Musikmesse Frankfurt hits the end of the road


The MIA has just received the news that The Musikmesse Frankfurt trade fair will be removed from the companies portfolio of events.

Here are two press releases directly from Musikmesse:

Musikmesse, Musikmesse Plaza and Musikmesse Festival not to be held in April 2022 – new event and festival concept being planned

The consumer trade fair formats Musikmesse Plaza and Musikmesse Festival will not be held in April 2022 owing to the current situation and the short lead time involved. Hygiene rules made planning very difficult above all for large-scale concerts by international artists, concerts in clubs and unusual locations, and music education events. The dramatic transformation in the instrument market, where over 70 percent of sales are now attributed to a small number of online retailers, has already had a very negative effect on the Musikmesse trade exhibition in recent years and is one of the factors driving the transformation from a B2B to a B2C event. In view of this, Messe Frankfurt will no longer be continuing the B2B part of the Musikmesse but instead will restructure music-related B2C formats at a later point in time.

As a specialist trade fair focusing on professionals in the event industry, Prolight + Sound is not affected by this and will take place as planned from 26 to 29 April 2022, kicking off the Frankfurt trade fair season on the Frankfurt exhibition grounds.

Stephan Kurzawski, Member of the Extended Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt: “We would very much have liked to set up a new event in April with B2C activities relating to the Musikmesse, featuring festival activities from other attractive fields within the cultural and creative sectors, but unfortunately this kind of consumer event is subject to conditions that require a longer planning period. For this reason, we are planning to restructure and expand the B2C event concept for a later point in time.”

The business-to-business section of the Musikmesse is not being continued at present. As Stephan Kurzawski explains: “The market concentration in the musical instruments business – where a small number of online retailers account for over 70% of the market in Germany and neighbouring countries alone – is changing the market and ordering behaviour significantly. This means that it is not commercially viable to organise a B2B trade fair. It has always been part of our long-term Musikmesse strategy to provide more and more content for the general public above and beyond the musical instrument business and, together with people from all over the world, to celebrate a festival of music in Frankfurt. We see formats like the Musikmesse Festival and the Musikmesse Plaza having a bright future as part of a new concept.“

In future, the focus will be on attractive offers that will increase interest among the general public in music and entertainment, that will bring people together for high-calibre concert events and that will allow people to experience the cultural diversity of the Frankfurt region.

More information is available at www.musikmesse.com

Messe Frankfurt to focus on profitable revenue drivers

Top management at Messe Frankfurt is hoping that the pandemic will end soon, allowing the company to return to its normal business activities and generate revenue.

The Messe Frankfurt Executive Board is determined to restore the company to growth as soon as possible. Wolfgang Marzin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Messe Frankfurt, explains: “To achieve this, we will be focusing entirely on profitable revenue drivers, which we will be able to operate and develop on our exhibition grounds without additional financial resources from our shareholders or other third parties.”

To this end, the management team implemented a series of complementary measures that were prepared during the months of downtime and which relate to the portfolio of events and supplementary services. For instance, Hypermotion is to be continued in a different form. The socially relevant issues relating to modern mobility concepts will be further developed as conference topics and will continue to make an important contribution to a social and specialist discourse in the future as well.

The Musikmesse Frankfurt trade fair will not be continued. This is because the structure of the market has changed so much that the event is no longer commercially viable. This does not affect the successful Music China, which contributes significant added value to the company.

Detlef Braun, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt, comments: “The consumer goods fairs have already been brought together under the motto “Home of Consumer Goods”, a concept that has met with great interest and enthusiasm both in Germany and on our international markets.

Uwe Behm, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt, added: “Our exhibition grounds are designed so that we can also accommodate two or more events at the same time if required. Beginning with Prolight + Sound, Messe Frankfurt has no fewer than 135 trade fairs, congresses and concerts lined up for 2022 in Frankfurt alone.”

Having taken the decision to streamline the portfolio and to realign elements such as the company’s media services – combined with a substantially expanded digital programme – Messe Frankfurt can now focus entirely on its profitable revenue drivers. It will step up the marketing of its digital programme, secure new guest events for Frankfurt and devote itself to the future-oriented areas of sustainability and digitalisation.

We will of course bring you more news as we receive it. 


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