That was Midem 2013...

What is Midem?
For you who don't know Midem, here's a little explanation... Midem is a yearly conference that takes place in Cannes (South of France) and where labels, publishers, managers, collecting societies, music start ups, festivals, medias, agencies, thinkers & artists of the world meet. There are talks, country booths, speed meetings and above all business meetings. Lots of business is done there.

Why did I go?
I first heard about Midem back in 2002. But the friend who introduce Midem to me said it was a place to find licences for dance tracks or classical albums but not for my style of music. I always heard of Midem the subsequent years but never went... But then my friend Morni went last year. And she told me she made great contacts there and I HAD TO GO! So I listened to my friend's advice, booked in September and went. I thought my friend Morni would join but in the end she couldn't so there I was on my own.

No expectations
To be honest, I didn't expect anything from it. It's my 13th year doing music (I started T-ka in 2000) and I heard so many promises never held along the line that I'm not going to start to believe in anything until I see it happening. However the thing that struck me is that for so many hours spent reaching out to labels, managers, publishers, etc during all these years, here you've got all the professionals on the tip of your hand and from the whole wild world. And you can talk to them. In fact I met people I would have never met or never thought of contacting otherwise. So in that sense my friend Morni was perfectly right. Good contacts can be made.

What I am looking for...
There are partners I've always been looking for: a manager, a booking agent (they are very rare in Midem so don't go if you're looking for one), a label and a publisher for my next albums or a licence for my 2 existing albums. I was also trying to promote Busking in Australia and to find medias to do a world version of it. The only thing I can say is that if I find any of these partners or if any project gets further through Midem, you can be sure that I'll go next year again. If not, I still have learnt a lot of things, shaked hands with Jamal Edwards and a number of very interesting people, saw Madness, DJ Spooky and Archive live, saw Jean-Michel Jarre 5 meter away from me and not on a big screen while he's performing 1km away and sat where cinema stars have too... And the weather was much better than in Hannover that I left in the snow. So bye bye Cannes and let's see in a few months what you brought!