Cuban music industry from a young point of view

Currently, the strength of commercialization in the music industry is in the digital sphere, but on this island the characteristics of consumption continue to show disparity. There is a public that needs physical access to the production -the support it can acquire-, and another that is already in line with the electronic access platforms that operate in the country and internationally. According to statistics offered by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in 2021 and published by The Jiribilla89% of the music listening in the world is done through streamingThe use of this service by users between 35 and 64 years of age is increasing. Therefore, it is a priority for the Cuban music industry to expand all areas of the production chain. Musical creation has different paths, ranging from live performance and phonographic production to synchronization, the musicalization of audiovisual works and commercialization. on-line. Strengthening production, promotion and distribution capacities in each province, reversing the existing technological obsolescence and expanding access to technologies are indispensable premises for the Cuban music industry to develop and respond to the potential and value of the work of its creators.

In this exchange with Gretel Garlobo, coordinator of the Music Industry Workshop, held during the months of July and August in coordination with the AHS, we can learn more about how this type of experience, focused on advising new players who are starting out in the world of management, production, communication, communication, marketing and marketing, can be used to help them to develop their skills in the music industry. management and creation can make a difference.

Photo courtesy of the AHS Communications Department and workshop participants.

How did the idea of doing the workshop come up, was it a commission or a pending matter?  

It is a pending issue. In Cuba there are no spaces for professionalization in the music industry and all of us who are involved have been formed by experience, meetings and workshops. I remember in 2015 the first edition of America for its Music (AMPM), [in which] each meeting was focused on different topics of the industry and it was an extremely valuable space to know and understand this environment. That for me was a before and after in relation to working with musicians, record labels, festivals.

In previous years there have been educational spaces on the industry at ISA, EGREM, the Longina Festival in Santa Clara, and Cubadisco itself, where the subject has been addressed with a formative approach. Two years ago I was asked to make a summary of the lectures given during Primera Línea (2021), in its edition on-lineto put together a practical, accessible manual on the music industry. But with the speed of the times, the formats in which content is consumed today, [that idea] has evolved in the program I propose for these workshops in the Salón de Mayo of the Pabellón Cuba.

This was agreed by the Music Commission at the 4th Congress of the AHS held in 2023. With the existence at the ISA of the cultural management career where industry issues have been addressed, and by the ICM and the AHS, the proposal arises to conduct a group of workshops in the summer, which were taught during seven meetings, each dedicated to a topic related to the industry such as history, from the printing press to artificial intelligence; the artist and his relationship with the industry, the multiple roles in the current context, key figures in relation to the artist; the value of forming teams to fight for the commercial framework in an effective way; tools to develop short, medium and long term strategies that can be viable for an artist in an emerging process or growing his career to reach a certain type of audience; the relationship with the audience from digital social networks and their language; copyright from the legality and its core points in certain areas, the institutions that respond to that, marketing within the music industry and live music.

Photo courtesy of the AHS Communications Department and workshop participants.

What was new and relevant about the workshop?

We are in a time of many transformations in all areas that have a strong impact on the career of an artist and it is increasingly urgent the existence of training spaces for the emergence of consolidated, legalized roles, which are a fundamental part of the industry; so the workshop provokes and seeks that, and that beyond the artists, their team comes out strengthened. Therefore, in each meeting exercises and reference materials were left to continue deepening in each of the topics, with the hope that the knowledge can be socialized systematically in other spaces where the music industry is a topic to be addressed from the various specializations; and thus promote the existence of small creative groups, the registration of the music creator that allows the legal existence of these roles without relying on companies and institutions, saturated catalogs that allow proper management. Hence the importance of training to be able to practice.

Photo courtesy of the AHS Communications Department and workshop participants.

Who participated, what were the sub-themes and what conclusions have you been able to reach in these meetings?

Guests at the sessions were Christopher SimpsonDarsi Fernández, who has been a top cultural manager, shared an update on copyright from her approach as a lawyer and specialist in the field to understand the legal mechanisms; Yunier Morales, an economist by training but with experience as head of the digital commerce group at Egrem and in the communication and marketing teams of the Eyeife Festival. Mayvic Delgado, who addressed in a very interesting session the marketing within the music industry and other [guests] such as sound engineers who shared topics related to live music.

The meeting on the role of the artist and his team, despite being a very broad topic, was a meeting in which participants took away a fairly comprehensive notion of what the industry is; with elements that will allow them to face their personal projects and understand the environment with all its complexities, challenges and opportunities.

Photo courtesy of the AHS Communications Department and workshop participants.

How do you assess the current state of the Cuban music industry in the technological context in which the world is moving?

The Cuban music industry is a utopia, because there are many basic elements at the structural level, payment flow, technologies, which do not allow the existence of a music industry because it is very disjointed. However, musical styles, creators and genres have been connected in certain commercialization circuits in spite of all these aforementioned limitations, and have managed to be sustainable.

A case of success today is the cast, at the time was the reggaeton and urban music of this type of sonority, such as urban pop, which have managed to have a domestic market that supports both intentions and interests of international promoters who have achieved their development inside and outside Cuba, in standard platforms, and this has allowed them to have a high level of consumption, which is a very strong impact for the musical culture on the island.

Not all types of music enjoy this privilege, nor do they have structures in place that allow them to be sustainable. Whether artists can make a living from their music is conditioned by specific factors such as how good their work is, both in terms of authorship and recorded recordings; the management of the label they represent, whether they move music internationally and whether they can generate income from these concepts. There are cases in jazz, alternative music such as Cimafunk, in popular dance music such as Los Van Van and Havana D'Primera, among others, that tour with concerts outside Cuba with an important presence not only in the national territory. However, it is much more important that there are structures that allow artists to make a living from music and not by way of subsidies, but that they can earn for their talent, for what they work for.

Others have managed to fulfill some purposes in their careers without being famous or popular, but meeting the requirements, roughly speaking, to be success stories; but it is not the majority. The ideal is that institutional or independent sectors come together to build all the bases of what should be the music industry in Cuba.

The fact of being aware of where we are, of our potentialities and difficulties, far from being pessimism, is an opportunity. Although there are many tools that are not there today, they may be there tomorrow, but if we are not prepared with a notion of the correct use of them, we do nothing.

The Internet came very late to Cuba, and [for] many artists with valuable careers, their presence in digital social networks is less than it could ever be in reality.

The important thing is to know that this virtual scenario exists and is constantly changing.

Photo courtesy of the AHS Communications Department and workshop participants.

After the pandemic there has been a very big change in the industry, a transformation in all senses and digitalization has reached another level; and with the irruption now of artificial intelligence we do not know what the immediate future will bring. While that happens with the knowledge of these technical-artistic resources, lines that develop a Cuban artist may be possible.

However, Latin and national artists are reaching circuits that they did not reach before, which turns this phenomenon into a gap for the Cuban music industry. That's why we have to be constantly alert and open, being informed about where the industry is going and applying them to the Cuban context in order to grow and improve.

My hope is that the spaces for the professionalization of the music industry will multiply and that these workshops can contribute to this, that they can be a valuable contribution.