NATPE adding music industry track to Miami

NATPE will have a new dedicated music industry track at its Miami event in January. The industry group said NATPE Music will have a-list artists, publishers and executives and examine the areas where the TV and music businesses meet.

The new track will run for the duration of the Miami event, which will again take place in the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, between January 17 and 19. Singer/songwriter Paul Williams (We’ve Only Just Begun) will headline the new NATPE Music track.

“There will be songwriters, composers, publishers and it will be about how to navigate the related worlds of music and TV,” NATPE boss JP Bommel told TBI.

The US not for profit industry group has rebranded and is upping the ante for Miami 2017. “We want new players there as well as those from our core business,” Bommel said. “It about providing a platform for new business, relationships and networks.”

The NATPE Music initiative will sit alongside two other new tracks for Miami, NATPE Scripted and the NATPE Station Group Summit.

The drama events and programme will be headlined by Lionsgate’s TV boss Kevin Beggs who will be in conversation with Matt Jacobson, head of market development at Facebook.

The Station Group Summit will examine the latest news and trends from the numerous local stations in the US with Hearst-Argyle Television programming VP Emerson Coleman, and Tribune Media programming and acquisitions chief Sean Compton, curating.

The new music, scripted and stations tracks will sit alongside the existing NATPE Brands & Advertising, NATPE Reality, NATPE Platforms and NATPE Global parts of the event.

The Miami event is the biggest annual get-together for the international TV industry after the MIP and MIPCOM events, attracting about 5,000 execs. About half of those come from the US, with Lat-Am accounting for 21% and Europe 18%.