I'm back -- here's the scoop.

Hey everybody --

I'm back.

Now, I know that I said I'd update the blog at least sometime during my trip, and I really wanted to - and meant to.

It turns out that between the huge time change (9 hours), lots of lost sleep, unbelievably intense days, and the need to decompress at night and think about anything BUT what was going on during those days... well, I just didn't get the energy up to write.  I really apologize.  I'd been hoping to keep you at least a little up to date.

SO -- like I said, I'm back in L.A.  And I guess MIDEM is over, but in a way it's just started.  Because the people I met, the ideas that were hatched, the relationships begun, and the seeds planted, all of them are requiring lots and lots of followup.  Which has already started to happen today.

But first, a quick rundown of the experience:

The flight and drive to Cannes were very graceful, everything ran on time, no bags lost (I heard some stories, so I'm grateful).  I spent a good part of the flight listening to the CDs of those other artists I'd brought with me -- I needed to be super-familiar with the best tracks on each CD, in order to have the right song at the right moment to play for someone.  My hotel was cute and tiny, just about a 10 minute walk from the Palais (the same place where they have the film festival).  Big signs "WELCOME TO MIDEM" greeted me as I approached the building (last Saturday) for the first time.  I registered the day before, then spent the afternoon walking around Cannes.  Very pretty town -- like any town, it has its lovely buildings, its views, its shopping, its traffic, its trash, etc.  Whoever decided to market Cannes as a luxury mecca did an incredible job, no doubt; there are ultra-high-end shops everywhere along the coast, and some of the most beautiful hotels I've ever seen.  Not huge, particularly, like Bellagio or something; just gorgeous.  The coast has beaches and very expensive restaurants -- mostly quiet, since it was 'dead of winter' (around 40-50 degrees most of the time I was there).  The biggest crowds were in fact there for MIDEM.  The entire town apparently expects, prepares and responds eagerly to the influx of visitors that a trade show like MIDEM represents, and there are evidently many such shows throughout the year.  In fact, I noticed that during the days of MIDEM, the town had these beautiful decorative (almost Christmas-y) lights overhead throughout downtown -- really beautiful -- and the evening AFTER MIDEM ended (I'd decided to linger one extra day) the lights were not on anymore.  Clever.  

Anyway, Saturday night was honestly one of the craziest nights of sleep of my life.  Make that NO sleep.  My mind was racing with excitement and questions.  I did not know what I was in for; whether I was properly prepared; whether I had the material I needed, or for that matter material that anyone would want; how I was going to transport my bag and binder and a few CDs, etc., around the floor; what my appointments were going to feel like; what I was going to do between appointments... you get the idea.  And, add that to the jetlag that I'd thought I'd defeated with melatonin and strategy, and I did not sleep.  AT ALL.  :-)  Literally, around 5:30 AM I gave up lying in bed, and started puttering around my little hotel room getting ready.  I'd have to say that a daily highlight was breakfast... not pancakes, mind you, but BREAD.  Oh Lord, the bread was CRAZY good.  I basically turned into a big fluffy baguette during my week there (and not in a good way).  Bread with butter, croissants, fresh jelly, tea and honey... good stuff.

My first meeting came upon me early:  10:00 AM on the first day (Sunday).  I met with a very nice guy from Australia, Mike, who works at one of the (if not THE) largest distributors of spiritual/new age/inspirational material in Australia.  He had traveled something like 30 hours to get there, and it was my first morning of my first MIDEM... but it went beautifully.  I introduced myself, the work I've been doing, the success I've had, and talked about the Parliament of World Religions in Melbourne this December.  He listened to "Last Song" and "One Power", and within 20 minutes expressed interest in releasing a Daniel Nahmod CD in Australia in coordination with a tour!  I walked away, I have to say, feeling absolutely thrilled.  It was my first attempt at 'pitching' what I do for the world, and it had been received just as I'd hoped.  In fact, we'll be shipping some music samples to him this week, and continuing the discussion afterwards.  Stay tuned.

After that meeting, I started 'walking the floor'.  It was a crowded, noisy, hectic environment, filled with individual companies (labels, publishers, various marketing companies, etc.), plus "Country Pavilions".  So, for example, the U.K. rented a very large space on the floor and set up a lovely area -- front desks, meeting tables, mail slots, etc., all color coordinated and beautifully designed -- where the entire (or almost the entire) U.K. contingency was represented.  And there were pavilions for dozens of countries, some with a few companies, some with dozens (like the U.K.).

One of my many perfect-person-at-the-perfect-time experiences was at lunch that first day.  It quickly dawned on me that I had too few meetings scheduled.  Simply put, MIDEM is a MARKET -- where you sit with someone, and you say "this is what I sell/buy, what do you sell/buy" and you do business.  But the meetings are paramount... most people were scheduled wall-to-wall from first day to last with meetings.  That was a frustrating thing to realize; I certainly had been registered early enough to schedule myself that solidly, but I just didn't understand the paradigm of MIDEM until my friend Steve described it, and by that time it was too late to book up.  So sitting at lunch that first day, I found myself talking to someone from Disney in Europe.  He asked about me, and when he heard my new realization, he gave me some pivotal advice:  go to the country pavilions, and tell the host/ess what you're there to do.  They'll guide you to companies that are suitable, or share their directory of companies represented so you can find those companies yourself.  

And so I left lunch (I owe that lovely man some kind of gift; I wrote him a thank-you email yesterday) with a renewed sense of "what's next". In the next three days I approached essentially every single pavilion, read their directories carefully, dropped off dozens of CDs and bio-"1 sheets" about myself and/or whatever artist I was pitching, and made a few additional meetings happen that had, of course, not been scheduled in advance.

One of those meetings was particularly exciting:  I introduced myself to Philip, a representative of one of the most prominent and successful new age/spiritual labels in Europe.  He was hesitant to get into a prolonged discussion at first, since we had no appointment and he had no I idea who I was -- but the conversation went wonderfully, and after listening to my story and to my "reel" of samples from Water, he too expressed interest in releasing a Daniel Nahmod CD in Europe, along with setting up some performances.  Very exciting!  We're communicating already, as well, to take the next step.

Everything that happened -- and there was much more, though those were two of the highlights -- was speculative, of course.  Just the beginnings of a conversation.  Some people I met have been attending MIDEM for 20 years or more (they also noted, consistently, that attendance was WAY down for MIDEM this year -- economy?  Music industry woes?  Who knows.  I didn't mind, of course!  The perfect people were there, and the perfect people were NOT there.)  So these are relationships that began in France, not start-to-finish business deals.  I love doing business with people I sincerely like.  Generally, in fact, I stop doing business with people who don't...well, FEEL a certain way.  Kindness is my currency.  So I'd have to say that the people I met and talked with, the people who felt like 'paths of least resistance' on my first visit to MIDEM, all were people who I liked.  And I'll continue to use that gut-feeling as a guide.

Other brief bits:  I did in fact pitch those other artists that I brought, and may have drummed up some amazing opportunities for some of them!  I was particularly excited about the effect one artist had on another record label in Europe... so much so that I couldn't help but wonder, "Did I just get her a European record deal?"  My jazz CD went over really well with a couple of companies, also.  And I became clear that I can be a real resource for positive/inspirational/global/spiritual music for companies around the world -- I have the friends, the business relationships here in the U.S., the understanding of various relevant organizations, and so I made myself available to several companies for whom my services might be very helpful.  That was exciting too -- pitching myself as a one-stop-shop for great & unknown indie inspirational/'humanity' music for compilations and labels around the world.  Cool!  "Humanity Music" truly was born on this trip, and it's going to be exciting to see what kind of deals I can make, whose careers I can boost, what companies I partner with, what countries & continents I'll find myself (or other artists) on behalf of Humanity Music... SO exciting.  I have a sense of purpose and clarity and entrepeneurial mojo about the whole thing that I may have imagined before, but never fully owned.  And now it's IN me, and I'm thrilled.

My assistant Michael is hard at work right now coordinating follow-ups to the dozens of people who were introduced to all this music... I'm even adding some artists to the list of 'represented' after-the-fact, now that I've caught a glimpse of how the world music market works and what it's looking for.

It wrapped up on Wednesday, and in retrospect, I could've flown home Wednesday night.  Most companies and people had left after the third day; Wednesday was very quiet.  Now, of course, quiet isn't necessarily bad -- I mean, I had a lot of one-on-one conversations that day that I couldn't have had on a busier day.  But I was DONE on Wednesday afternoon.  My senses were overloaded, my body and mind were tired (even as my spirit and imagination were BUZZING), and I missed my home.  But I'd booked my non-changeable flight for Friday, so I spent Thursday walking the streets (and eating bread - and chocolate crepes), and went to the airport Friday for the long (and as it turned out, uncomfortable) flight home on Air France.

And so here I am.  A new idea has been born, and it's good.  And I'll take it wherever it goes, and I'll call and email those who I met, and I'll find what I'm meant to find, and grow what's meant to grow, and surrender it all.

Thank you for coming with me on my exciting little journey.  I'll blog again when there's news... this story isn't over.

Lots of love.  I'm so grateful that I had your support and interest.  It made the whole thing that much easier to know that I had a 'team' of smiles and well-wishes at my back, moving me forward.

Daniel

PS  I returned from France to find a card and a check from a family in Arizona.  The card read "Daniel, may your music and your passion inspire the world as it has inspired us."  And the check was for the entire cost of my flight to France.  I have no words.