MIDEM SPEAKERS GET IT: MUSIC MUST BE PORTABLE

The Hollywood Reporters writes from MIDEM that, "Music must not only be protected but also made easier for consumers to move around and enjoy if the digital world is to succeed, speakers at the MidemNet conference leading into the annual Midem music market agreed Saturday. "Right now, it’s more of an iPod revolution than a digital music revolution," said keynote speaker Mike Conte, Microsoft’s MSN Marketplaces general manager and head of MSN Music. "But even the most optimistic reckonings say the digital music space is 2% of music right now. It’s important to grow this market together." New International Federation of the Phonographic Industry chairman and CEO John Kennedy, in his first speech at Midem since succeeding Jay Berman, said that iPod should get credit for helping the music industry recover in 2004, but he said the biz would not turn the corner until 2006. "If 2006 is to be the year the suffering ends, then governments and ISPs must start the work now," Kennedy said. "Interoperability, especially, has to be addressed."