MIDEM 2004
Britney Spears dancers Kevin, Anthony, and Rona, on plane in flight from USA to Cannes, France to perform at the NRJ Music Awards.
Ahmir '?uestlove' Thompson of The Roots mixes it up at Club Love at the Noga Hilton for MIDEM opening night Sunday, January 25, 2004. The party was sponsored by Microsoft Windows Mobile and produced by Lauren Coleman in conjunction with Shirlene Head.
Layla Davias, singer/songw
Another DJ on hand for opening night, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, of A Tribe Called Quest and Lucy Pearl, chilling in the lobby of the Noga before the party gets started.
Rafael Saadiq, formerly of Toni Tony Tone and Lucy Pearl, and now a solo artist, doing it West Coast style while Ali spins classic hip hop flavor on the 1s and 2s at the Love Club.
Grandmaster Flash and crew outside the Noga Hilton at MIDEM's opening night. Flash was on hand to announce the formation of his new independent record label and to DJ Urban Happy Hour.
Ned Sherman, CEO, Digital Media Wire; Asukaya Bailey, Recording Engineer, Willpowa Records; and Yinka Adegoke, Deputy Editor, NewMedia Age, mix it up at the end of the day of MidemNet.
DJ LBR and Big Ali get the crowd hyped at the NRJ Music Awards 2004 After-Show Party held at Salon Amirauté, Palm Beach, Cannes.
Sir Charles (center), who you may have heard mix it up on one of your favorite Music Choice stations has formed an urban coalition. L. to R. Darryl Walker, president, Unique Vision Group; Charles Dixon, president, Sir Charles Independent Productions; and Murry.
Erick Kaine, cafedesoul.c
Ted Cohen, SVP, Digital Development & Distribution EMI Music, greets Eddy Cue, VP, Applications and Internet Services, Apple for MidemNet 2004.
Ted Cohen of EMI and MidemNet sits down for a Q&A with Eddy Cue from Apple.
Mark O Donoghue of Music Week (UK) introduces the panel for "Sale of the Century." Charles Grmisdale, od2 (UK), John Rose, EMI (US), Sean Ryan (Real Networks), Oliver Sicuel, Wanadoo (France), Kent Thexton, mmo2 (UK).
MidemNet panels included discussions about revenue streams for digital music and what new formats for music were coming down the pike.
Toby Lewis, Director, MusicAlly (UK) moderated this panel "What's Coming Next - New Formats, New Products." The panel included Dirk de Clippeleir, Universal Music (Belgium), Rich Isaacson, Disc Live (US), Didier Lord, UbiSoft (France), Julia Miller, Xbox Live (US), Jeff Skillen, DTS Entertainment (US).
Executives discuss new formats and products for listening to music.
Ty Roberts, CTO of gracenote displays how metadata links should operate and why it's important for the music industry to use them when submitting their albums to CDDB database. He says that hard drive media players are definitely the next wave.
CTO of gracenote explains how information can be gathered once a CD is entered into a computer as long as the metadata tags are correct.
Nokia plans to launch a virtual radio in some upcoming mobile models. There will be opportunities for sponsorship and promotions directly linked to stations. In the future, plans to make one-click purchases of songs might be available.
Reider Wasenius, senior project manager, Nokia, introduces the Nokia 7700 - the phone that will deliver virtual radio.
UK's O2 developed it's own phone that also operates as a digital msuic player. The intention is to use the top 10 charts and work with the labels using the AAC format like Apple iTunes Music Store to deliver music. The phone would USB connect to a computer and operate as a modem.
Leslie Golding, O2 Music, discusses the mobile digital music player.
Sharon Grave, CEO of Phatnoise, shows off her Phatnoise Audio System for the car, also known as the Phatbox. She currently has deals with with Volkswagen and Audi to have these systmes put into cars.
The Phatbox hooks up to your computer and dowloads any format of aduible content for you to take on the road with you.
Outside the NRJ Music Awards 2004, the sign reveals a lot of American artists as nominees.
On January 24, 2004, the NRJ Music Awards took place at the Palais des Festivales right after MidemNet. This photo was taken right before the red carpet was set up. Only registered photographers were allowed to take photos of stars and to have a camera indoors duing the taping.
An Apple iPod Billboard covered the Palais the day that MidemNet was held.
Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research laid down the facts about downloaders. One thing he reported was that 68% of young downloaders said, after the RIAA started fililng suits, "If there was a serious risk of jail or a fine, I would stop."
Forrester's research reveals that although young people are still illegally downloading, they'd be willing to pay for music services.
Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research says that if for-pay online music services can make their services easy, they will make money. The criteria he says is a wrap-around music experience, easy connection to a popular portable, taps major user traffic, provides subscription service, provides a la carte downloads. iTunes music store matches at least four of the criteria, while Napster runs a close second, depending on whther it's player becomes popular or not.
The DRM vs unrestricted content panel included Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg, Director, Fraunhofer AEMT; Timo Pastila, Business Development Manager, Mobile Software Unit, Nokia Corp.; Stuart Rosove, President and CEO Activated Content; Adam Sexton, VP Marketing, Macrovision; Timothy Wright, Vodafone; and moderated by Paul Jessop, CTO, IFPI.
Timoty Wright of Vodafone announced that a DRM (Digital Rights Management) standard would appear on headsets this year.
Ned Sherman, CEO of Digital Media Wire, moderated a panel called "Spreading the Words (&Music) - Marketing via Technology." Speakers on the panel included, Scott Young, Best Buy; Mark Krendel, Polydor; John Davis, BMG; Gavin Richardson, Musicindie/R
MyCokeMusic.
As part of its promotion to sell more cokes and to educate consumers on downloading music, MyCokeMusic.
These are Coca-Cola's initiatives for MyCokeMusic.
Coca-Cola may not want to get into the music business, but the company plans to use it's brand power to increase awareness of legal downloading in the UK.
The throng awaits the celebrities to cross the red carpet into the NRJ Music Awards 2004.
Onlookers wait to get a photo of their favorite celebs who are attending the NRJ Music Awards.
Big Ali works up a sweat as DJ LBR changes the tune at the NRJ Awards After-Show Party.
This is how the French get down and the definitely do the damn thing when it comes to throwing an after party.
Basically the exotic dancers become nothing more than back drop as the partygoers get down to their own groove.
The champagne was popping for free all night, and this group of French gentleman kept the dancefloor hot throughout.
While most folks were at the forums and conferences, a few were making the deals on the exhibit floor. Licensing and distribution deals were there for the asking.
The British Music Village at MIDEM.
outside the NRJ Music Awards after party.
Robert A. Celestin, Intelligent Music Inc., and Lynne d Johnson, VIBE/SPIN Ventures.
Many nations represented all in one place.
One of the official MIDEM cars.
Another official MIDEM car.
The entrance to the Palais des Festivales.
Italian food and seafood are really big in Cannes.
Sunday, reflecting the importance of the mobile market to music, in a first-ever event, the Mobile Entertainmen
Chris Gorog, Chairman and CEO of Roxio, reveals his plans for Napster in a one-on-one interview with VIBE Online.
Sushikan, the only sushi bar in Cannes, owned by Bob in the background. Sako, the chef, makes a mean salmon skin hand roll among other specialties.
David Mays, The Source, and his associate, who won't explain why he flipped the bird at the camera, other than it's just something he does. At the party for MIDEM's opening night, the two were in town to promote the French Edition of The Source at the Urban Village.
As Ali does his thing on the turntables at MIDEM's opening night party, the crowd waits around for that one hot record to drop.
Robert A. Celestin, Intelligent Music Inc., and singer/songw
?uestlove from The Roots on the 1s and 2s at the Love Club at the Noga Hilton on MIDEM's opening night.
In every city, there is a china town.
American Films top the bill at Les Arcades in Cannes.
La Fregate, the Cannes 24-hour spot on the way to Mandileu.
When Grandmaster Flash rocked the wheels of steel at the Urban Happy Hour, at the Noga Hilton Love Club security was so tight they didn't even want folks taking photos.
The hills leading to Cannes are a little like the hills of San Francisco - very steep.
En route to the Palais des Festivals.
MIDEM attendees who stayed in Le Cannet took this route to get to the Palais des Festivals.
MIDEM Urban Music Village participants included Willpowa records and The Source french edition, among many others. Francine Chin of KuttingEdge PR is organizes the Urban Music Village and Urban Music Village Conference for MIDEM.
