Welcome to the nicest music tradeshow on Earth

12th Edition, Portugal, 26 - 29 September, 2023

UPDATE: Registration is closed.

That's it. It's no longer possible to register. PopMid 2023 is full. If you missed the opportunity, please consider attending next year.

For those attending this year; we are looking forward to meeting you!

PopMid 2022 was a tremendous success and we're looking to make it even better in 2023!

With ever more companies and representatives attending and more business being done, PopMid goes from strength to strength each consecutive year. Add in our famous relaxed atmosphere and we can safely say that the 2022 anniversary edition was the best ever. We are pretty confident that the 2023 edition will be better still.

With almost 200 people attending and all hotel rooms filled, attendance was the highest ever.

Although packed to the brim, PopMid has never felt overcrowded. The newly renovated lobby played a big role in maintaining a quiet atmosphere.

The private gazebos are very popular. They will return in 2023, but are already fully booked.

A nice impression of PopMid 2022. Click here to download all photos taken during the event by the talented Garrett Walsh, Algarve Photography.

What is PopMid actually about?

PopMid is a Music Industry tradeshow with a twist. It has no specific focus or theme and hosts the entire industry spectrum, from physical sales and distribution, content creation, management and licensing, consultancy, to digital services, distribution and promotion.

PopMid is a small-scale and not-for-profit gathering for professionals in the music industry.

Frequented mostly by physical distribution businesses, PopMid really is trade-agnostic; anyone within the entire scope of the industry is more than welcome to come and do business. The compact location and holiday-esque atmosphere make for a pleasurable experience; doing business and meeting peers in the most relaxed way possible. Despite the quiet proceedings and low-key outlook, you get many of the perks of the big tradeshows without any of the drawbacks, at a fraction of the cost.

PopMid is by far the cheapest music industry tradeshow you can attend. We have no incentive to make money from our visitors.

Attendance
Lodging

Company

€200 /Company

Includes:
Company account plus Attendance of 1 person for the entire duration of PopMid
Optional transfer from the airport
Mandatory hotel reservation (see prices for lodging)

Extra attendees

€50 /person

Includes:
Attendance of an extra professional under the company account for the entire duration of PopMid
Optional transfer from the airport
Mandatory hotel reservation (see prices for lodging)

Leisure attendance

€25 /person

Includes:
Attendance of a non-professional (spouses, children), accompanying professional attendees
Optional transfer from the airport
Mandatory hotel reservation (see prices for lodging)

Hotel room

€109 /night

Includes:
Up to two person stay in a spacious 4-star room at the tradeshow grounds, mandatorily coupled to attendance.
Breakfast up to 2 persons

Secondary hotels

€N/A /night

Due to difficulties securing deals with surrounding hotels against favorable conditions, we cannot offer hotel stays outside of the Aquashow Parkhotel.

No hotel stay

€200 once

Entrance fee to the tradeshow grounds if you are not staying in the Aquashow Parkhotel. Please note that this fee is in addition to the registration costs of your company and people.

Who?

The heart and soul of PopMid is Frank van Vliet, a music entrepeneur from The Netherlands. Observing a need amongst his peers for a cheaper and more cheerful music industry tradeshow, he planted - along with some of his fellows - a seed called Sol Musica in Alicante (Spain). This idea would later be expanded into the first PopMid in 2012. Nine years after the first edition, PopMid is now recognized as a force to be reckoned with. Frank receives a lot of assistance from his partner and co-host, Margot Steenman and some further assistance from Ronald Eekhoff and Eric van Oort at The Source (a digital music distribution company from The Netherlands), who also provide the technical backbone of the operation. Locally in Portugal, Frank gets help from music entrepeneur Abilio Silva.

A lovely place...

PopMid takes place at hotel-resort "Aquashow Park Hotel" in Quarteira, Portugal. Not far from international airport Faro and very close to tourist hotspots Vilamoura and Albufeira, it is located centrally in the lovely Algarve region along the Atlantic coast in the South.

Address: Aquashow Park Hotel Quarteira, Semino, Estrada Nacional 396, 8125-303 Quarteira, Portugal

The hotel grounds are the tradeshow floor! No booths. Just pick a table somewhere in the large outside area by the pool, display your promotional material and sit down with your clients or business partners. There's plenty of nooks and crannies inside as well. Quietly meeting at a table in the restaurant or at the busy outdoors bar. Or rent one of the private gazebos (available again from 2022 onwards).

Creating new bonds

Thanks to the leisurely pace in which things take place at PopMid, the sun, the fantastic food and drinks, the friendly locals and the lovely surroundings, you will inevitably be in a bit of a holiday mindset when you're here. While there's plenty of good business being done and there's real work involved, you can't help but feel great and make new friends. In fact, you will be welcomed to become part of the intimate PopMid gang that's going back ten years now!

Yes, attending PopMid is primarily for business, but we'd be surprised if you didn't walk away with a couple of new friendly business partners or even real solid firendships alongside some proper deals!

Making sure your needs are met

PopMid has no booths, let alone a traditional tradeshow set-up. Taking place at the outdoor pool, courtyard, bar and lobby areas of a mid-sized resort hotel, we do things differently by keeping a more fluid floor plan. This allows people to mingle a bit more easily and encourages chance meetings and coincidences in a friendly haphazard way. To make sure you still have lots of opportunity and space to set-up meetings, display your merchandize and enjoy some privacy when needed, there are plenty of options to claim your own bit of tradeshow real-estate.

Normally, we'd have nine private gazebos/party tents available for rent. The cost for the whole duration of PopMid is 500€. These will definitely come back in 2023, but are already fully booked...

The old lobby has been significantly increased in size and completely overhauled. Just pick a comfy couch or a free table and meet your business partners there.

The newly renovated restaurant offers massive seating and can be freely used at most hours during PopMid, as a private, quiet and airconditioned space to meet your clients.

Great Services

Free Transfers

Transfers to and from Faro airport and/or Loulé train station are free of charge. You can book your transfers via your personal page in the registration section after you've registered your attendance. Please note that transfers are not available between airport, your hotel and the PopMid location (Aquashow Parkhotel) if you decide to stay elsewhere.

Free Connectivity

Broadband Wi-Fi is freely available everywhere on the hotel grounds, including the hotel rooms (which also have a UTP connection for extra bandwidth). Power outlets are sprinkled throughout the place (except some of the outside areas) and are free to use. Keep in mind that you may need convertors to euro connectors and that the voltage is European standard as well (230 Volts, 50Hz).

PopMid is everything music

PopMid oozes music. Everybody in the music industry is welcome. From the smallest indie label to the largest distributor. Digital aggregators, transport companies, legal firms specializing in music industry consultancy, content owners, rights holders and internet music platforms. From physical product, vinyl, CDs and even cassette tapes, to digital audio and video content, band and brand merchandize. You have a need? There's always someone attending PopMid to fullfill it!

Join Our Quest

More and more companies decide to sponsor us. Our sponsors are indispensable; without them PopMid would not be possible! So, if you're contemplating supporting us: THANK YOU! Please make sure to tick the sponsoring checkbox when you register. For the relatively small outlay of 250€ you receive a number of perks:

Visibility: your branding and link on this website and on a banner at the tradeshow
Your story: your company's introduction and logo in the PopMid Guide (the guide will be a limited virtual version this year)
VIP treatment: first dibs on an onsite hotel room for next year

Or... Become a Friend of PopMid

Some of our attendees have been asking if they can make a donation above and beyond sponsoring. As humbling and heartwarming as that offer is, we were initially reluctant, as it encroaches a bit on the phylosophy of the cheapness and cheerfulness of our little tradeshow. However, after some tenacity on the part of these lovely people offering financial support, and some dliberation on our side, we decided to establish the VIP status of "Friend of PopMid" in exchange for substantial financial support.

For a donation of 500€ or more, you receive basically no extra perks, other than lots of karma, our eternal gratitude and the recognition that you substantially contributed to the democratization of the music industry.

Jokes aside, of course we will make sure your contribution will not go unnoticed and we will highlight your brand on the various graphical displays online and on location.

If you are interested in this, thank you, thank you, thank you! Please contact us for more info.

Friends

The following companies help us organize PopMid and keep it affordable for everyone:

Get In Touch

If you have any questions or remarks, please fill-in this form and hit SEND. We will get back to you super quick!

Address

Wagenmakerstraat 5
2984BD Ridderkerk
The Netherlands

Email

info@popmid.eu