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As promised here is part 2 of our MIDEM interview with Gary Smith, senior reporter on the MIDEM News.

What impact do you think mobile apps will have on the music industry in the coming years?

Every band/label will be pretty much obliged to have some sort of app available, even if they’re only ones that work during tours, it’s all about engagement and two-way conversation and that will only grow.

Did you attend any Midem concerts? if so, what was your standout event / artist / band?

Austrian hip hop act Bauchklang were absolutely amazing, as always, and Cascadeur was very original. The Pschent Party was also reliably excellent, as indeed it is every year.

The French music industry was under the spotlight. What are the French doing that the rest of us can learn from?

Most French artists have for years stuck doggedly to singing in French, partly because the tradition of the chanson française is still very strong, and partly due to the radio quota which means that 40% of all music played on French radio has to be French-language, so newer acts have a better chance of getting plays if they’re singing in French. But now suddenly there’s a new generation of acts singing in English which of course considerably improves their chances of breaking into foreign markets, and that fact is one of the main inspirations behind the French Vibes initiative.

A subject being regularly discussed by the music industry is the future of digital music and the best models for music distribution. Was there any breakthrough concerning this matter at Midem?

As we move from a low volume, high profit model to a high volume, low profit world, accounting practices are going to have to get much more accurate in order that all those micro-transactions add up to a decent sum of money, and that is very much an ongoing process right now.

What main changes have occurred at Midem over recent years?

As fewer companies take individual stands, we have seen that being replaced by country pavilions – from Austria, Canada, Finland, Italy, the UK, US Indies, Switzerland and Spain – which enable lots of small operators to make use of a large and pleasant space. My favourite was the Finnish stand which is 100% recyclable and built from typically Scandinavian un-varnished wood… it was so unlike all the other very bright stands that it stood out, but in a low-profile kind of way. There were also a lot of start-ups there this year, 150 in total against 100 last year…  it’s great to see all those highly creative and brave people getting attention and plaudits.

What was the buzz in the networking village like? – We love networking speed dating stylee with 3 minute meetings!

Great buzz around the village generally. It is an excellent idea to have these dedicated spaces which create little islands with varying dynamics, although there is a small problem with noise from other areas spilling into them, especially the managers’ village where if you aren’t close to the speaker, it’s difficult to catch what they’re saying.

For anyone considering attending Midem next year, why would you say they should chose this over all the others out there?

MIDEM has been through a difficult period but has come through as a more varied, creative, open and inspiring event that really does cover every imaginable genre and aspect of the music industry…

If you want to read more from Gary check out his blogs http://mymetier.posterous.com and http://garygarry.posterous.com

This time last week MIDEM was in full force.  We were lucky enough to speak Gary Smith who is heavily involved in a series of industry events and conferences including Midem, Cannes Lions, and ADE.

Gary agreed to do an interview for the Scribble blog giving us the lowdown on the breaking news stories, industry announcements and trends to come out of the event.  There was so much info to come out of the interview we will be spreading the interview over a few posts so come back tomorrow!

What is your role at Midem and how long have you been there?

I’m the senior reporter on the MIDEM News and I’ve been going to MIDEM since 1993

Most industry conferences seem to have a standout or recurring topic presented by speakers that becomes the talk of ‘the conference’ and its delegates. What was this at Midem?

Developing real relationships with brands and cloud computing were probably the biggest topics. It’s surprising how many professionals still have a rather vague idea of what cloud computing is and what its implications are.

In your opinion, what was the biggest breaking news story?

Nothing springs to mind but I did see a demo of www.hitlantis.com, a new music discovery website that I think is highly original and brilliantly conceived. A real leap forward.

What was your personal conference highlight?

PJ Bloom talking about doing the job of music supervisor for Glee. He was hilarious and very honest which is a rare combination. He mentioned that he’d noticed several acts recently saying they’d never allow one of their songs to be used in the show, acts that incidentally had not been approached, and he commented that if bands want to talk s*** about the show, that’s absolutely fine by him …

Working with cloud based studio, www.burn-studios.com , we are particularly interested in the development of cloud based technologies.  One question raised at Midem was “Is cloud music the path to the future?” What’s your view on this?

Of course it’s inevitable that music will eventually move to the cloud as people become more comfortable with the idea of not possessing a physical version of a song, and also as streaming that music to mobile devices becomes ever easier, the huge convenience of no longer have to worry about your Gigabytes is very attractive.

Another topic discussed at Midem that we are continually educating our clients about is how to monetise a mobile app. Do you think the industry is now seeing mobile apps as additional revenues streams rather than ‘just another marketing tool’?

The industry generally is jumping on anything that might earn money now it’s clear that the era of selling large amounts of a given song or LP is over, for the moment anyway. And I don’t mean that to sound as if the industry is desperate, in fact I detected quite the opposite. Compared to last year there was much more confidence around and people seem to be getting used to the fact that although the industry has been turned on its head, there are still plenty of ways to make a living from working with music.

More to come from Gary tomorrow.  If you want to read more from Gary check out his blogs

http://mymetier.posterous.com/ and http://garygarry.posterous.com/

On the 5th October it was the Billboard Mobile Entertainment Live Music App Summit in San Francisco.  The event, held inside the Moscone Center, brought together the key players revolutionizing mobile music apps to network and discuss new applications, ideas and technologies.

The event also held the first music app awards where the best mobile music apps were chosen by a panel of key judges from the music industry.  The winners in each of the categories were:

• Best Music Engagement App - SoundHound Infinity by SoundHound Inc
• Best Music Creation App - MorphWiz by Wizdom Music
• Best Music Streaming App - MOG Mobile by MOG
• Best Touring App - Live Phish by Nugs.net
• Best Artist-based App - I Am T-Pain by Smule
• Best Branded App - Gibson Learn & Master Guitar by Gibson Guitar

Many of the key players in the industry gave key note speeches on their thoughts about the future of apps and the music industry.  A full report of the coverage can be found on the Billboard.biz website here.  A definite must read for anyone interested in apps and the music industry.

The key points we picked up on was the almost unanimous point of view that the future of the music business is with application developers.  Apps are revolutionising how we listen to music, powering new music discovery, they are opening up a whole new way of interacting with artists and even democratising the way we produce and make music. Exciting times!

Dance act Faithless are launching a new campaign to sell their new album and up coming tour tickets through the Shazam app.

The campaign starts this week with TV adverts promoting their latest single.  The ads prompt viewers to tag the track using the app, directing them to a mobile site where they can purchase tickets for the band’s latest tour dates or purchase its album The Dance.

We like the idea of this campaign and its good news that more high profile artists are using app technology to promote their music and sell tickets through mobile devices.

Today Glastonbury opens its doors for this years festival.  If you’re lucky enough to be going you’ll be wanting to know what’s happening across festival site so you don’t miss out on all  the action.  Orange have been producing apps for the legendary festival for the last few years and they have just brought out the 2010 version.  Although we didn’t build the app we still think it is a great app and a vital tool for navigating your way around.

The Standard version of the GlastoNav app includes:

Interactive map with zoom function

Full stage listings brought to you by the Guardian Guide

A complete bar guide

An easy way to pinpoint your tent, so you never get lost

Q’s favourite artist recommendations each day

The iPhone version includes:

All the great features of the standard app, but with an interactive 2D and augmented reality map

So there you go, that’s our tip for the Festival.  If you’re going this year, have a cider or two for us that have to stay behind and have a great weekend!