’s third annual “May Is MIDI Month” event, presented in cooperation with the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA), combined a mix of webinars, online materials, and fundraising for COVID-19 relief.){kind=link}
The MIDI Association (TMA)’s third annual “May Is MIDI Month” event, presented in cooperation with the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA), combined a mix of webinars, online materials, and fundraising for COVID-19 relief. Because the MIDI Association is the community of people who work, play, and create with MIDI, “May Is MIDI Month” has taken on increased significance because of the official introduction at Winter NAMM 2020 of MIDI 2.0—a far-reaching, and important, extension to the existing MIDI standard.
According to MMA Treasurer Athan Billias, “Being an all-volunteer, non-profit organization, the revenue from our yearly fundraiser traditionally improves member services for the global MIDI Association community centered around MIDI.org, which now has over 24,000 members worldwide. But this year, with COVID-19 affecting so many musicians, we felt it crucial to donate every penny to MusiCares, and help further the Grammy Foundation’s COVID-19 relief efforts.”
TMA members exceeded the fundraising goal of $2,000. With matching funds from Art + Logic, Ableton, Audio Modeling, Bome, IK Multimedia, Melodics, Moog, Roland, Steinberg, Sweetwater, and Yamaha, “May Is MIDI Month” raised over $18,000 for COVID-19 relief.
On the educational front, hundreds of musicians attended a series of weekly webinars on MIDI 2.0, as well as a special webinar honoring the history and impact of the Moog synthesizer. Meanwhile, the midi.org site itself now offers the core MIDI 2.0 spec, as well as videos, articles, forum discussions, podcasts, and more to help musicians and artists around the world understand what MIDI brings to music and the arts.
As MMA President Craig Anderton states, “Like the original MIDI spec, once again an entire industry and community of users has joined together to advance music technology, as well as assist our fellow musicians through these difficult times.”
Membership in the TMA allows downloading MIDI specs for free, as well as other benefits. In addition, manufacturers of MIDI-related products are invited to join the MMA to help shape the future of MIDI—which in turn means helping to shape the future of music. For more information, please visit midi.org.