Interview with Midem’s Director, Alexandre Deniot

Published in

Women in Music

4 min readMay 20, 2019

As a renowned music conference MIDEM is getting closer, we had a pleasure of interviewing MIDEM’s director Alexandre Deniot, about the exciting and innovative aspects the attendees can expect at MIDEM this year.

MIDEM has been home of the global music community for over 50 years now. What are the key elements to its success and longevity in your opinion?

Midem was the first music event ever to have such a strong international aspect. We represent the global music ecosystem including all the actors ( from songwriters to producers to singers to record label executives ) publishing houses etc). We still have pioneers of this conference among us, who attended it back in 1966.

What is the one defining characteristic of MIDEM that sets it apart from all other music conferences around the world?

It is without a doubt, the fact that it has participants coming from more than 80 countries, making it incredibly global. This year only, we will have new 14 countries represented for the first time ( Puerto Rico, Thailand, Cameron to name a few). The quality and level of expertise of our speakers is also very high — they again include everyone: from artists to managers to executives.

There have been several new initiatives in the past couple of editions (High Potential Markets Programme, Midemlab, Midem Artist Accelerator to name a few) -how do you see them shape and influence MIDEM’s identity?

In everything we do at MIDEM, we rely on four important pillars to achieve that:

ARTIST & CREATIVITY

KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

INNOVATION

BUSINESS AND NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES

All of them are fundamental to MIDEM’s identity and we strive to always keep them fresh and innovative.

With a greater sense of dynamism and general diversity in participants and speakers, MIDEM seems to be leaning towards a more inclusive music community with industry leaders from various backgrounds in the past few years. Was this is a conscious decision?

We are very sensitive to gender diversity, especially when it comes to conference speakers. We currently have females making 20–25% of all speakers and are working hard to increase that number. We would like to achieve a good balance of 50% -50% representation between female and male speakers.

In particular, this year MIDEM will see incredible leading women take the stage, such as Sylvia Rhone, Dia Simms and Dina LaPolt. How do you see their contribution impact this year’s program?

We are very proud to welcome these leading women and it will be interesting to see them speak and have their voices heard. Sylvia Rhone, in particular, will be honored with 2019 Hall of Fame at Award, which is amazing.

Is it part of MIDEM’s vision to increase the number of female speakers even, more going, forward?

Yes, absolutely. We always want to welcome new talent, new songwriters and female top executives. We are also eager to have the participation of a super talented South-African singer-songwriter Candice Pillay, best known for writing songs for artists including Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Rita Ora, Sevyn Streeter and Tinie Tempah.

In the past five years, we developed music partnerships with organizations representing women of the music industry, including your organization, Women in Music. If there is a way we can help and support to have WIM open other chapters around the worlds, we are always up for it.

Before, during or after MIDEM– what’s has been your favorite moment in your experience, the one that makes it all worth it?

Watching the artists performing on stage is always a great moment for me. That’s we are all here, for the passion of music!

And to see so many smiling faces is just to best reward I can receive.

Next MIDEM is coming soon and we’re all excited — what’s your typical day right now?

It’s very hectic now, filled with meetings and a lot of traveling. I just came back from Africa, where I visited 3 countries in just 10 days. Next stop is Berlin and overall, it’s a very exciting moment for us!

Any surprises attendees can expect at MIDEM this year?

We are introducing a new cool feature — The MIDEM STUDIO by DYNAUDIO ( see photo below) where “music never sleeps” with artists creating music 24 hours a day for all 4 days of MIDEM’s duration in public sessions. This unique experience will transport delegates deep into the heart of the creative and recording process.
It will be located in front of the main venue, allowing artists to “recreate” famous pieces and spread great energy!