Midem, home to the global music community, today announces the launch of its High-Potential Markets Programme designed to assist music professionals from around the world by encouraging business development and the discovery of new talent.
The new initiative aims to foster bilateral exchanges between international and national music executives and sectors in order to facilitate the structuring and professionalization of the high-potential markets.
In 2018, the new Programme will focus on the African music industry with a four-day ‘African Forum’ during Midem (June 5-8 in Cannes). The forum will be preceded by a series of industry meetings across four African countries, to support the structuring of the African music industry, stimulate discussions between African and international music stakeholders, develop sustainable business models for African labels and artists in order to boost African music on a local and international scale.
“Africa has incredible wealth in terms of musical talent and diversity of musical styles but the continent currently represents just 2% of the world music market, ” comments Alexandre Deniot, Director of Midem. “As the home of the global music community, Midem is committed to supporting the development of the international music sector and that includes providing African artists and music companies with a platform to reach more fans and generate new revenues. We look forward to welcoming them to Midem in 2018 and beyond.”
The African Forum is organised by Midem in association with TRACE, the leading pan-African music media network.
“By partnering with Midem on the African Forum, we bring together Midem’s power as an international music business acceleration platform, with our expertise in afro urban music, along with our local knowledge and excellent relationship with our subscribers in Africa, at the service of promoting African talent and providing creative solutions to improve its local and international development,” notes Olivier Laouchez, CEO, Trace.
The African Forum, running throughout Midem, will host high-level discussions involving African and international music industry leaders, politicians and official institutions. In addition, it will provide a platform to promote African musical creativity, a Midem Night dedicated to African music and opportunities to share knowledge and professional training.
“It is such an exciting time to be an artist and especially in Africa, where there are so many talented and creative musicians who are breaking boundaries and whose music travels throughout the world, ” says Yemi Alade, Nigerian Afropop megastar, whose single ‘Johnny’ has set a new record for over 85 million views on YouTube, making it the most-watched video from a African artist.“However there are still many challenges and, to take it to the next level, we need to come together and work on strengthening and structuring of our music business in Africa. I’m very pleased to be part of the Midem African Forum and hope that sharing my experience as an artist will highlight the immense opportunities for African artists, not only in the continent, but globally,” adds the multi-award winning artist and fashion designer.
Alongside the African Forum in June, Midem is organising local meetings in the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South Africa and Republic of the Congo. Taking place from April 4 to April 12, this series of one-day events will bring together African and international music professionals for meetings, conference debates, workshops and live showcases. Attendees will include labels, mobile operators, rights collection companies, streaming platforms, music publishers, artists, media, politicians, influencers and professional associations and institutions.
According to mobile telephony data, Sub-Saharan Africa currently accounts for one tenth of the world’s mobile telephone subscriber base and the market is growing faster than any other region in the world. Estimates are the Sub-Saharan smartphone users will number 498 million in 2020 compared to 300 million in 2016.*
“The convergence of the massive take-up of mobile telephony in many African countries, combined with the growth a young generation that is passionate about music, offers huge potential to structure and develop the African music scene both at home and internationally. Artists have a unique opportunity to reach new fans who are listening to music on mobile devices, while work needs to continue to protect those artists’ rights and generate a fair share of revenues. The High-Potential Markets Programme is a long-term initiative to support the growth and international reach of national and regional music ecosystems. We hope that the African Forum will help grow Africa’s share of the world music market and provide the global platform that African music deserves,” adds Midem’s Alexandre Deniot.
*Source GSMA: Mobile Economy 2017.
Find out more about Midem 2018 here
About Midem – Home of the Global Music Community, Midem is the world’s leading music event which brings together, connects, serves and supports the global music community to exchange, create, play, forge relationships and shape the future of music. With a rich 4-day programme of conferences, competitions, networking events and live performances, music makers, cutting-edge technology companies, brands & talent come together to enrich the passionate relationship between people & music, transform audience engagement and form new business connections. www.midem.com
Midem is part of Reed MIDEM , a global leader in the organisation of international professional markets in music, television and digital content industries (MIPTV, MIPDOC, MIPCOM, MIPJUNIOR, MIP China and MIP Cancun), esports (Esports BAR Cannes, Esports BAR Miami) and real estate (MIPIM, MIPIM UK, MIPIM Asia, MIPIM PropTech, MAPIC, MAPIC Russia, MAPIC Italy, MAPIC India, MAPIC China). www.reedmidem.com
Reed MIDEM is a subsidiary of Reed Exhibitions , the world’s leading events organiser, with over 500 events in 39 countries. In 2016 Reed brought together over seven million event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organised by 38 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 43 industry sectors with trade and consumer events. It is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. www.reedexpo.com
About TRACE: TRACE is a global multi-platform media and entertainment company that connects with multicultural audiences through premium afro urban music and content across 21 pay TV channels, radios, motion picture, online and mobile services in over 160 countries to 200M viewers and listeners. Launched in 2003, following the acquisition of the print magazine of the same name, TRACE has become the leading media brand for the connected Afro Urban youth in Sub-Saharan Africa, France, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.
