Jim Lucchese, the CEO of the Echo Nest, feels your pain. He also announced last night that he will pay your MIDEM fees for you.
In a blog post published last evening, Lucchese wrote that he has “a problem spending a week with industry peers in beautiful Cannes discussing how to build a sustainable music industry for artists and fans, while the bands I'll be seeing that week pay to play for me and the other attendees.
“I think we'll all feel better tipping back that Guiness [sic] at Morrison's or glass of wine elsewhere on the Croisette knowing that the musicians sweating it out on-stage didn't pay for the privilege," Lucchese wrote.
This is a tremendously generous offer. MIDEM charges bands as much as $1,377 for the privilege of playing at one of its four showcases, and that's before you get into the expense of getting yourself to the south of France. If you've applied to play, send performance footage here.
