Quite a spectacle. 2,800 professionals and more than 1,000 companies gathered in Bogotá , both in person and online , in the more than 100 activities that took place in the Colombian capital. According to data from the organization itself, presentations, master classes, workshops, concerts, presentations and even family activities were held during the four days that turned Bogotá into the world capital of the music industry buy sound cloud custom plays.
There were also 180 speakers, 70 conferences, 770 speedmeetings , and the presence of 30 countries, 40 artists and 8 startups.
A growing continent
That’s what BIME is : a hybrid between a congress and a fair for professionals in the sector to provide proposals, debates and talks around the same passion. An event that also seeks to train and develop small and new companies in the industry. And make young people and professionals known through its Campus and Startups versions.
For Jon Icazuriaga, academic coordinator of the Master in Business Management in the Music Industry at UNIR , the experience was positive, taking into account that it was the first edition of the BIME in the Colombian capital after more than 10 years holding it in Bilbao. UNIR had to be present because it is the only online master’s degree in Spanish on this topic . And it was.
The arrival in Bogotá is explained, among other things, by the spectacular year-on-year growth (15 – 20%) of the Latin American music industry, and by the special characteristics of a large and rich continent, full of its own sounds, very marked idiosyncrasies and traditions. delicious musicals, assures Icazuriaga.
Growing countries, very hungry for knowledge, for more music, for new artists, for young people. Countries that also represent a gateway for Spanish artists, welcomed by a sister culture.
Its different sounds, such as reggaeton, are gradually establishing themselves in different markets, such as the Anglo-Saxon one. And their musical consumption, furthermore, is mostly through streaming . A determining form of consumption for the industry and artists.
A paradoxical reality
This presence of streaming consumption platforms poses a paradoxical situation. “More music is heard, disseminated, produced, and marketed than ever before. The possibilities of making your music known anywhere are almost endless through social networks and these platforms. There is a lot of marketing and listening capacity ,” explains Icazuriaga.
These are enormous marketing possibilities, says the academic coordinator, but they do not return directly and economically to the vast majority of authors, because a sort of “value gap” is created between this dissemination and the generation of income through precisely from those platforms.
You pay very little to listen to music. Really little, around 0.0001. “Imagine the average number of listens you must generate…” she emphasizes. Those who profit, in the end, are the large companies in the sector.
“The new models of consuming citizens’ music do not always directly generate economic income for artists,” summarizes Icazuriaga.
If users pay nothing to enjoy music, it will be the advertising houses that pay the platforms, who, in turn, will pay the artists. And, for now, the listening ratio per hour (in time) is not linked, at least in Spain, to the average citizen’s spending on music .
The big stars, regardless of being heard through these media, also organize massive concerts that generate profits, and that even earn money through more traditional physical sales.
Popular investment in the industry does not filter down to small creators because large concerts or massive festivals are mostly consumed , organized and managed by big brands that attract big artists, in a loop that is difficult to stop.
Technology and social networks, keys
Technological development also offers a colossal capacity for self-production. Anyone with some talent can self-produce from a room, with a minimal studio, a computer and a specific program. 20 years ago, Icazuriaga acknowledges, much less accessible investment and infrastructure were required.
These possibilities do not in themselves produce greater stylistic variety and musical genres, nor greater value. Productive capacity does not thus determine an issue that is, above all, cultural.
Music is an artistic expression, explains Icazuriaga, and as such it is a witness to an era and a reflection of its cultural symbols. Only time is the judge in determining the artistic quality of music and different art forms.
Perhaps not all the artists who are successful today with, for example, styles like reggaeton will be remembered in 20, 30 or 40 years. As also happened with all the authors of the sixties of the last century.
But for now, in the present, whether a work is successful and therefore guarantees the artist’s subsistence is the result of the intervention of many factors . “The usual: talent, help, opportunity, support, the great development of marketing and commercial aspects. And something absolutely new and decisive compared to the previous century: the development of social networks,” says Icazuriaga.
The requirement for personal and brand positioning ( branding ) of artists on social networks is a fundamental distinction compared to relatively recently, about 15 or 20 years ago.
The new and the old
Because you don’t succeed in the music industry “all at once,” he adds. Progressive positioning levers are necessary . Starting from talent, according to the strategic consultant, it is essential to train, participate in small concerts and then in larger venues, at festivals, contact producers and representatives… A dynamic must be accessed . And, from a certain level, a “superlative” leap occurs.
There are examples of all kinds. For example, musicians who are already brands in themselves and who even sound “something” to those outside popular music, such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner or Neil Young, among others, who have sold their catalog to major record labels or investment funds.
Icazuriaga understands that this is a “win win”, an agreement in which both parties win. Musicians because they avoid hereditary problems, obtain liquidity and capitalize on their final years. And corporations and funds because they estimate, through in-depth economic studies, that they will begin to make these rights profitable in, for example, a little over a decade.
Rosalía may be the last and best example of good use of progressive positioning levers to access these international musical dynamics.
“It already has a positioning, an international brand, a background based on its own talent, and those progressive capabilities of surrounding itself with the best professionals in all areas of the industry ,” underlines Icazuriaga, which necessarily includes communication, advice or marketing.
His artistic talent has been the basis of everything, and continues to be. The teacher understands that the apparent change in his style with respect to his beginnings is fundamental. “ No human being is the same today as yesterday , so when you create, when you look at the world based on your creativity, you evolve. It has its logic,” he emphasizes.
A master’s degree for the real world
UNIR teaches the keys to all these strategies and trends , which mark the present and future of an artistic industry in constant change to those who want to access it or are already in it.
“It is about preparing and promoting the careers of professionals within the music industry . To generate capabilities and train so that students obtain in-depth knowledge of this industry. And through professional teachers, who know the environment first-hand, and based on real practical cases,” he emphasizes.
The master thus functions as an entry lever to work on music from all points of view. In management entities, in record labels or promoters, but also as a music lawyer or journalist, or musicians who want to take charge of their own career.