FRANCE – The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has announced a host of influential music moguls, artists and labels who will take part at the newly launched Lions Entertainment in Cannes this June.
“We’ve welcomed music stars to Cannes Lions for many years now and in fact, we have just confirmed Iggy Pop and Falz as joining the line-up. But what we’re doing with Lions Entertainment is something different, more targeted and borne from the campaigning of the music industry itself,” said Philip Thomas, CEO, Lions Festivals.
“More than ever, music is playing a significant role in the creative process,” continued Thomas. “We want to bring the talent together with the content creators, marketers and entertainment companies so that together they can define the future and focus on creating outstanding creative work together.”
Shazam will be on stage to talk about the creative role of music agencies as well as the increasing demand for music data tools to measure the success of an artist, while YouTube’s VP of content partnerships, Kelly Merryman, will argue that despite concerns about technology undermining artistic quality, the new media revolution is actually fuelling a creative boom.
Together with Jingle Punks’ Jared Gutstadt, Grammy-winning super producer Timbaland will reveal how they are turning the music and advertising industry on their heads. Speaking ahead of the Festival, Timbaland said, “The changing music model is one of the hottest topics in entertainment today, so Cannes feels like the perfect arena to spark real conversations around its evolution with some of the greatest minds in the industry. I’m excited to share how I’m working with Jingle Punks to change the game and reshape the existing model to completely disrupt how brands and artists collaborate. Jingle Jared and I share the same vision. We are here to take over. This is the way of the future.”
Other names include Vivendi’s recently appointed CMO, Lucien Boyer, Sony’s vice president of strategy, Fred Bolza and one of the most successful electronic musicians in history, Steve Angello (formerly of Swedish House Mafia). Saavn, the leading Indian music streaming platform, have also just been confirmed, as has Gilles Peterson, the international club DJ, curator and music producer.
Elsewhere at the Festival, Spotify and Pandora will be presenting a number of Breakthrough Music Talent Showcases, which will spotlight a range of genres and put the best of the world’s emerging artists on stage. An agency will also unveil the results of their secret experiment to try and launch a band, just using media and with no record label involvement, complete with a performance from the band.
All delegates attending Lions Entertainment have access to the full two days of content and networking events, as well as the official Awards Ceremony and After Party. The Festival takes place from 23-24 June and passes can be purchased from www.canneslions.com/lions_entertainment/.
