This year, one of the top musical conferences in the world, Midem has made one big change. Namely that it will take place this year in June in Cannes rather than January as in previous years. However, this year’s event will continue to be one of the don’t miss events of the year for those involved with the music industry. Each year the ecosystem for creative industry focused startups takes on a larger role, and this year will be no exception. The top event for startups is Midemlab, sponsored this year by Pepsi and Vivendi, which seeks to reward the most innovative startups proposing solutions that enable creative industries to build new consumer experiences.
This year, the competition will be structured around 3 categories:
- Music discovery: Recommendation and creation
- Marketing, Social Engagement and Monetisation Solutions
- Hardware/Internet of Things
The successful track record alone of winners from previous Midemlab already gives reason enough to apply. Past winners include of course Soundcloud from 2009, Rexly from 2012 which was acquired by Live Nation, Soundrop from 2013 who went on to raise a $3.4 million series B round, and Blitzr from 2014 which already has gone on to claim the biggest free music base in the world with 40 million songs available for free, 4 million artists, and 5 million albums.
As in previous years, an all-star, international jury will decide who takes top prize in each category. Some of the members from this year’s jury include Techstars London MD John Bradford, France Digitale Cp-President Marie Ekeland, Qualcomm Senior Director Jason Ball, Advent Venture Partners General Partner Frederic Court, Pepsi Senior Director Ellen Healy Pietropaoli, and the Foundry Group Managing Director Jason Mendelson.
If your startup focuses in some way on music or other creative industries and you’re at the cutting of innovation in one of the above three categories, make sure you apply to the competition here by 5 March 2015.