BUSINESS
‘Artists never know where their fans might come from’ In the digital world, an international strategy is of primary importance in growing and expanding an artist’s career, and Midem has launched several initiatives aimed at creating international trade links. Gary Smith reports
Faryal KhanThompson: “We are living in a borderless, internetdriven world” TuneCore’s Faryal Khan-Thompson
Horus Brasil’s David McLoughlin
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N JULY 2021 Midem launched Midem Africa, the first pan-African digital music platform dedicated to the continent’s most vibrant music markets, with Kenya as Country Of Honour. Midem also teamed up with with Latin American entertainment company, Bizarro Live, to create a unique 2021 digital programme, including a spotlight on the Latin American music industry, bringing together movers and shakers of the region and their global peers. For most of his career, exporting and importing music to and from his home in Brazil has been Horus Brasil manager David McLoughlin’s passion. “I saw how insular the Brazilian music market was, with 80% of sales being domestic music, and I really wanted to show the world how much amazing music is being created here — and also to push out beyond the established world-music fan base, because there’s so much great heavy metal, funk, hip-hop and electronic music,” he says. “So I put together a list of around 1,200 radio stations, music supervisors, festival programmers and journalists and sent out tracks under the name Brazil Calling. And we’re seeing some great results. Karol Conká got an LP release in the UK and Kiko Dinucci, who makes samba punk, also had an LP released in the UK. We have also made some very valuable links with a group of MIDEM DIGITAL EDITION NEWS
Nigerian producers who are remixing some baile funk and trap tracks from Brazil.” According to Faryal Khan-Thompson, vice-president, international at New York–based independent digital music distribution and publishing company TuneCore, the importance of a comprehensive international strategy is huge: “Whether you’re an artist or a music company supporting artists, it’s extremely important because we are living in a borderless, internet-driven world,” Khan-Thompson says. “Artists never know where their fans might come from. With the explosion of music streaming, you could discover fans in corners of the world you never imagined. For example, LatAm is a very fast-growing music market with many genres and sub-genres of music — it’s an exciting region to watch. Africa as well, is booming in terms of the music market and specifically the music talent coming out of the continent with afropop, afrobeats and gospel as extremely popular genres. Additionally, African genres continue to influence the world stage — with international artists and listeners and fans all being influenced by music from the continent. This is not new, but I feel like the industry at large is just waking up to this and starting to acknowledge it and I’m personally humbled and honoured to be a part be a part of this amazing team looking to bring this to the fore even more.” n 15
NOVEMBER 2021
