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Digital
MIDEM digital announcements: OpenEMI, Webdoc, Coke
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 30 January 2012
More from Cannes, and now some of the announcements made this weekend at MIDEM on the more digital side of the equation…
First up, a delegation of EMI execs were in town for their final trip to the industry’s winter junket before they all get fired by Lucian Grainge in September – sorry, I mean before they take on exciting new roles within the prestigious Universal Music Group. And Team EMI had an update on their rather enlightened OpenEMI initiative, something that we very much hope will survive Universal acquisition of the London-based major, should that takeover go ahead this summer.
As previously reported, OpenEMI – a partnership between the major and digital agency The Echo Nest – gives app developers access to big chunks of the music firm’s catalogue for testing purposes, and also offers licensing and marketing support to said app makers. Among the OpenEMI news to be revealed at MIDEM was the addition of more content to the venture’s library, including the entire Robbie Williams back catalogue. The major also revealed the winner of their previously reported five grand best app competition, which is a tappable remix thingimy featuring music that lovable hip hop duo Chiddy Bang.
Second up, Swiss web start-up Webdoc, which positions itself as being half way between social media and a blogging platform, and which has sharing and discussing video, audio and photo content at its heart (making it sort of like Tumblr, but a bit different), were in town to announce various new widgets, meaning users can add music content into their personal webdocs with the approval of said content’s owner, who get free promotion. Songkick, SoundCloud and Topspin widgets were among those being officially launched this weekend.
Thirdly and finally, and this is less of an announcement and more something that was implied (or possibly just inferred by delegates in the room), but Coke‘s Head Of Global Entertainment And Sports Marketing, Emmanuel Seuge, did indicate that some sort of Spotify partnership might be on the horizon. In a panel in which Seuge bigged up the role of both his own company and consumer brands in general in the music business of the future, the Coke exec said: “We’re very intrigued by the business model of Spotify – and very interested in a strategic partnership with them”. That was as far as he went, though everyone now seems to think talks of some kind between the drinks firm and the streaming platform are already underway.
