DubMC

WOMEX Wrap Up: a Tour of Reports from the Field

After a slight delay (well, a big delay), I am posting the remainder of the great info we got from several North American attendees of WOMEX, the big world music conference in Sevilla earlier this season. Here is a quick index for you busy executives:

What Really Happened at WOMEX 2007, Reports from the Field, Report 1
What Really Happened at WOMEX 2007, Reports from the Field, Report 2
Artist Discoveries from Music Biz Insiders, WOMEX Report, Report 3
New Ideas Discovered at WOMEX, Report 4
New Services Discovered at WOMEX, Report 5
One Thing You are Especially Proud of from WOMEX 2007, Report 6
Womex 2007 Described in a few Words, Report 7
New companies Discovered at WOMEX, Report 8
What You Will do Differently as a Result of WOMEX 2007, Report 9, The Final Report

New Ideas Discovered at WOMEX, Report 4

Continuing our series of WOMEX reports from the field, here are some of the ideas our grassroots reporters dug up...

Claudia Norman, CN Management, President
New idea: Electrocumbe
Who did you hear it from: Ivan Benavides
How will you use it: By programming in the Latino Cultural Festival

Banning Eyre, Afropop Worldwide, Producer/Website Senior Editor
Possible collaboration between Afropop and Archive ofContermporary Music.
Who did you hear it from: Bob George
How will you use it: Meet with Bob and see if we can figure out a way to work together to meet our goals for Afropop's archival holdings. 

Eric Herman, Modiba Productions, Co-President
New idea: New live recording technology for field recordings
Who did you hear it from: Discovered during the discussion on digital marketing
How will you use it: I want one -- can never have enough field recordings in your archive!

New Services Discovered at WOMEX, Report 5

And now our in-the-field reporters from WOMEX tell us some cool new services they discovered while trolling at the trade hall:

Cheryl McEnaney, Wild Child Full Of Grace - Strategic Marketing
Afropop Streaming. I can listen now from anywhere. Psyched!

Alejandro Colinas, Alebrije
Tour manager survival book -- lots of old ideas put in a fashionable way.

Erich Ludwig, Erich Ludwig Creative Consultancy
Well, I didn't discover them at WOMEX, but in service of one of my clients, I am starting to understand the full power of iLike.com. You can control (and share control of) your roster of artists/clients on a variety of social networks. In non-tech speak, what I mean is that I can make one change for an artist (add a song, update a link, add a picture, etc), and have it appear on Facebook, GarageBand, and more. This service is the future of a variety of open-source applications that will allow all of us to play with those niches once they fully develop.

Alexandra Casazza, Trouble Worldwide, Booking agent/ Owner
Womex virtual - I could see who would be there and what they were all about.

Claudia Norman, CN Management, President
Institut Ramon llul - A foundation interested in supporting their artists.

Eric Herman, Modiba Productions, Co-President
musicmakesfriends.com - it’s free and it’s well designed

One Thing You are Especially Proud of from WOMEX 2007, Report 6

Evangeline Kim, Arts Management Consultant/Freelance Writer

I was very proud to observe the inroads made by the North American World Music Coalition as far as WOMEX presence and the invaluable work that its founders and officers continue to achieve. Also, I was pleased to note that everyone I met with was aware of, in particular, globalFEST as a major World Music event in the US.  It seems that due to the efforts of both organizations, the distance between the "pond" is minimizing in many ways. All in all, it was great to catch up however briefly with so many North American colleagues and friends in one spot and to make new friends.

Cheryl McEnaney, Wild Child Full Of Grace - Strategic Marketing, Owner
Ongoing comraderie with Real World, post-EMI

Alejandro Colinas, Alebrije
Being part of award winning team -- Andy Palacio and Ivan Duran.

Eric Herman, Modiba Productions, Co-President
Our rising star artist Vieux Farka Toure's phenomenal showcase and his BBC world music award nomination for best new artist.

Womex 2007 Described in a few Words, Report 7

Evangeline Kim, Arts Management Consultant/Freelance Writer
Cool, stylish, inspiring!

Alejandro Colinas, Alebrije
Art will survive the market.

Yatrika Shah-Rais, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, Senior Program Specialist – Music and Special Programs
A better WOMEX overall in terms of music venue and sound.

Mark D. Moss, Sing Out!, Editor/Executive Director
THE essential roots music conference

Rob Weisberg, WFMU, DJ
Improved showcase variety

Alexandra Casazza, Trouble Worldwide, Booking agent/ Owner
Tower of Babel

Bill Smith, Eye for Talent, President
Best Ever

Steve Heath, Concert of Colors, Talent buyer
Lot of fun.

Claudia Norman, CN Management, President
Great Networking Opportunity.

Eric Herman, Modiba Productions, Co-President
fruitful, fun, exhausting

Banning Eyre, Afropop Worldwide, Producer/Website Senior Editor
Too much music!

Tom Pryor, National Geographic/ Nat Geo Music, Interweb Editor Guy
Bigger. Better. Boozier.

New companies Discovered at WOMEX, Report 8

Here some WOMEX attendees share some of the companies discovered while in Sevilla:

Bill Smith, Eye for Talent. President
Jeunesse Musicale International - great program for training young southern African musicians in music as well as music business,  then a festival competition of the best from each of the five countries represented.  We hope to tour the winner annually.

Steve Heath, Concert of Colors, Talent buyer
Basque Music
Why you were glad to find out about them: Tour Support

Claudia Norman, CN Management, President

Euski Jaurlaritza - This is a new opportunity to bring Basque artists to the U.S.

Petrit Pula, Nublu Records
Was cool to meet Piranha – a German label that releases a bunch of Balkan stuff.

What You Will do Differently as a Result of WOMEX 2007, Report 9, The Final Report

Evangeline Kim, Arts Management Consultant/Freelance Writer
As a result of attending WOMEX 2007 in my capacity as a US label advisor, I will give greater focus to European markets as far as overall market expansion planning for labels interested in market growth and development.

I was impressed by the scope, depth and breadth of World Music throughout the European markets.  World Music is a much greater and growing force there compared to the US where the category is still perceived as a "niche" phenomenon.  According to one of the UK media pundits we met with, the US World Music market is about 10 years behind Europe in some ways. This has much to do with the US visa issues as well as stateside market fragmentation.

Also, despite the doom and gloom  emphasis on digital growth and dire prognoses for physical product threading throughout WOMEX, one-on-one meetings with many long-experienced business leaders during the conference lead me to believe that there is yet much more life ahead for cds and even a small resurgence  demand for vinyl.  Apart from the DJ market demand, I believe a healthy "collectors" market will thrive and may possibly re-define some aspects of cd production.