SUPERBOOTH16 Vs. Musikmesse 2016: A Nail In The Coffin?
I know I’m late to the party, but all the bleeps and bloops of SUPERBOOTH16 left me in a sort of euphoric, dizzy state for days.
Then came Musikmesse 2016, and that left me even more exhausted!
We will have more about some of the products we’ve seen, but in the meantime, I’d like to share with you a few thoughts about the events (from a music production/electronic music tools point of view, natch).
Were you at SUPERBOOTH and/or Musikmesse? Please leave a comment below.
3 Reasons Why SUPERBOOTH16 Was ‘Better’ Than Musikmesse 2016
- Location: Berlin IS the city when it comes to electronic music and music technology companies in Europe (despite the whole ‘Berlin is over’ spiel). The word scene, once in a while, makes complete sense here. Berlin is (still) a thriving hub of artists, companies, developers, studios, etc. SUPERBOOTH, created and organized by Schneiders Buero’s team (a reference name since years, for the whole electronic music community) is an almost inevitable consequence of all that. Sorry Frankfurt, Berlin wins hands down here.
- Economy: every company told me SUPERBOOTH and Berlin are a much more affordable option. Frankfurt (aka Dallas plus Schnitzel, quoting Chris Randall) and Musikmesse are simply too expensive and (for many) not worth it anymore. This year at Musikmesse there were very few hardware and software synth companies, and even big names like KORG and YAMAHA had a smaller ‘footprint’ compared to their glorious past. Frankfurt’s economy relies heavily on the Messe, but that business model seems obsolete. Adapt or die, right? Don’t get me wrong, there are several companies that still find their presence at Musikmesse worthwhile, but it’s clearly a descending trend.
- Community: I mentioned the word scene already, and that brings us to the feeling expressed by many of the exhibitors and visitors I have talked to. SUPERBOOTH looked more like a community event than a typical trade fair. Very few business suits and fake smiles around, just a group of people that share a passion for electronic music and instruments. One more proof that you don’t need to be at NAMM or Messe to do some healthy business.
3 Small Things That SUPERBOOTH Needs To Improve
- Space: The Funkhaus is a fascinating location, steeped in history. A welcome change from the usual, boring environment associated to trade fairs. That said, next year I would love to see bigger stands and some kind of sound isolation. At times, it was really hard to hear what was going on and talk to the people in the booths. More headphones and lower volumes, please. Needless to say, Musikmesse can count on much more space (actually, too much space, my shoes are worn out!) BUT this year in HALL 9.1 it was literally ‘loudness war’, so regarding noise, I’d say it was a tie.
- Software companies: this year SUPERBOOTH had U-he, Bitwig, Ableton, NI, MusicAppManufaktur and a few others. Considering Schneiders Buero’s hardware-focused background, I wasn’t expecting more than that. But if more software companies join next year, then the whole production/recording area of Musikmesse will be in serious trouble.
- WiFi & Food: there was no WIFi network available to bloggers/journalists (so no live updates for us this year). Also, it may seem irrelevant, but trade fairs are exhausting and SUPERBOOTH included a night program with talks and performances. Fine, except for the fact that after 8 PM or so there were no food ‘n’ drink options available in the building. At some point, I couldn’t help it but leave and whip up some midnight spaghetti at home!
Futurology: The Next 5 Years?
SUPERBOOTH was a success, and it’s clearly going to be bigger and better, with many more companies and possibly new themes/areas. Even if I believe we’re in a sort of ‘Eurorack Bubble’, this event has all the elements to become a staple of the music technology industry in the next years.
NAMM will keep being the main spot for product announcements and new releases (for mid and big-sized companies that can afford it), while I’m afraid that Musikmesse’s slow negative trend will continue.
I also believe that we will see more small-scale music technology events around the world, with a sort of ‘user group meets trade fair’ kind of vibe.
In short, more sustainability, less frills. Exciting times, albeit less ‘spectacular’ than what we were used to. I’m all for that, and you?
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About The Author
Fab
Founder & main editor here at ANR, 'non-musician' and music-tinkerer. His first keyboard was a cheesy Yamaha PSS-270. He still loves it.
Fabrizio
It was a pleasure to meet you at Superbooth!
Nice summary of the pros/cons of each event.
I was impressed by the scale and organization of Superbooth – very good for an initial show.
The noise level was a real problem in the common areas. I’d love to see an event where the organizers deal with this in an effective way.
I’d suggest that companies that can pay more should get dedicated rooms where they can crank up the monitors. Companies that are sharing a common space should bring a headphone mixer and several sets of headphones.
This would make it easier to talk and also make it easier to hear and evaluate the gear.
I hope to see you at next year’s Superbooth, if not sooner!
Thanks James, wow that was quick! Interesting feedbacks, let’s hope they find this article 🙂
All good points, I think the main issue here is noise, it really is hard to operate in such loud environments for 8hrs+ a day so I second the headphones option.
Smaller events are fine but hard for journalists to cover each one due to the expense of travel etc. There is still room for the larger event as it does enable a concentrated exposure and feeding frenzy, which generates more interest and buzz, which will be in turn sent out to the world. Its vital that network is available for journalists and indeed visitors, encouraging people to send out/tweet/instagram Facebook from the event too.
There was also a live stream from Superbooth which is an interesting idea, but not widely publicised and pretty well done as it happens.
Thank you Nick, I agree that there is still room for larger events (especially if they can provide reasonable options for smaller companies, the economy is what it is). Network/WiFi was better this year at Messe in my opinion, I’m sure SuperBooth will work on that next year.