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
TRADE & EXPORT HOT SPOTS
www.carib-export.com51
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.comSWU Music and Arts Festival
http://site.swu.com.brPorto Musical
http://www.portomusical.com.br/en/Garden Festival
http://www.gardenfestival.com.brMIMO Festival
http://www.mimo.art.br




