The Indian Midem experience
Cannes: For Indian music companies who were part of the Indian Music Industry pavillion (stand No 12.20), Midem turned out to be an eyeopening experience.Sony-BMG, Saregama, Venus, Universal, Tips had an incessant pool of trade visitors wanting to buy back catalogue for digital distribution, license tracks, do publishing deals, distribute content in India and the full monty. The stand had two screens which repeatedly played out videos of Bollywood numbers proving a big draw for everyone mesmerised with the economic miracle of India.
Venus achieved its objectives of meeting up with the rights collection agencies, IMI through secretary general Savio D`souza had conversations on reciprocal arrangements with other collection agencies and trade bodies. Sony BMG general manager Bhujbal Sanujeet and deputy general manager Sankalia Arjun pointed out that Midem turned out to be out to be a big winner for the Indian wing of the international major. "We have made some signficant contacts which should turn out to be good relationships over time, generating revenue," says Bhujbal.
Tips senior vice-president Rajeev Sogani met up with a whole range of indpendent labels with the express purpose of distributing latino and Brazillian catalogue in India."It`s mindboggling how music companies function and operate globally," he says."We are going back with a lot of learnings."
Giri Trading director T.S. Ranganathan was overwhelmed by the display by the global music industry at Midem. Says he:"The scale is extraordinary. And the scope is immense. While India was represented by the Indian music companies from Mumbai and Delhi, there is no reason why labels from the south of India should not be here doing deals for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, classical Indian music here. We must see the presence of regional language at the Palais des Festivals next year. Let us see how we can rope them in."
The usual suspects Times Music and Music Today who had their own stands also had a succesful Midem. Says Times Music CEO Arun Arora: "We have been coming for around 10 years to Midem, and have found it to be a successful platform for us."
Music Today business director Gurmeet Singh who choose to have his stand in the Riviera away from the basement, said he had quality conversations with his clients.
Hyderabad based IMI Mobile vice present Pradeep Rao was seen hurrying from meeting to meeting signing up digital distribution deals for handphones. Reliance Infocom`s Krishna Durbha kept India`s flag flying high on the conference front, being a speaker in a session on Asia and also serving as a mentor to anyone wanting information on India and digital.
Clearly, Midem had proved to be music to the Indian music industry`s ears. "We are going to be back next year," says D`souza. "A lot more seasoned and wiser. And the industry will do a lot of business."
