Chiara Michieletto Sanchez-Pedreño
Reflection Paper

Summary of the project that was completed
My internship experience was participating and contributing to the overall success of the
Midem Artist Accelerator program. This program aims at detecting a select pool of
artists and having them participate in various workshops, activities and panels with high
level industry executives, as well as allowing them to perform at the Midem by night
festival. This year we had 11 acts selected from a pool of 622 applicants. My position in
the program required me to be part of the selection and organisation process of the
event, from November up until the event in June.

The project therefore involved various roles, ranging from organisational planning skills,
A&R selection, detection of potential projects, contacting key people to involve them in
the project particularly potential members of the committee and potential talent for the
program.

The internship involved me quite significantly on the live side of the business, as I was
in charge of managing the ticket distribution for the night shows. The shows were
divided across two stages: one dedicated to the artists from the Accelerator Program
and the other to international artists from all over the world such as: Dream Wife, Jake
Isaac, Public Service Broadcasting, Miss Garisson and de Monaco, Lola Marsh,
Sliscobars and Mongoose, The Mixer, The Chairman and DJ Question Mark.

Results: how the project did and did not align with expectations
My expectations for this project were mostly met, if not exceeded. I believed it was
going to be a lot of work but that I was also going to acquire many new skills and both of
these expectations were met. I did have to spend a lot of hours on this project, all
throughout the year, starting in November until June.
The tasks that perhaps required the most hours spent on were the reviewing of artist
applications, as well as researching and contacting potential talent for the program.

Perhaps an element that did not align with my expectations was the communication with
my manager on the project. This didn’t pose a problem as we would email frequently
and that was sufficient, but my expectation going into the project was that we would
have more Skype/visual sessions, particularly weekly catch ups. Again, this way was
actually the most efficient way of carrying out the communication, as the work was
concentrated across several weeks and quite scattered across others, so a weekly
meeting would have been quite redundant.

This was also another surprising element arising from the internship. I was expecting
work to be a lot more flowing and spread out across various months, however this
project required very intensive, urgent work in some instances and more spread out
tasks in others. This made the overall experience much more intensive, and was also

reflected during the Midem event 6-9th June, where in some instances urgent matters
seemed to converge all at once.

Plan of action/process: where project met expectations and where
it needed to be revised during execution
In the preparatory section of the Accelerator Program, particularly during the application
process, we had to redefine quite a few aspects of it as it was happening, due to the
volume of submissions we were receiving particularly at when nearing the deadline.
Since so many good applications were coming in late/last minute, we decided to extend
the submissions deadline by keeping the link activated for an extra week. We didn’t
advertise this on any channel, we just kept it open to share amongst our network of
contacts.

During the course of the Midem Artist Accelerator program, most of the revision and
updating of the plan, came from and occurred during the actual event, where we had to
revise and reassess the planning, particularly in order to adjust for upcoming interviews
and meetings scheduled by the artists and their teams. Particular issues came out when
planning the one to one sessions between the artists and the mentors. We had to
accommodate for both the schedules of the artists as well as those of the mentors and
the artists’ teams. This was a lot more challenging than what it seems, with more than
one last minute cancellations.

Next steps: if the project were to continue, what would the next
phase entail?
I believe that the Accelerator Program should definitely grow next year. I have received
a lot of feedback from the general Midem conference and the general consensus
seemed to be that the accelerator program was one of the best parts of the whole
event, especially when paired with the Midem by Night festival. There should be more
artists in the accelerator program next year and more shows put on the Midem Festival.
Also an ignored source of revenue up until now has been the sale of festival tickets. It
would definitely be a challenge to have consumers paying since the festival has been
for free thus far, however I believe they would definitely pay a small contribution, and
even more if the festival was bigger and lasted longer.

I would absolutely advise Midem to see this as a direction they should be moving in, as
most competing conferences and events such as The Great Escape, Reeperbahn,
By:Larm, Sonar, Primavera Sound, almost any music industry conference has a big and
popular live emphasis. Most of these conferences actually mostly market themselves on
the live music portion of the event, and it is perhaps the portion that generates the most
revenue for many of them. If competitors are putting so much importance and relying so
much on the live side, why isn’t Midem?

Contribution to the discipline and profession
This internship position has definitely helped me develop and acquire new analytical
and critical A&R skills. This mainly arose from the task of reviewing the artists’
submissions.
In the preparation to the event, I was able to learn how to efficiently and thoroughly
organise, schedule and prepare such an event as well as how to work in a team
remotely and how to organise communication efficiently.

In terms of contribution to my profession, in addition to the skills I was able to acquire
and develop, I was also able to make quite solid professional connections in the
industry, and have leveraged these already at my job at Music Ally, as well as helping
me perpetrate the brand and our mission. I also believe a very important factor in Music
Ally’s decision to hire me was that I had the Midem Accelerator program on my CV, a
valuable powerful brand to have worked for.
Furthermore the professionalism and social skills the accelerator program allowed me to
develop have also helped me in my current endeavours dealing with and speaking to
people in the music industry.

Impact on the student completing the work
All in all, working for the Midem Artist Accelerator program was an enriching experience,
both personally and professionally and I definitely would recommend to continue and
even extend the relationship Berklee has with Midem and particularly this program, as it
is very active and interesting and definitely a great way of meeting a lot of people
working in the industry.
This includes particularly artists and their teams (artist managers, booking agents,
touring companies). Also from the committee side as well there is a lot of opportunity of
meeting high level industry executives from all around the world.