Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 2016 - 2017

TRADE & EXPORT HOT SPOTS

Caribbean acts would do well to research the city of São Luís do Maranhão, which is considered the reggae and dancehall capital of Brazil.

Caribbeanuse iTunes, AmazonMusic, Spotify or other digital content providers andmost of those vendors have a presence in Brazil. Additionally, services like Deezer and Napster have entered into partnerships with local mobile phone providers to take advantage of the mobile phone penetration rate. Brazil is also renowned for its summer and year- round festivals. While Rock in Rio is still the largest festival, many others exist that present opportunities for acts in genres such as jazz, electronica and pop. Reggae has been a standard genre for the festival circuit and many big name Jamaican acts have performed throughout Brazil. During their recent tour, Jus Now noticed the strong affinity that Brazilians have for reggaemusic. “From what I heard before I even went to Brazil, the appetite for reggae in particular was very large. This was overwhelmingly confirmedwhen I went

on tour there. Reggae anddancehall lovers attended all of our gigs, with the promoters and other acts all being quite savvy to both the lingo and style of Caribbean contemporary music. To cite a very popular example, Carlinhos Brown is Brazil’s biggest male act. He has made his career through cultivating and curating a sound called ‘Samba Reggae’, which is internationally renowned.” Caribbean acts would do well to research the city of São Luís doMaranhão, which is considered the reggae and dancehall capital of Brazil. The greatest opportunity for penetration of the market comes from the desire of the Brazilian music industry to constantly evolve the sound of Brazil to make their music relevant, as evidenced by samba reggae, and baile funk. Jus Now’s opportunity to tour in Brazil was spurred by a request to remix a track for an upcoming electronic music group from Brazil, A.MA.SSA.

This collaboration exposed young Brazilians to the sound of Jus Now. With the connectivity provided by Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud and other online social platforms, emerging acts from the Caribbean have unprecedented access to their peers in Brazil which they can use to start collaborations and exchanges. Connecting to markets throughpeers allows emerging acts tofind like-minded persons who can prove to be much more relevant guides to an unfamiliar country. Utilising the national creative arts or export promotion agencies throughout the region is another avenue to enter the market. Brazil understands that in order to expand its own markets, the country needs to support its own acts entering events and festivals throughout the world. Apex Brazil and the Brazil Music and Arts Association have partnered to create Brasil Music Exchange (BMX) as a platform to identify and exploit opportunities for

Festivals In Brazil This is a list of the larger festivals in Brazil, but it is by no means exhaustive: Rock in Rio Music Festival (Almost 500 acts play on Rock Street outside the festival) http://www.rockinrio.com.br/

Tomorrowland http://www.tomorrowlandbrasil.com

SWU Music and Arts Festival http://site.swu.com.br

Porto Musical http://www.portomusical.com.br/en/

Garden Festival http://www.gardenfestival.com.br

MIMO Festival http://www.mimo.art.br

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