The Great Escape 2012

09 May, 2012 | Exchange, Music Market

Taking place in Brighton from the 10th to 12th of May, The Great Escape kicks starts the festival season, introducing 15,000 music lovers to the key artists and sounds of the year. With over 300 bands playing in 30 venues over 3 days, The Great Escape is the key date in the music calendar. In addition to pre-publicised performances, impromptu street gigs spring up all over town. The Alternative Escape, numerous club nights, label parties, industry showcases, unique collaborations and outdoor gigs all add to the festivities.
In the 2012 edition TGE, Brazilian artist Anna-Anna will be playing live, presenting tracks from her most recent project.

Convention

The Great Escape Convention takes place under one roof in The Brighton Dome. The program runs daily between 10am and 5pm and consists of panels and debates for experienced music industry delegates, new music entrepreneur presentations, high end key note interviews, short Q&A sessions, case studies and educational workshops for new entrants to the industry. This runs alongside the festival and is attended by over 3000 delegates annually from across the globe. Targeted networking sessions, parties and sponsored lunches are run every day giving delegates plenty of opportunities to form new business relationships and to catch up with established partners.

This year, Brazilian music will be represented by a Keynote about our national music market and the recent opportunities. Named “PRS for Music presents ‘See you at the Copacabana!’ with Will Page”, the talk approaches an overall about the Brazilian current economic status, and how that influences all kinds of businesses, including music. As the official description says, “In March 2012 Brazil became the world’s sixth largest economy, pushing the UK into seventh place – and as hosts of the World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016, the country’s profile is only going to grow.

As London passes the Olympic torch to Rio, a ‘UK Season In Brazil’ will seek to raise the profile of British culture and business there, and strengthen political relations between the two nations. How can the British music industry benefit from this, and is Brazil an opportunity or threat to artists and rights owners? PRS for Music’s Chief Economist Will Page will throw the spotlight on music in Brazil, presenting and discussing the numbers, successes and misconceptions”.

Source: The Great Escape Official Website


 

The World Music Charts Europe, a useful tool for Brazilian musicians

08 May, 2012 | Music Market

by Zjakki Willems

The World Music Charts Europe is a monthly top-20 compiled by radio programmers from Europe. We started it in 1991 at the annual EBU World Music Workshop, of which I was the chairman at that time (the EBU is the European Broadcasting Union, the umbrella of public radios in Europe). Johannes Theurer from Berlin organised the World Music Charts Europe and has run them since then. Currently Johannes is also the chairman of the Workshop. Over the years the World Music Charts Europe became a useful tool for both musicians / records companies on one side and radio editors / programme makers on the other side. The particularity is that they are an airplay and taste charts, not a sales charts, which is an advantage for musicians who are not backed by a major record company. With only about 45 CD’s they can reach all the relevant radio broadcasts in Europe. Some Brazilian artists, record companies and institutions already use the World Music Charts Europe as a distribution and promotion tool, with good results: The New Brazilian Music 4 was on number 8 in April; CéU enters the May charts with Caravana Sereia Bloom. All you have to do is to send a parcel with 45 CD’s to Johannes Theurer. For more information have a look at www.wmce.de


 

Liverpool Sound City 2012

07 May, 2012 | BM&A Actions, Music Market

The city of Liverpool, England, will be home of one of the most expected international music, media and technology events of the month of May. The festival+expo+conference Liverpool Sound City will take place on the British city from the 17th to the 19th of May 2012.

The annual event is “focused on the zeitgeist and looking forward, intent on bringing the best new music, film, art and more from all over the world to Liverpool. While the primary convention focus is on bringing together a vast array of creative and digital industries business professionals, artists, music, film and art fans to enjoy today’s best new music and chart the future course of the music, digital and creative industries”. Considered an international event,  Sound City features speakers and delegates from 23 countries. Those represented include: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the USA.

Expo

“Taking inspiration from the golden age of Expos, where the new, the innovative and the exciting were brought together under one roof to delight and amaze, Sound City Expo brings the newest and most forward-thinking exhibitors to the Echo Arena in Liverpool – providing access for both consumers and music/digital professionals to the people, tools and services they will need as we move ever onwards in the digital age. As a reaction to the traditional, staid music trade-shows that have proliferated the calendar, Sound City Expo will focus on the current and future intersection of music, art, business and technology – giving a real insight into what is possible in the modern age. SCE will be fully integrated into both the convention and festival offerings of Liverpool Sound City,  manifest in live demos, masterclasses, discussions and more – all of the same high standard as LSC itself and featuring many performers and speakers”.

Brazilian participation

As part of BrasilMusicExchange’s effort, during the 2012 edition of Liverpool Sound City the country and it’s interests will be represented both during the conference and the music festival.  BMA’s project will be participating through one of the heads of BME, Irish producer based in Sao Paulo David McLoughlin, who will be talking about the Brazilian music market, opportunities and further information about the country’ dynamic during a scheduled Roundtable. Musically speaking, Brazil will also be on stage during the festival. National groups such as Anna-Anna (Rio de Janeiro) and Some Community (São Paulo) have confirmed there shows and are officially included on the program.

Source: Liverpool Sound City Official website


 

Jazzahead 2012

13 April, 2012 | Music Market

Jazz lovers be aware: from the 19th to the 22nd of April, the city of Bremen, Germany, will be home to one of the most important events of the scene. Considered by its organizers as an “exhibition and meeting point for international jazz”, JazzAhead brings to the Exhibition Center Bremen the most important names of global jazz.

Combining showcase festival, conference, exhibition and “clubnight”, the event is known as a “must-go” to all those interested on improving their network towards the topic. Last year’s edition brought together 357 exhibitors from 30 different countries, 2000 professional participants, 3600 visitors and around 65 concerts.

The festival is particularly interesting for Brazilian musicians, as many Brazilian music styles are running under the flag of Jazz in Europe. In this years event Dirk Schade, PR of BM&A in Germany, will be at the event. Brasil Music Exchange will represent national business and musical interests, having its own stand, that will work basicaly as headquarters for Brazilian artists and music companies attending.

Brazilian highlights

Musician Hamilton de Holanda, opened up the path for other Brazilian artists during last year’s edition of the festival. He was the first national artist to play at Jazzhead – and it was considered a huge success.

This year, the country will be represented by Trio Corrente, chose by the festival’s programmers due to the group’s background, clearly focused on the international market.


 

europalia.brasil: the final points

06 March, 2012 | Music Market

Zjakki Willems has worked for Belgian public radio since 1975 and he started the weekly broadcast “Club Tropical” (world music) in 1984 and “Cucamonga” (magazine about rock, blues and world music) in 1993. He was co-founder of the EBU World Music Workshop in 1987 and is a panel member of the World Music Charts Europe. His broadcasts have won several Belgian and European awards and he has been specializing in Brazilian music since he interviewed Chico Science in 1994. He made five series on Brazilian music: Radio Brasil (2000), Radio Mangue (2002), Sintonize Pernambuco (2003), SamPa Beats (2006), Radio Mauritsstad (2009) and Radio Mauritsstad (French version) (2011).

Currently he is making “Closing Time World” for Radio 1 in Belgium and Brazilian mixtapes for Multicult.fm in Berlin. He was the Belgian music curator (for rock, traditional music and encontros) for the Europalia Brasil festival (2011-2012).

Read below his impressions about europalia.brasil:

europalia.brasil is over… It lasted from 4 October 2011 till 15 January 2012 and attracted thousands of people. The biggest share of them went to one of the exhibitions: Brazil.Brasil, Art in Brazil (1950 -2011), Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Extremes, Indios no Brasil, Terra Brasilis, A Rua, Pearls of freedom – Afro-Brazilian jewelry, Incorporations, Gravura extrema, Bispo do Rosário, Copacabana, Rio in Panorama, Design Brasil, Lina Bo Bardi, Sérgio Bernardes, Brasília, Of gold and feathers, Samba etc. Brazilian carnival, Circuito dos Diamantes, Travelogues, Tintin et Milou chez les Arumbayas, Rua na Rua, Retratos Brasileiros, Repórter Sem Beiras and Faixas aqui. Undoubtedly most exhibitions were a success, as well for their artistic content as for the numbers of visitors they attracted. But, remarkably, the main exhibition, Brazil.Brasil, only attracted 50.000 visitors, which is not much compared with the previous editions of Europalia (China, Russia etc.). On the other hand Indios no Brasil has been prolonged till April 15th because it was such a big success.

So europalia.brasil was a success? Yes and no. Most exhibitions were a success, as I wrote, but Brazilian culture is also music! And for the music part of the festival the results are very mixed. The good thing is that there have been many Brazilian concerts and that the media paid more attention to Brazilian music. The bad thing is that the music programme of europalia.brasil didn’t give a complete view of the Brazilian music scene. There was no bossa nova, no hip-hop, no aparelhagem, no maracatu, no funk carioca, … Moreover several concerts have been cancelled: Nação Zumbi, Banda Eddie, Marcelo D2, Renata Rosa… Take for instance Nação Zumbi: they were part of a night of Recife Beat scheduled in three main venues: Handelsbeurs in Gent, Warande in Turnhout and Melkweg in Amsterdam. The line-up of these nights included Banda Eddie, DJ Dolores & band and Nação Zumbi. Everything was confirmed and the Warande even started selling tickets. Then came the news that Recife Beat was cancelled “because there was too much of Recife”. Cancelations are not good signals towards music professionals and consequently this can have a negative impact on future Brazilian concerts in Belgium and the Netherlands.

What about the artistic level and the attendance of the concerts? I haven’t seen a bad concert; on the contrary, I have seen many good and even excellent concerts. The attendance though was not always good. I was very satisfied with the sold-out or nearly sold-out concerts of CéU, Samba Chula de São Braz, Tom Zé etcetera. And of course with the tremendous success of Brazilian Underground. On the other hand some concerts have been poorly attended, mainly because of a lack of knowledge of the Belgian music scene, resulting in programming good bands in the wrong places or in a wrong combination. Take for instance the concert of Siba in the Brussels Palace of Fine Arts: it was fantastic, but it not even attracted 150 people in a hall with 470 seats. The evening before Renato Borghetti, Olivinho and Lulinha Alencar attracted less than 500 people in a hall with 2000 seats. It’s a pity; all those artists deserved a more professional programming.
What about Brazilian music in Belgium and the Netherlands now that europalia.brasil is over? Hundreds of people discovered Brazilian artists that they didn’t know, clichés about Brazilian music have been broken down and concert organizers who had a positive experience became more open to Brazilian music. All that is very positive. But europalia.brasil could have been a good opportunity for building structures for more Brazilian concerts in the future. In that sense it failed. For instance the Botanique, one of the main concert halls in Belgium, wanted to start a series of Brazilian nights. The first night would have been a Europalia event: a Noite São Paulo with Hurtmold, Lurdez da Luz and Soukast. Like Recife Beat it was confirmed and then cancelled.

Something will remain of europalia.brasil though: the Retratos Brasileiros. It is a project of ten portrait pictures and ten videos on the theme: “What is Brazilian culture?”. Retratos Brasileiros is also part of a social and artistic project by the Belgian filmmaker John Erbuer, in collaboration with CCJ Recife, a centre for youngsters from the favelas, who produce themselves the films and pictures in workshops. Have a look at the Retratos Brasileiros here.

Zjakki Willems


 

WOMEX 2012

01 March, 2012 | Music Market, Opportunities

Womex, one of the main conferences dedicated to artists and other music related professionals, especially those linked to World Music, is now officially open to receive showcase, conference and film proposals for its 2012 edition.  This year’s event is scheduled to take place in Thessaloniki, Greece, from Wednesday 17th to Sunday 21st of October 2012. The 17th edition of WOMEX in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October 2011 saw over 2,250 delegates from nearly 100 countries, 700 exhibitors, a full conference program and a showcase festival presenting 60 acts on 6 stages. Those interested in participating have until April 13 to send in a selection of specific materials, according to the category it is related to.

As the official call explained:

Deadline for all proposals is Friday, 13 April 2012

World Music artists and DJs

Artists: The selected acts will play in front of the largest audience anywhere of international world music concert and festival bookers (around 700 last year), agents, labels, distributors, innumerable journalists.
The Showcase (and Conference) selection is taken on by the WOMEX Jury – the famous 7 Samurai – each year consisting of a brand new panel of international music biz experts. In 2011 WOMEX received over 750 artist proposals for about 35 slots.

More: http://www.womex.com/lnk/how-to-propose#showcase

Potential conference speakers & mentors

Speakers: In particular, WOMEX is welcoming proposals around the ongoing jazz & world focus at WOMEX, as well as those exploring the local Southeastern European music industry of the new host region.

Mentors: Mentoring Sessions are a regular feature of the WOMEX Conference, offering delegates private 15-minute consultations free of charge with special mentors from various areas of expertise.

More: http://www.womex.com/lnk/how-to-propose#conference

Music filmmakers

Filmmakers: WOMEX’s long-time partner for the Film Screenings IMZ, the International Music + Media Centre in Vienna, will jury the film proposals independently. Last year they received around 30 submissions for 13 screening slots.

For a complete list of all the films submitted and the ones presented at WOMEX 11: http://www.worldmusicfilms.com/index.php?id=771

The films from the screening selection can also become part of the World Music Films On Tour program, a non-profit distribution project aimed at bringing musical diversity in film and video to a wider public.

More: http://www.womex.com/lnk/how-to-propose#film

Keep yourself updated!

http://www.womex.com
http://www.twitter.com/womex
http://www.facebook.com/worldmusicexpo