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I've attended the Midem Conference in Cannes, France for the last several years. Each time, I use it as a barometer to help gauge two trends: 1) participation by members of the recording industry, who comprise Midem's traditional core, and 2) which countries made a splash at the event. With respect to the first trend, the picture was less than promising because of the downward trend in Midem attendance over the last several years, which was noticeably accentuated with 2012's number of attendees being a third less than in 2011. This is despite the fact that several people were present who hadn't attended in recent years, in addition to an increase in the numbers among the tech segment and the ever- growing A2iM delegation. Thankfully, my golden Midem rule that participant satisfaction is inversely correlated to attendance size proved to be true once again according to my unscientific and totally random survey. With respect to the second trend, call me biased, but it seemed pretty clear that Southeast Asia and China, which brought an unprecedented number of acts – both major and indie – took the proverbial cake. The city-state of Singapore was disproportionately represented with showcases both by the government's Media Development Agency and Music Services Asia, which also brought bands from Indonesia and Malaysia. China introduced their first international act for export at Midem – Ruhan, and her latest album "Time To Grow." Ruhan sang 3 songs from her album at the Sound of China Pavilion during the official press conference, which I hosted. Classically-trained in China, Ruhan has the type of voice that carries throughout the Riviera exhibition level, drawing a crowd like moths to light. Ruhan is one of the first artists actively promoted by the national Chinese government as part of its 12th Five-Year National Economic Development Plan. Recognizing that it would take an international team to successfully develop a Chinese singer for export, SSCEG/a-Peer Synergy tapped a top Swedish production team as well as Silva Screen Records and OneEntertainment for the European and North American markets respectively. But it was Taiwan who went all out at their 17th Midem, bringing one of Asia's top rock bands – Mayday – to perform both at Midem and Paris' Divan du Monde. With multimillion album sales and three Golden Melody Awards (Taiwan Grammys) for Best Band, Mayday has grown into one of the region's rock music pioneers, building a fanbase that extends across East Asia. And their fans certainly did not disappoint, selling out the 500+ tickets in less than 12 hours, while leaving a wave of online buzz extending stretching across Europe in their wake. The ticket price of €16 skyrocketed in the resale to over €400 ($521 USD). Word was that a group of girls staked out the club, crying and begging for tickets - now that's star power. No wonder press such as HS.fi (Finland media), Yumi Mashiki (famous entertainment industry agent) and RFI (French radio station) have all referred to Mayday as 'The Beatles of Chinese-pop.' The show was preceded by an address to the press by the Taiwanese ambassador and Deputy Minister of the Taiwanese Government Information Office to introduce the line-up of Matzka, Yen-J and Mayday, and then it was off to the balcony-view VIP lounge for "champagne a volonté!" While the crowd was clearly there for Mayday, the real surprise was Aboriginal Reggae band Matzka. Whether singing in their Aboriginal language or Chinese, all you heard was the melding of reggae grooves with folk, rap and rock - an infectious experience that transcended cultural borders and stereotypes... as reggae is so often app to do. That's a pretty good explanation for why they began attracting international attention as early as the 2009 Hohaiyan Rock Festival competition where they were awarded "Best Rock Band." That's also the year that they opened for the Guns N' Roses tour in Taiwan. In August, they became one of the first Taiwanese bands to play at the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan.
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Midem, MusicDish China, Ruhan, Mayday, Matzka,
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