Starving Artists Newsletter, Vol. 19 - Latin Music Industry Trends (Q4 2024)

It's Friday of Billboard Latin Music Week, in Miami, Florida. And I've picked up on some trends that increasingly define latin music, and music in general. Here's a quick recap of the week and trends.

Music is Tech

"Contracts are data", that's what my friend and colleague Alexiomar Rodriguez, Esq said to me when demo-ing of the latest version of Flou , and AI-powered music document and data management platform he created. With a library of templates, you can create, share, store, adapt and manage (and more) your music contracts; all with the help of an AI copilot, "Max".

It's a tool that redefines how not only artists' approach document management, but labels, distributors, law firms, and even beyond music. In its most aspirational, it may even democratize industry standards in agreements and deals, providing artists with more intelligence and bargaining power.

It's just one of many tech-fueled innovations that are driving to upend how music is administered and monetized. This highlights the trend towards non-music enterprises becoming more and more valuable and necessary towards the progress of the industry. They do so by lowering operational costs, increasing productivity, creating smarter industry professionals, and perhaps most importantly, generating more transparency.

International Influence

More than any other year that I've attended, I spoke to more people that did not speak Spanish. This year's Billboard Latin Music Conference was filled with guest from Europe, Africa, and other international sectors.

In particular, I'd like to highlight Jacqueline Pelham-Leigh from PRS for Music . PRS for Music Limited is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). PRS represents their songwriter, composer and music publisher members’ performing rights, and collects royalties on their behalf whenever their music is played or performed publicly.

I had the pleasure of hosting Jacqueline from PRS at EPGD Business Law following the conference; and she shared some insightful details about how they can collect for artists and a great rate. Hit me up if you want an introduction with her.

Intellectual Property is Everything

Right now, if you are a relatively known artist, who writes or produces your music, with has at least a handful of decent performing singles over the last 1-15 years, and still commands an image and community, it's a great time to be you.

More than ever, the interest in the industry, especially from those seeking to acquire rights to intellectual property assets (compositions, masters, NIL), is noticeable. Labels are expanding to cover publishing, distribution and artists services; music rights companies are being backed by private equity to grab available property; foreign societies are looking to affiliate members. The activity is rabid, which means more opportunity for those who actually create good art.

I had the pleasure of hosting at EPGD Victor Mijares and Andrew Jamal, CPA, CA from Anthem Entertainment . Anthem (Toronto, Canada) is one of the world’s leading independent music companies; home to Anthem Music Publishing, Records, and a production music division. A great example of legacy enterprises expanding and importing their institutional knowledge for the benefit of the industry.

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