Popkomm confirms move in time and space

While many in the music industry currently spend their time in Cannes, the other big European trade show tried to get some headlines as well. Okay, you’ll get it, Popkomm. Right after concluding 2008’s event, Popkomm executives had hinted at moving the trade show to better accommodate the industry’s needs. 

Today, Popkomm director Katja Gross, who is re-joining her team after getting married (remember: she used to go by Bittner) and after a parental leave, confirmed the changes. This year’s Popkomm will take place from September 16 to 18, which is about three weeks earlier than in 2008. More importantly perhaps, the trade show, conference and exhibition parts will move away from the old location. 

Instead of the halls at Messe Berlin (which many found to be in an odd location, considering the distance to clubs and label offices) Popkomm will be held at Station-Berlin, near Potsdamer Platz. The new location offers 9000 square meters (some 97,000 square feet) of space for exhibitors. It will also be a lot closer to where things are happening at night during Popkomm. 

Here are some inside images of Station-Berlin. Looks a whole lot cooler and cozier than what delegates had gotten used to in recent years. 

The building used to be the postal freight depot at Gleisdreick, a former railway/subway hub in the center of Germany’s capital. Station-Berlin in recent years has become well-known in the world of fashion by way of Premium.

Popkomm ponders move in time and place

German trade show Popkomm might be on the move. According to Popkomm Managing Director Ralf Kleinhenz, exhibition organizer Messe Berlin is trying hard to have the 2009 event between September 16 and 19. That would be three weeks earlier than this year. One of the reasons for Popkomm’s so so attendance has been attributed to the fact that it took place in October – too late in the eyes of some. 

In an interview with MusikWoche Kleinhenz gave the trade show a thumbs-up regardless. He did acknowledge, however, that Popkomm needs to make a second move: towards the center of the German capital, to Mitte. He hasn’t finalized a location yet, but Messe Berlin appears to be set on relocationg the exhibition and the conference to an area of Berlin that is closer to where the music action and some label headquarters are. 

Some rumors place Popkomm 2009 near the Potsdamer Platz. Others think it will be farther east in the district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. Kleinhenz wouldn’t comment on that.

Popkomm balance sheet: attendance down by 9%

German trade show Popkomm released preliminary numbers on this year’s event which is ending today. Attendance was down by roughly nine percent to some 14,000 delegates. The number of exhibiting companies decreased by five percent to 843. Popkomm MD Ralf Kleinhenz explained his mediocre balance sheet with the “paradigm shift from products to service” the industry is experiencing right now. 

Some of the decline may also be due to the fact that Popkomm was forced to push back this year’s date into October. Many people in the industry had publicly stated their dissatisfaction with Messe Berlin’s (Popkomm’s owner) decision. In 2009 they will be aiming for a September Popkomm again. The tentative dates are September 16 – 18.

GEMA follows CISAC lead in appealing EU Commission ruling

GEMA, Germany’s collection society for musical rights, announced during Popkomm that they will appeal a July ruling by the European Commission against the bilateral reciprocal licensing practices of collection societies in Europe. In doing so, GEMA is following the lead of CISAC, the umbrella organisation for 222 collection societies around the globe. GEMA Chairman Harald Heker said in Berlin, 22 of the 24 rights groups who are affected by the Commission’s decision will turn to the EU courts for a revision of the highly disputed decision made by the competition department in Brussels. In the meantime, GEMA and most other collection societies in Europe are renegotiating their bilateral agreements in order to meet a EU mandated deadline.

putpat.tv hatches from Musikfernsehen.tv

The cat’s out of the bag. During a press conference in Berlin, Musikfernsehen.tv presented itself to Popkomm delegates. The first thing you’ll notice: Its name is not Musikfernsehen.tv. Instead the web-TV project will operate at putpat.tv. Users will be able to watch music videos as full-length streams for free. Royalty expenses will be covered by advertisement that will be blocked in between clips. Content can be individualized and organized into personal channels.

At present putpat.tv has no finished site up and running yet. The company behind it, Cologne-based Televised Revolution, is still testing the Beta. There is only a limited number of clips available, discussions with labels about licenses are still ongoing. Televised Revolution didn’t give an exact launch date for the service.

Involved in putpat.tv are two figures that helped popularize music television in Germany in the past two decades: Viva founder Dieter Gorny who today heads German music industry association BVMI, and Ray Cokes who, as MTV VJ, gained notoriety in the 80s and 90s as the leading face of the network. 

“The software ist terrific,” Cokes said in regards to putpat.tv’s website. “This could potentially be just as revolutionary as YouTube was.” MTV had missed the boat long time ago, Cokes stated. “None of us want to watch these appalling reality shows or see how rich music stars are.” Meanwhile, it remained unclear to what extent Cokes and Gorny are invested in the project. Also on board is German music magazine Intro.

PPP funding to send German music delegation to China

You’ve got to hand it to Wolfgang Spahr, Billboard’s German stringer aka “Häuptling Silberlocke” (= Chief Silver Curl). While others are partying doing business at Popkomm, Spahr keeps reporting. News out of Berlin is, that the German music industry wants to intensify its relations to China. This isn’t exactly new news. German trade weekly MusikWoche had touched on that subject in early August, when the Initiative Musik, Germany’s public-private music industry support office, green-lighted a trip to China. 

A delegation will head to Guangzhou and Beijing in mid-November to showcase German talent in the People’s Republic. Funding for the trip will come from Initiative Musik which will coordinate the participation of German companies. 

Ina Keßler, who heads the agency that recieves €1m ($1.36m) in government funding plus €150,000 ($205,000) each from collection societies GEMA and GVL, will have to establish preliminary business contacts between music companies in China and Germany. 

The Initiative Musik was founded one year ago at Popkomm and has since sponsored 40 music related projects. Recipients of money alloted by this public-private partnership (PPP) went to artists like Polarkreis 18, Super700 or Marsmobil. At a meeting in Berlin Initiative Musik issued an upbeat assessment of its work since establishing the agency. Budget experts in Parliament already recommited their support for funding the project.

German government commits to copyright protection – 3 strikes? Well, maybe …

During his opening address at Popkomm in Berlin German minister for culture and the media, Bernd Neumann, assured the music industry of the government’s commitment to ensuring protection of copyrights. Germany will continue to push that matter on a European level, he said. 

Protection of copyrights are one of the most pressing issues in today’s business, Neumann told the attendees. “Illegal copying is not a petty crime.” Hence, Neumann supports talks between the creative industries and ISPs in order to maybe reach an agreement similar to the Memorandum of Understanding in the UK. 

“For this reason I have taken efforts to have this issue placed on the agenda of the EU Council of Ministers,” he said. However, Neumann remained unclear as to wether Germany will push for a system of graduated response (aka “three strikes and you’re out”) like France. The approaches taken in Great Britain and France are interesting ones, Neumann conceded. But he was not sure if they could be fully translated into German law.

CISAC appealing EU Commission’s decision on rights collection

During his keynote address opening Popkomm in Berlin Robin Gibb accused the European Commission of behaving in an “unhelpful and dogmatic fashion”. The Bee Gee and President of CISAC (Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Auteurs et Compositeurs), the umbrella organisation for 222 collection societies around the globe, announced that CISAC had lodged an appeal against the EU’s July decision ruling against the bilateral reciprocal licensing practices of collection societies in Europe.

Billboard, MusikWoche, and Music Week have some excellent coverage of this complex issue. Required reading.

German business keeps pushing for “three strikes” rules

The French are lobbying for it, so are the British. Naturally, the Germans don’t want to miss out. Nowadays, everybody wants their graduated response theme put in place to help fight illegal downloads. German copyright law currently does not mandate the introduction of the so-called “three strikes and you’re out” concept. But it doesn’t hurt to keep fighting for it, right Dieter Gorny?

The head of German industry association BVMI chose the evening before the launch of Popkomm to sit down with hand-selected media representatives and talk about the future of the business. In a backroom of Berlin restaurant “Schneeweiß” Gorny pushed for a system of graduated penalties for illegal filesharers, the daily Die Welt reports. 

“When users embark on illegal actions on the Internet, they should accumulate [negative] points which at a certain amount would for instance result in throttling of their bandwidth or a temporary suspension of their ISP account,” Gorny said. He acknowledged, however, that this will not eradicate online piracy. “This is meant to be a deterrent. We won’t reach everybody with this approach. Just like there are still people who drive drunk.” 

This is old news that started back in January this year at Midem, when U2 manager Paul McGuiness chastised ISPs for what he characterized as turning a blind eye to filesharing. I still think this is a fight the music industry has lost a long time ago. Move on, people.

Midem to bring back Rosen, Robertson and Nicoli

While everybody and their brothers seems to be in Berlin right now to attend Popkomm, the other big European music trade show made an announcement. Midem will open its MidemNet conference (January 17-18) with three well-known names in the business. 

The opening session in Cannes will see together on one stage Hilary Rosen, Michael Robertson and Eric Nicoli. This will provide for some exquisit music industry bashing. Nicoli was ousted as head of EMI Music in August of 2007, Robertson has had his share of beef with the major labels as founder of companies like MP3.com and MP3Tunes. And Rosen, who steered the RIAA litigation against Napster 1.0, has since converted to a more liberal position on this issue. She recently called the original Napster the “greatest thing” she had seen at that time.