New Lions for Music event unveiled as part of the Cannes Lions

The Cannes Lions festival is fast becoming the one of the hottest events being held at the Palais Des Festivals. 

The event changed its name to “International Festival of Creativity” from “International Advertising Festival” to highlight the shift from its original advertising focus to an all-encompassing creativity angle that takes in brands, video production, music, technology and more. 

The festival has now unveiled a new music-specific event called Lions for Music, taking place on the 23rd and 24th of June together with Lions Entertainment. This places it towards the tail-end of the Lions week which will run from the 18th to the 25th of June (a real marathon of an event). 

The music event will have its own awards and a separate two-day pass will be available to those who are not interested in the rest of the Lions events. 

Although the focus will continue to be primarily advertising, which means a lot of sync talk, the event could pose a threat to MIDEM, the music industry event taking place earlier that month at the Palais. 

Even though MIDEM will clearly continue to be an important appointment for those interested primarily in music, those delegates straddling both worlds and who traditionally attend both MIDEM and the Cannes Lions may start to think whether they really need to attend both conferences, given that the Cannes Lions offers a broader set of business opportunities in a concentrated time window. 

Regardless, as brand partnerships and sync deals become an essential part of record labels’ revenues, expect music executives to flock to Lions for Music in search of the next big deal.

 

(Andrea Leonelli)