Forever bemoaning the scourge of copyright infringement and the limited legitimate marketing outlets for their work, Caribbean musicians are expected to pay keen interest in a project being undertaken by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) aimed at determining the feasibility of the creation of a private sector-driven Caribbean music platform to market online music in an effort to increase earnings to the sector.
The Bank will reportedly be putting up most of the funding which is aimed at determining the value of music produced in the region and the efficacy of creating the platform.
Most of the popular music-streaming and online pay sites including Spotify and Amazon are not legally available to the Caribbean, a circumstance that denies the region access to the largest online music stores.
Last week, the CDB’s Board approved a grant intended to support the digitalization of Caribbean music, a development that will better position the product to secure online access.
Miriam Williams
It is widely recognized in the region that with the global shift towards digital music distribution the regional music industry has been effectively left behind, unable to achieve the levels of sales success afforded First World musicians. CDB Director of Projects Daniel Best says that the Bank believes its undertaking has the potential “to transform the regional music industry” and that such transformation “could set many Caribbean nations on a path to sustainable economic growth and competitiveness.” The advent of digital music platforms has largely denied Caribbean musicians access to royalties from music sales. In countries like Guyana musicians are held hostage to high levels of piracy while infrastructure that is essential for a breakthrough in digital music distribution including major regional record labels, music publishers and distributors remains weak and underdeveloped.
The CDB grant will fund a feasibility study to determine the viability of establishing a regional distribution platform for the Caribbean music sector. The study will determine the actual and potential size of the regional music and digital music markets, and the position of the Caribbean, compared to global content providers. The study will also consider the legislative, infrastructural, and regulatory requirements for creating a digital music distribution platform.
The CDB says that if the research determines the commercial viability of creating such a platform, it will move to the staging of three sub-regional workshops for music industry stakeholders to “help participants understand the impact of digitalization on the music industry.” These include “legal and regulatory issues, licensing and collection practices, business models, and the work of the collective management organizations.”
The CDB will fund the project to the tune of US$150,000; while the Association of Caribbean Copyright Societies (ACCS) will contribute US$20,000 and the Barbados Investment Development Corporation US$16,400.
