Musexpo delivers fruitful forum for music chiefs.

As the music and media conference swung into London last week, the first time it has taken place in Europe, music industry insiders embraced an air of cautious optimism, focusing on exploring new revenue streams from digital

By Ben Cardew

The inaugural Musexpo Europe conference may have sounded at times like one great mea culpa on behalf of the music industry but there remains considerable cause for optimism in the business nonetheless, according to the event's panellists.

The event took place over three days last week at the Cumberland Hotel in London, marking the first time that Los Angeles-based international music, media, technology and entertainment forum has taken place outside of the US.

Musexpo founder Sat Bisla told Music Week in the run-up to the event that the focus would be on "offering solutions" and, with a high level of executives taking part on panels, this was largely born out. What is more, despite the event coming at a near-unparalleled time of economic misery, a spirit of cautious optimism was in the air.

Sony BMG chairman and chief executive Ged Doherty, who sat on last Tuesday's opening global keynote panel, predicted that profits would be up again at the major this year, "because we are engaging our catalogue, breaking new acts and adopting new business models", while Universal commercial director Brian Rose revealed that album sales have grown 1.5% this year at Universal.

But the focus at Musexpo was largely on new revenue models in the digital age and the possibilities they offer the ailing music industry. EA Games worldwide executive of music and marketing Steve Schnur, also on the keynote panel, said that the future for the music industry was very bright, highlighting the opportunities created by "micro transactions" - selling continuously to people via the internet as they play video games at home.