Report on the fair “jazzahead” in Bremen / Germany - Part 1
Posted by Dennis Wiesch on 18 May 2009 | Tagged as: Music, Uncategorized
Around three weeks ago, the jazz fair “jazzahead” took place in Bremen / Germany for the fourth time.
Over three days more than 250 exhibitors from many different countries including Spain, Canada and Finland, promoted their music, artists, agencies and events. Nearly all of the important cultural institutions from the field of jazz music attended the fair. Many labels, booking agencies, festivals, musicians and magazines (like “Jazzwise“) and also the “Bureau Export” which deals with the cultural exchange between French and German artists sent their representatives to meet with more than 5,000 visitors.
In addition, there were lots of very interesting workshops, conferences and panel discussions including two conferences that I attended which are really worth talking about.
The first was “Tourism meets jazz” and was hosted by Claude Nobs, founder of the Mountreux Jazz Festival, and representatives of the Jazz Festivals from Saalfelden and Suedtirol. All three of these hosts have succeeded in ensuring their festivals are famous around the globe. Through a close collaboration with regional tourism branches, the exclusivity of certain artists performing only at their festivals and various other extraordinary accomplishments, their festivals are now all highly respected across the world’s music scene. “Be unique” and “create something special” were just two slogans Nobs used to explain his formidable success. I couldn’t help but feel that it was really unfortunate that only 40 people attended this very interesting conference.
Secondly, the panel discussion “The future of jazz radio - Is radio becoming Myspace?” was hosted by David Francis of “Sound & Music London”. The guest speakers were Oliver Poche (Myspace Germany), Alex Webb (Barbican Center UK, formerly worked for BBC Radio 1) and Markus Partanen (journalist and radiohost from Finland). After a brief introduction into the phenomena that is Myspace, and in particular Myspace Radio, the three guests discussed the possibilities that Myspace Radio offers to small independent internet radioshows, as well as the potential dangers involved. They also discussed the various online marketing tools used by small radiostations to attract listeners, although this part of the discussion did not really give me any new information. One clear message to the attendees of this discussion panel (around 20 in total) is that there are now way too many online radio stations out there for all of them to be a success, and that these stations need to cooperate with each other and really have to do something very special to get noticed.
After all the talking we had the opportunity to enjoy lots of live concerts. In part 2 of this report (which will be online within a few days) you can read about my personal experiences of the artists I heard live in concert and what else I learned from this fair.
No Comments »
