And on to some of the many business announcements timed to coincide with Midem - and as we said on Friday, a lot of these have a digital theme. First up, London based independent digital distribution firm Vital:Pias has announced three new deals that will extend the output of both music and videos for the 100 odd independent labels it represents.
The first deal is with Apple iTunes and relates to the pop promo videos in those labels' collective catalogues. Vital:Pias will now supply content to the growing music video section within the iTunes music store in the US, Australia and across Europe. Additional agreements covering Canada and Japan are expected to follow. Confirming the deal, Vital:Pias Head Of Digital Adrian Pope told reporters: "Audio-Visual products as downloads, although relatively new, promise to ignite the industry once more - we see huge potential for our labels and artists repertoire as they invariably have some of the most innovative and creative videos around."
The other two new deals relate to mobile, with a partnership with pan-European mobile content aggregator Arvato Mobile and with Ministry Of Sound's WAP portal division. On those deals Pope added: "We're genuinely excited as to where we see mobile audio and video products developing in 2006 and we're pleased to have extended our mobile offering to include Arvato and MOS. Both offer distinct services that will enable our labels music to reach as broad a range of people as possible."