British executives featured prominently amongst the winners at the second annual International Midem Awards.
First Access Entertainment CEO Sarah Stennett – who picked up the prestigious Music Week Awards Strat Award earlier this year – had another good night, winning the first award, although she was unable to attend on the night. Instead the legendary manager, lawyer and A&R executive sent a video message and one of her new artists, hotly-tipped Cailin Russo, to perform. Stennett will give the keynote address at Midem on Wednesday.
Emmanuel De Buretel, CEO of Because Music, was another winner and, while he is French, he founded his company in London – and paid tribute to the UK music business in his acceptance speech at the Majestic Hotel.
“Because was a crazy idea because the market was collapsing,” he said. “But you know, French [people] are crazy. I thank the English music business because they really welcomed me. And it was easy to write a new model with a blank piece of paper.”
Another Brit, Shazam executive chairman Andrew Fisher, was also honoured, telling the audience of high-profile music executives: “It’s been 14 years of hard slog and it was truly a team effort. We’re very grateful we’ve got to be where we are today. We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for people to engage with an artist or a song and we wouldn’t have a business without everyone here today. No one would be able to Shazam without you.”
The final winner was Peermusic chair and CEO, Ralph Peer. The music publisher paid tribute to his father, Ralph S. Peer, who founded the company 90 years ago this year. “Dad taught us the importance of listening to all music from all countries,” he said.
The MIDEM Artist Accelerator award was won by Ghana-based rapper M.Anifest, who performed on the night, while analytics company Soundcharts won the Midemlab competition for start-ups.
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