IslandMix - Soca, Reggae, Zouk and Caribbean Entertainment

Think business, record exec tells artistes



Ivan Berry, former vice-president of A&R for Sony BMG Canada. Photo: Karla Ramoo

By Sherwin Long

For record executive Ivan Berry, we in the Caribbean have a skewed perception of the music world’s inverted management pyramid.

Berry, who was born in St Kitts and is a former vice-president of A&R for Sony BMG Canada, lamented the lack of infrastructure and expertise surrounding Caribbean musical artists.

“A hit song is only really 15 per cent of your success. Everything else is about a strong, grounded pyramid, a big base that supports your talent,” he said last Thursday, during an interview with the Business Guardian.

He was in Trinidad for the Copyright Organisation of T&T’s (Cott) Awards ceremony and he also lectured local artistes on the nuances of the music industry.

Berry teaches a course on the business of music at both Durham College and Harris Institute for the Arts in Canada.

Describing the infrastructure needed in the Caribbean, he said the pyramid consists of songwriters, artists and studio owners, the creators of the intellectual property.

After this an artist should be signed with performing rights societies like Cott and have an entertainment accountant and entertainment lawyers.

From his experience, oftentimes Caribbean artists shortchange themselves.

Berry said reggae music was driven on flat fee and not royalties.

“Let’s say rent is due today so (reggae) artists prefer to take a $5,000 flat fee go in and sing a song and don’t ever make a royalty from the exploitation of the song later,” he said. “They stand a chance of making of millions of dollars and owning a piece of intellectual property that could be passed on to their kids and grandkids.”

Berry said, culturally, in the Caribbean the importance of ownership and time over money was not passed down through the generations.

Artists undersell themselves when it comes to dealing with third party sponsors and advertisers for their shows, he added.

In T&T today, there is a budding local reggae music movement but no signature record label these artistes are signed to.

Berry’s advice: “Whether it is independent or Sony BMG record companies go through the same process. They develop talent, record talent, they manufacture the product, distribute the product and have it readily available and they market it to let everybody know the product exists,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you have $1 dollar or $100 million.”

Space age music

In T&T, Cott constantly appeals to the police to protect artistes rights by cracking down on music piracy.

In Port-of-Spain, from Chacon to Charlotte Streets, pirated CDs are sold for $20 on average.

Berry admits that piracy is at an all-time high but technology was also a factor in the decline of CD sales.

“The music business is not in jeopardy. The CD business is. The enjoyment and consumption of music is at its all-time high.

“The problem is a combination of piracy and the fact that in the last five years music is being consumed in at least ten different ways.”

Berry alluded to the I-tunes phenomenon and how more listeners are turning to the Internet for their music.

“I-tunes is the biggest record company in the world right now but the major record labels just don’t want to admit it.”

With this in mind, Berry had his own idea to capitalise on the popularity of the Internet.

In January, Berry plans to unveil www.islandhits.com—what he describes as the first ever online record company for Caribbean music. It’s the Caribbean’s answer to I-tunes, Youtube and MySpace all in one.

He said it was expensive to manufacture and distribute your CDs or even vinyl throughout the Caribbean so the Internet was a viable option.

Berry credited a recent trip he took to the Dominican Republic with his son as inspiration for the idea.

His son struck up a friendship with a guitarist who was selling his CD on the streets.

He recalled buying a bunch of the musician’s only CD.

On returning to Canada, both he and his son enjoyed the music. But they could not get any new music from the guitarist unless they were physically in the Dominican Republic.

He said Caribbean musicians had to use tourism to seriously market their music.

“How many tourists must have gone back to Sweden, France or Germany and wished they had the next album from that person. The computer is so less expensive than having to manufacture and distribute your product through the everyday, ordinary channels.”

The company will have offices in every island, he said, where artistes could upload their music onto the Internet.

Berry labelled the Web site as the biggest Caribbean record company with global distribution.

“The region becomes an exporter of culture as opposed to just importing tourism and the money stays local too.”

Soca going international

In the 1940s and 50s calypso music had an international audience and made a dent into the US pop charts.

Today there is debate about whether soca could also capture a global audience.

While both Rupee and Kevin Lyttle have had some measure of success, no artists from T&T has had that measure of impact.

Berry had advice for today’s soca stars.

Alluding to Shaggy’s and Bob Marley’s success, he said if an artiste wanted to make an impact their message had to be universal.

“There are poor people everywhere. There is discrimination against women everywhere. There is discrimination period everywhere. Those are still political and social issues that can be talked about that is mainstream topics and not specific to your town and country. Don’t expect to be global with something specific to your area.”

He said simplicity was always best and noted that Arrow’s “Hot, Hot, Hot” and the Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out” were the biggest soca songs in recent years.

He noted that the mistake we make in Caribbean is lack of collaboration between artists from different musical genres and countries.

Berry also blamed record executives for wanting a quick fix.

He said it was common place for executives to tell artists all they want are three hit singles.

However, legendary record mogul Clive Davis had a different approach as each song had to tell a story and be strong enough to be a single.

In the end, however, Berry said charity began at home and Caribbean music fans had to have respect for their artists.

“People have no problem buying a book that they are going to read twice or buying a DVD that they are going to watch once or twice. It shouldn’t be a problem buying music that you are going to listen to much more than twice.

“Let’s get the value back into music and understand its value. Imagine the world without it. Imagine the world without organised noise.”

Advertise here

Beavis also advised COTT to computerise their logs, make registration faster and easier plus give local radio stations an incentive to computerise.

She said artists had to be aware of the synergy between their music and advertising and take advantage of their song’s popularity.

Beavis used Machel Montano’s interpolation of his hit song “You” for a Courts advertisement as an example.

She said artists should not be duped into letting advertisers and radio stations use their song for promotion without getting their portion.

“Radio stations exist to sell Coca Cola and Nike. That’s all they exist for. Your music is allowing them to sell it. Don’t forget you have rights and should be paid for it,” she said.

Government’s role

For music in T&T to really grow and become self-sustaining, there must be policy established to promote local content.

Jennifer Beavis called for a marriage of music and legislation.

Beavis is a former of director of copyright for the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency.

She said in Canada it is law to play 33 per cent of local music at border stations or the station would not get a broadcasting license.

Given T&T’s size and our musical diversity, she recommended the same.

“This is something the (T&T) Government needs to be involved in. You have to regulate commercial radio,” she said. “If we did not have these rules in Canada their would be no Canadian music industry, no international stars like Shania Twain or Celine Dion.”

SOURCE

I think this guy was in Antigua with Shermain Jeremy the other day. They were supposed to come back to conduct a symposium. Shermain has her own record label. See the link below.

http://www.tropicgem.com/

CONTINUES.

This is a VERY USEFUL GUIDE...EXCELLENT ARTICLE.

Your replies are cracking me up. I like the one u said give the reggae artist a tight pair of jeans that shit is funny as shyte..

I have to agree with ah lot of things that were stated by this guy myself..

Yep.

I THINK it is GOOD FOOD for THOUGHT.

VP you're killing me. My sides are hurting.

MUDDERWUK!!!!

Ah stop reading after the "small islanders are the true leaders" vitriol.

WONDERFUL INSPIRATIONAL article.Yuh know de trini bashin must come in some time or de other they like trini music but not Trinidad.Ah wonder why:

I can KILL U SOFTLY too with MY......

MUDDERWUK!!

Anyway VP. I put it to you that the industry will be in safe hands. We in the small islands have more talent per capita and at the end of the day as has already been proven so far, we will be the ones to move the industry forward. That's my prediction.

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