Popkomm 2011
September 7, 2011
The 21st Popkomm music trade fair, a key networking opportunity for labels, distributors and musicians from across Europe, opened Wednesday in Berlin.
After moving from Cologne to Berlin, Popkomm has enjoyed mixed success. Following on the crisis in the music industry of the past decade and the worldwide economic crisis in 2008, the event was called off in 2009 but reinstated in 2010 as part of the revived Berlin Music Week.
Popkomm is back but in a different form. Once the world's largest music trade convention, it is now a business meeting with 400 exhibitors: record labels, internet vendors and media present their wares on three days to an interested public. Last year there were 470, an indication that the crisis in the music industry is far from over.
The organizers are optimistic, however. Speaking shortly before the opening event, Daniel Barkowski, who has headed the Popkomm team since mid-2009, said that just like the industry it represents, Popkomm is continually changing.
"We always have to re-imagine our concept every year to keep up with a changing market," he said. "For example, we have the "Networking_Gate," where we have matchmaking, speed meetings and elevator pitches: that's a chance to meet the right people for your business."
Networking remains the fair's core activity, all of it concentrating on cyberspace activities. How music is to survive in the Net and how money is to be made with it are topics in the panel discussions at Popkomm 2011.
Music city Berlin
Berlin has attracted artists from all over Europe for years. The city's creative atmosphere is one factor. The other is the possibility of surviving there as an artist in a city with a relatively low cost of living.
Harald Wolf, deputy mayor of Berlin, said the city's music scene was something integral to the success of the Popkomm event.
"Popkomm is as changeable and as vivid as the Berlin music scene itself," he said. "The strength of Berlin is in its ability to change; one could say the same for Popkomm."
Music and the internet
Creating a platform for discussion between the analogue and digital worlds is one of Daniel Barkowski's foremost goals. A major challenge, but in his opinion, one the new Popkomm is up to.
"It has to be discussed. After all, the internet is not going to just go away," he said. "Either you work with it or try to ignore it altogether. In this time of rapid change, we have to keep up with developments and try to link the digital and analogue worlds."
Berlin Music Week
Berlin as the musical capital of Germany isn't in evidence so much at Popkomm itself as it is in the musical program to go along with the fair. About 300 events fill the Berlin Music Week: club nights, concerts, band presentations and the Berlin Festival, which on two days presents acts from the indie and electro scenes.
The future of pop music lies, after all, in live performances. As the saying goes: you can't download a concert experience.
Author: Matthias Klaus
Editor: Rick Fulker