefitting from the incredible business opportunities, networking, and panel discussions provided within the show.”
“This activity is really frustrating, is unfair to our paying clients and is not good for MIDEM and we reserve the right to take action against such ‘pirates’ in the future.”
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Essentially, it’s like flying over to Brisbane for BIGSOUND, booking a hotel right in the centre of the all the action, not attending any of the panel discussions or gigs or even buying a pass, and just hanging out at bars and cafes afterwards to rub shoulders with people who did pay.
Besides being incredibly dodgy, is the irony of the situation totally lost on these freeloaders? Here they are in an industry constantly bemoaning the issue of piracy, i.e. people enjoying the benefits of a service without paying for it, and they’re all filthy pirates themselves.
This means you likely had a bunch of music executives leaving a panel about piracy in the music industry to go and hobnob with a bunch of A&R reps who skipped the panel and just flew into Cannes on the company credit card to network with them.
Clearly Crolot has identified a unique problem plaguing his event and intends to take action against it. There’s just one problem with that – what the hell is he going to do? Shut down all flights to Cannes unless the travellers have a MIDEM pass?
Or does Crolot plan on dispatching a secret police to make sure no two industry members speak to each other unless they’ve each attended at least one panel discussion? Whatever he decides upon, we hope it works.
