BERLIN (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Popkomm, the annual music convention held in Germany for 23 years, will not be making a return.
First held in Düsseldorf in 1989, the first Popkomm focused on indie artists but the following year, when the event moved to Cologne, and then Berlin in 2004, the convention garnered an international catchet as a leading industry confab.
However, as the music industry underwent retrenchment in the face of technology, Popkomm had trouble maintaining revenue. The event went on hiatus in 2009 and despite a brief return in 2010 has been replaced by Berlin Music Week.
"Popkomm was already dead before it moved from Cologne to Berlin in 2004 because by then the music business was already having structural problems,” music publisher Prof. Dr. Rolf Buddle told Billboard.
"The concept of Popkomm was too broad and superficial to overcome. As a platform you have to be more specific," Edel Records general manager Bernd Hocke added. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
