Photo: DPA

Music industry pulls the plug on Popkomm trade fair

Published: 19 Jun 09 19:32 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090619-20073.html

The German music industry has cancelled this year’s Popkomm trade fair in Berlin due to a dramatic plunge in interest.

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One of the most important annual events for Germany’s music industry, the fair had been scheduled for September. But Popkomm director Katja Gross said on Friday that a “striking” collapse in the number of expected industry visitors forced organisers to pull the plug on the 2009 edition.

Going from current registrations, Popkomm was likely to draw only half of the 14,000 professional visitors seen last year. The number of exhibitors was also expected to drop from 843 in 2008.

Dieter Gorny, head of the BVMI Music Industry Association, blamed the industry’s woes on rampant piracy on the internet and said he hoped torpedoing Popkomm this year would be a wake up call to Germany’s political elites.

Gorny said the plunge in participants was “terrifying” and raised the question if Popkomm was still relevant in its current form. He also pointed to the “massive” public support the Berlin Film Festival received. He said Popkomm wasn’t looking for subsidies, but instead wanted to spark a debate about its future.

Organisers emphasised that the trade fair would be back next year and that it would use the break to try and “rescue and strengthen” it to face the challenges of the digital age. They also said Popkomm, which moved from Cologne in 2004, would stay in Berlin.

DDP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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Your comments about this article:

#1
19:47 June 19, 2009 by So36
HAHAHAHAHA. The music industry can't come up with a new business model so now it's gonna start looking for public handouts. Gorny maybe needs to switch to the German insurance industry. AOK always needs pencil pushers.
Report abuse »
#2
10:17 June 20, 2009 by Fireplug52
It seems that the easy way for their failure to come up with artist that have an interest for the public, is to automatically blame internet piracy. Makes no sense. It appears that the industry has left by the wayside those who in the earlier days made the music industry a money making machine and that is the over fifty crowd. Granted I will agree that some of it is internet piracy, but I am hard pressed to believe that it has that big of an impact. This mantra of theirs is beginning to sound more and more like the global warming scam. If one is a true fan of the music they will choose to buy rather than download it illegally.
Report abuse »
#3
11:10 June 22, 2009 by Jessp
Boring, uncreative music scene + alternative entertainment (computer games etc) - illegal downloading = death of the music industry as we know it.

You need a new business model guys, not just an increased marketing budget, some new starlet (same as the old starlet), and lawyers chasing teenage downloaders.
Report abuse »
#4
20:00 June 23, 2009 by HAL9000
I'm very glad Popcon has cancelled itself out as it's about time the Music, 'industry', died here.
Report abuse »
#5
13:40 June 24, 2009 by paulwork
Well, since PopKomm was "stolen" from Cologne and moved to Berlin, I don't really have much sympathy.
Report abuse »
#6
12:48 June 25, 2009 by HAL9000
The Popkom in Koln an number of years ago provided one of the biggest laughs of my short life. A record company hired a boat to promote a new teenage punk band. They were , looked good and thought they were the Sex Pistols for some reason.

The music was bland and pretty much your standard, ?I think I?m Johnny Rotten when I piss out the window of the Hotel?, sort of stuff. The singer had considered this thought and decided to make his big splash with the public so dives into the crowd. It?s great they start acting like a human trampoline and throwing him in the air. At this point the singer thinks he has made it in life with joy of the fans swelling his soul. He looks up and sees there are more fans than he expected. In fact they are rather large fans... ventilation fans to be precise, hanging from the low roof in a boat not designed for Premadonna Punk or the likes.

Each crowd surfing wave that crashed through him brought him closer and closer to...

it was messy and no longer Punk...

Splatter Core was born.
Report abuse »
#7
23:29 June 26, 2009 by Chocky
Germans can't make pop music, they're good with electronic music, but suck at every other modern genre.
Report abuse »
#8
03:31 June 27, 2009 by Stranger
Disagree. For pop look at a band like Klee. At least that is if we make the distinction between the pop genre and "charts" music. Also Rammstein at the top of their respective industrial-metal tree. If you can't find the good in German music, you are not looking hard enough.
Report abuse »
#9
21:53 June 27, 2009 by Chocky
Don't tell me i'm not looking hard enough you wingnut. I actually know quite a lot about music, of all genres, from many different countries so if you want to have a train spotting music knowledge battle lets go. I'll kick your butt.

I didn't say I can't find any good in German music, read my post again if you have to.

German pop music is generally for two reasons: German sounds terrible when it is sung, and Germans singing English sounds generally BAD, (with the possible exception of Florian and Ralf in a few Kraftwerk songs). The other issue I have with contemporary German pop, is that they have taken the worst elements of American shite like Christina Aqualibra, Pink and Shakira and mechanically reformed it in to some hideous noise which is the aural equivalent of humous.

I'll let you get back to your Robbie Williams CD.
Report abuse »
#10
18:46 June 28, 2009 by europaeuropa
And as far as real Garage music goes (not that crappy 2 step/UK garage BS) Germany isn't even on that map. OK, so Sabrynaah Pope may have lived in Munich, but she was a New Yorker through and through...
Report abuse »
#11
23:56 June 28, 2009 by mophonic
god who cares...you guys sound so lame/or chocky, ole choc-full of himself....to combine the words music and industry gives the game away allready! an music being the universal language blows any national-based ideas out the water, other than subtext of cultural hegemony......poppkomm...popular kommerz...manufacturing culture......

everything plays a role the internet no less

the glut of bedroom based machine bleeps

drug washed out weekend tweaking

the glutton overload

the lack of silence

youth denied (an experience to enable) a voice of its own

corporate

all-devouring

death of capitalist based

economy

adrift

in pirate waters....
Report abuse »
#12
10:09 June 30, 2009 by Mark of the Beast
Germans can't make pop music, they're good with electronic music, but suck at every other modern genre.
I beg to differ: they've got a good handle on the thrash / 80's HC / power violence thing. Which, in the overall scale of music history, is rather "modern".
Report abuse »
#13
10:11 June 30, 2009 by Small Town Boy
Whether Germans can make music or not is irrelevant; Popkomm is a trade fair and, with a population of 85 million, Germany is the industry's largest market in Europe.
Report abuse »
#14
10:18 June 30, 2009 by HAL9000
I think you will find UK consumers are the biggest music buyers in the world. Population has little to do with actual buying or music tastes. Apart from all of that Popkomm is dead because the Internet is the worldwide shop window not some vain tax break once a year.
Report abuse »
#15
10:48 June 30, 2009 by dee123
god who cares...you guys sound so lame/or chocky, ole choc-full of himself...to combine the words music and industry gives the game away allready! an music being the universal language blows any national-based ideas out the water, other than subtext of cultural hegemony...poppkomm...popular kommerz...manufacturing culture...

everything plays a role the internet no less

the glut of bedroom based machine bleeps

drug washed out weekend tweaking

the glutton overload

the lack of silence

youth denied (an experience to enable) a voice of its own

corporate

all-devouring

death of capitalist based

economy

adrift

in pirate waters...
mophonic: you rawk!
Report abuse »
#16
10:52 June 30, 2009 by dee123
imho popkomm had a pretty lame line up in recent years.

theres something very un rock and roll about bands who are sponsored by the danish ministry for culture and the like.

its all far from cutting edge...
Report abuse »
#17
13:33 June 30, 2009 by Borracho
Maybe the moguls of the music industry can call on the government to give them a bailout like the banks!!! It's purely evolution or even revolution - as the people who profit most from the sales of Cd's etc. are not the artists themselves but the companies that distribute and promote. As history has taught us - the money in music as always is in concerts & gigs to which the artists gain - the sales of CDs is more beneficial to the 'record companies'.
Report abuse »
#18
00:17 July 2, 2009 by beatlebum
CHOCKY, that was legend, I totally agree with you. Berlin is a great city for electronic music, best in the world but as for alternative/indie music in Germany, it doesn't exist. Its very hard to find good alternative bars in Berlin playing anything but minimal house music, don't get me wrong I like a bit of electronica but I would love to go to some bars and hear alternative/indie, there are some good clubs playing it but you have to look hard. As for the crap German music you have to look at on tv or on the radio, it is the worst ever, I can't remember the last good German band that came out of the country except for Kraftwerk and Can, to name but a few. These days people are listening to the likes of Silbermond, Rosenstolz, Die Toten Hosen, Die Artze, etc all singing in German, so you can see how big in the world they want to make it and all are rubbish. On the other hand I think German people really want to hear good music, most of the best alternative gigs in Berlin sell out. It has often baffled me and my wife (and she is German), why German music is so bad and how come there are no German bands well known in the rest of the world, apart from Kraftwerk compared with the Uk and US who produce the most popular music in the world as a whole with the rest of us adding a band here or there.
Report abuse »
#19
10:31 July 2, 2009 by HAL9000
'there are no German bands well known in the rest of the world'

Rubbish look at Tokio Hotel.

http://www.tokiohotel.com/us/
Report abuse »
#20
12:05 July 2, 2009 by Mark of the Beast
Beatlebum ... try White Noise, the indie club nite at White Trash on Schönhauser Allee, held on Saturdays. At least, I think it's still running ...
Report abuse »
#21
19:05 July 2, 2009 by beatlebum
Cheers Mark, I'll check it out, sounds good. Did someone mention Tokia Hotel, bloody hell, talk about regurgitated crap, this has all the worse qualities of music today 'all style, no substance' and the music is dreadful... wish they'd go to Tokio (sorry Tokyo), man that so clever how they spelt Tokio, about as clever as their lyrics.
Report abuse »
#22
19:55 July 2, 2009 by Chocky
Rubbish look at Tokio Hotel.
Yeah, look at them. They should all be put on a decommissioned cross channel ferry and then used as a torpedo target by the HMS Fuckyouall.
Report abuse »
#23
08:23 July 3, 2009 by Mark of the Beast
Tokio Hotel ARE bad, there's no denying that but, they're no Modern Talking ... if you haven't heard them, you need to look up the video for 'Cherry Cherry Lady' and all will become clear.

Dieter Bohlen, that insidious, granite jawed Pop Stormtrooper needs to be tried at Nurenburg, then hanged and burned. Thomas Anders too.
Report abuse »
#24
12:32 July 3, 2009 by beatlebum
Mark, I'll give you a hand burning that pillock Dieter Bohlen, I want to cringe every time I see him on the tv and he is never off it. And thats another thing German tv is also rubbish, now that we are having a rant about how bad their music is, tv is the worst ever. It was so bad this year one of the pillars of the German entertainment industry came out and said it was some of the worst tv in the world. Now I know with my limited German a lot of it passes me by, but you just have to look at the type of programming thats on and don't get me started about the American style ad breaks. Apart from that though I still love Berlin but I do miss the odd good tv show, can't beat some of the shows on BBC or Channel 4 in the Uk.
Report abuse »
#25
08:49 July 6, 2009 by swimmer
man that so clever how they spelt Tokio, about as clever as their lyrics.
"Tokio" is the German name for the capital city of Japan (letter "y" is rarely used in German). There are many things to bash TH for but using their own language for name (when starting out as no-mark kids in Magdeburg or wherever it was) is hardly one of them, I'd have thought! They'd probably have been bashed for using an Anglicised version!

I'm quite surprised that nobody in the UK has "manufactured" a teeny-"Emo/Goth" band, TH clone, yet. It'd make a mint.
Report abuse »
#26
11:52 July 6, 2009 by HAL9000
Yes quite so and I'm not saying they are any good but they are a huge export. However I would point out a few good German pop/rock bands like, 2raumwohnung, wir sind helden and kettcar to name but a few.
Report abuse »
#27
14:39 July 13, 2009 by ouPiet
Just to add that morr music, a Berlin based record company, have signed some of Germany's sweetest sounds, like Lali Puna, and Bobby and Blum - http://www.morrmusic.com/artist

Perhaps not exactly pop as we know it, but still refreshing..
Report abuse »
#28
15:16 July 13, 2009 by MonksTown
There's some great German music out there.

t's not going to be handed to you on a plate by the music industry though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVmXgOQNtNQ...feature=related

Wir Sind Helden - Nur ein Wort

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg1cmCwwaV0

Jeans Team - Das Zelt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzHUbTohLWo

Stereo Total - Liebe zu Dritt

Another Stereo Total tune. I just saw the video for the first time, more smoking than you will ever see in a video I guess.

"Ich bin der Stricherjunge":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6jB65023Qg...feature=related
Report abuse »
#29
20:42 July 13, 2009 by beatlebum
Jeans Team sounds good, must check out some more of them, nice one Monkstown. I have some Wir Sind Helden album, they aren't too bad. My wife likes Die Fantastischen Vier, kind of German version of the Happy Mondays, not as good though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I15XSuR251c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIi7k69LG88
Report abuse »
#30
11:54 July 14, 2009 by splitradix
99 Luftballons
Report abuse »
#31
18:10 August 22, 2009 by thatcousinsboy
Some independents have set up a music festival to replace popcom details here - http://www.a-2-n.de/
Report abuse »
#32
17:48 September 2, 2009 by SKershaw
for the #2 recording city in the world behind L.A., this is a severe blow to the Berlin and German recording music scene. Wow... I wonder if a lot of travel budgets and priorities shifted in this industry and/or many labels and companies decided to only hit larger type conventions.

this event wasnt exclusive to just pop music... it was all genres and all countries (mostly european in weight) and primarily directed at new talent, concepts, etc.
Report abuse »
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