7 reasons why tech will be big at music industry conference Midem 2012

With API launches and hack days now becoming commonplace, the music industry finally seems to get the Internet. That means that this year’s Midem conference in Cannes, France, where people from across the business get together to share ideas and discuss the future, should be very interesting indeed.

The Next Web will be reporting from Midem, which takes place from 28-31 January 2012. Here’s what’s lined up on the tech side of things to keep us busy.

1. The likes of Microsoft, Google, Spotify, YouTube, Vevo, Orange, Deezer, Facebook, Rovio and Vivendi will be in attendance. Amazon and Google will take part in a panel discussion with UMG’s Rob Wells and Charles Caldas, head of indie collective Merlin. Google Music’s Tim Quirk will also be taking part in a panel.
2. The streaming music market is set to expand this year, and Spotify, Simfy, Deezer and Rdio will all be at Midem.
3. Established music startups attending will include The Echo Nest, Shazam, Simfy, Gracenote, SoundCloud, Mspot, MXP4/bopler games, Thinglink and Songkick.
4. Those startups will be joined by the fresh faces taking part in the Midemlab startup competition, such as Flowd, Webdoc and Tunerights. See the full list in our previous coverage.
5. There’s a Music Tech Meetup planned for the evening of Sunday Jan 29th. We’ll be there to meet all the startups.
6. The Innovation Factory is set to offer a complete, tailor-made learning programme for startups. This includes The Basics of Startup Operations, run by Microsoft BizSpark, How to Raise Funds for Your Own Startup, from LD&A, and How to Pitch to the Media, run by… The Next Web!
7. Midem’s Music Hack Day, as our previous coverage explained, will see innovative music apps and services built in just 48 hours.

If all that has whet your appetite and you want to come to Cannes to witness it all first-hand, startups and app developers can take advantage of a special ticket price. The details can be found at www.midem.com/tech.