So, MIDEM's biggest celebrity booking on the conference side, Mr Pharrell Williams, reckons the internet age has seriously empowered artists, meaning his advice for new talent is this: set up a great website, hold on to your copyrights, and then get all synced up and chase the marketing man's pound.

Asked by the BBC at the Cannes convention this weekend what he would do if he was starting out as an artist in 2010, Williams said: "I would probably build a site, a home for my music, a destination where people could come and see me and what I do and what I'm thinking about. And then I'd probably assemble a team of kids that would go and bug the hell out of advertising agencies and marketing companies to use my music".

While he conceded a major label deal, and the money it delivers, still has an important part to play in launching many artist' careers, he said that new talent should consider approaching advertising and marketing agencies as much as traditional music companies. He told the Beeb: "I would want to establish myself and show the world that I have interesting music, but I would create that world. The more dimension that you give your music and your website, the more creative it becomes".

Williams was one of three big name artists appearing at MIDEM this year to basically speak out in support of the file-sharing community, despite many on the label and management sides of the industry being more hardline than ever about the evilness of the file-sharers.

As previously reported, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien said in a video message to the conference that he had a problem with those who say file-sharing is killing the industry, arguing that file-sharers pump money into the business through ticket and merchandise purchases. Williams, meanwhile, said he thought of file-sharing networks as a bit preview service for music fans. He mused: "I think it's cool that people [can] test [music] out. I think that's a good thing".

Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz, speaking about fan engagement, didn't deal with the file-sharing issue quite so head on, but implied that he saw file-sharing communities as another tool through which artists can develop their fan relationships, which will in turn pay dividends. According to the BBC, he told the conference: "To me, the more the fan is interacting with you and feels part of the community, the more interested they will be in buying your music or coming out to your shows".

He continued: "I think it's a great time to be in music, and a horrible time to be in music, because a lot of things can go wrong. But it's kind of the wild west, and as long as you've got a pistol and you're ready to shoot somebody, it's going to be OK".

Talking of fan engagement and artist empowerment, artist manager Mark Wood of Radius Music made an interesting point in another session, when the conversation moved to the role of Twitter.

Referencing one of his artists, Imogen Heap, he said Twitter was a great tool for artists in that it gives them a real connection to and insight of their fanbase, which enables them to make better choices when entering into business relationships with labels, merchandisers or marketing partners.

According to Billboard, Wood observed: "[Thanks to Twitter] Imogen's more in tune with her fans than I am. You can't pull the wool over her eyes (not that I ever would) about a t-shirt design or something, because she's already polled it and 5,000 people have said they don't like it".