Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 2016

AQuest from the NewWorld:

Accessing NewMarkets

and Avenues for Caribbean

Musical Acts

Within the establishedmusic industry, becoming

an internationally recognised artiste is an expensive

proposition. According to the International

Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI),

in their 2014 Investing inMusic report, the cost to

break into themainstreammarket canbe anywhere

between US$500,000 and US$2 million per

artiste. Within the Caribbean context, this can

be challenging for a number of reasons. Themajor

music labels do not have a significant presence in

the region, and theCaribbean is generally included

in the Latin America divisions that are based in

Miami, such as Sony, Universal and Warner,

and focus on content creation for the large Latin

American diaspora in the United States.

TheCaribbeanhas therefore been forced tofind its

ownavenuestopushandpromoteitsmusic. Jamaica

hasbeenthemostsuccessful,generatingoverUS$2

millionperannuminmusicexportsthroughreggae

and boasting the highest per capita studio rate in

the world. Citing data from IFPI, it is evident that

a record industry is built through investments in

indigenousacts. Forexample,inthesixlargestmusic

markets globally (Japan, Italy, Sweden, US, Brazil,

Spain), the percentage of local acts in the top ten

was over 85%. Caribbean governments and private

sectormusicindustrieshaveaconsiderableamount

of work to do when it comes to promoting and

achieving the export of music in partnership with

artistes, such as enacting local content quotas and

music-specificexportdevelopmentprogrammeslike

BrazilMusic Exchange or the BritishMusic Export

Growth Scheme. In the case of the latter, which is

administered by UK Trade and Investment and

theBritishPhonographicIndustry(BPI),theUKis

bolsteringthecompetitivenessofitsmusicexports

by investing in promotional budgets for record

labelsandacts. EventhoughtheBritishrecording

industry exported £17 billion in music in 2013,

it still sees the need to continuously develop new

actsthatarecapableofgeneratingforeignexchange

andrevenuesforthecountry.Itisstronglyadvised

that regional agencies adopt similar approaches

to spur growth in the music sector, given the

limitations of potential audiences created by the

small populations in Caribbean islands.

That said, in today’s world, there is no need

to wait on the government apparatus to

provide a solution. For the past 25 years, VP

By Shyamal Chandradathsingh

OUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE