Popkomm’s annual ‘Innovation in Music and Entertainment Awards’

With a goal of providing a global showcase for the best new business ideas, the brightest entrepreneurs and the hottest startups in the music, media and entertainment technology sectors, the ‘Innovation in Music and Entertainment ’ (IMEA Awards) held at international music and entertainment business show Popkomm have never been more interesting or relevant. The fourteen finalists for the Popkomm-IMEA Awards, which will be conducted on the first day of Popkomm 2005 in Berlin on September 14th, include a stunning array of digital entertainment ideas and initiatives.

Due to the breadth and diversity of applications received, the judges took the decision to expand the categories from three to four, with another additional category for 'B2B services in Digital Music'. "It was a difficult process to whittle the applications down to 14 finalists as this year's quality of submissions was extremely high and a lot of extremely innovative new companies and products came forth," commented Gerd Leonhard, author of 'The Future of Music' and Chairman / Executive Producer of the annual Popkomm-IMEA Awards.

"The jury believes that the contestants we have short-listed may very well end up being significant players in the development of the music and media industries going forward; however there were many more ideas that could not be considered but which still had a lot of merit. We want to thank everyone for applying, and wish them every success."

"Now that we have the finalists I am very excited to see them presenting their ideas. It will be an event full of innovations that nobody interested in the future of music should miss," says Katja Bittner -Director of Popkomm.

THE FINALISTS

A) BUSINESS TO BUSINESS SERVICE PROVIDERS (MUSIC INDUSTRY)

LABELTOOLS - labeltools has developed a unique promotion software solution for the music industry called "iPool". In contrast to the conventional expensive and cumbersome promo distribution process of sending CDs in the post, labeltools' innovative software package enables record companies and music promotion agencies to supply their music to DJs, radio stations, journalists, licensees and online shops throughout the world efficiently and conveniently.

POLYPHONIC HMI - Using artificial intelligence and spectral deconvolution algorithms, Polyphonic HMI is able to analyze the underlying mathematical patterns in music. This led to the discovery that most hit songs conform to a large but limited number of mathematical patterns. Subsequently, Polyphonic HMI has begun working with major and independent music labels to maximise the potential of their releases and minimise risks. Additionally, it has been able to isolate and measure the mathematical patterns of a person's personal music taste, making music recommendation and discovery more insightful and exciting than ever before. By extrapolating this method, it has developed a way to profile the taste patterns of entire audiences and have introduced a tool that is helping radio program directors keep their listeners more engaged and entertained.

POTATOSYSTEM - The PotatoSystem is an innovative and flexible alternative for artists, labels and music portals to promote, market and sell music on the web, and it provides an alternative approach to "hard" Digital Rights Management systems. The basic idea is to pass on copy protection and to motivate users with a commission model to buy music and act as a reseller.

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