The music industry’s annual five-day trip to the south of France for the MIDEM international music market and conference is over, and most of the execs should now be back at their desks.
Here Billboard.biz rounds up the best quotes of the conference:
“EMI has sued me for providing private storage for your own music on the Internet. It’s a serious matter and that’s why I’m not there in person.” — Michael Robertson, CEO of MP3Tunes, provides some drama during his keynote via Kyte link-up.
“Some don’t use it. They miss the offer completely.” — Nokia’s Tero Ojanpera, EVP of entertainment and communities, reveals that some owners of the all-you-can-eat Comes With Music handsets actually just want to make calls.
“It kills me.” — Courtney Holt, president of MySpace Music, gives his response to the failure of Facebook to launch a music service.
“It would be like the sun going down faster than it does in Norway in winter.” — Gerd Leonhard, media futurist, predicts a backlash if ISPs are regulated to stamp out file-sharing.
“It seems we are surrounded by an ever-growing chorus of pseudo-intellectual cyber professors who will have us believe that their vision of reality is nothing short of the high altar of intellectual thinking. And to challenge those viewpoints and assumptions is nothing short of heresy and treason.” — Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of U.K. Music, offers an alternative view.
“I’m not going to drop my pants and just take whatever deals are put on the table… I don’t view a major as any better than Koch Records.” — Bob Frank, president of Koch Records (since rebranded as E1 Records) still isn’t happy about MySpace Music’s terms.
“You will not recognize the music industry in a couple of years from now.” — Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Blackberry manufacturer Research In Motion, joins a Cannes chorus prophesizing change.
“I think it’s unfortunate.” — Google’s VP of content partnership David Eun holds his tongue when referring to Warner Music’s withdrawal of their repertoire from YouTube.
“We didn’t get universal approval for the decision to go DRM-free. There were one or two face-to-face moments that were entertaining… We had huge public support – most people have seen that’s the way to go.” — Eric Nicoli, chairman of Vue Entertainment and R&R Music, looks back on his EMI legacy. Sadly, he didn’t reveal which artists or managers got upset.
“For Nick Drake to be priced the same as Lady KaKa, or Lady GaGa, is just repulsive to me.” — David Schulhof, co-CEO EverGreen Copyrights, isn’t happy about iTunes charging 99 cents for both artists.
