A stakeholder in the music industry is adamant that greater attention needs to be paid to copyright locally.
Speaking at a recent event hosted by the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries entitled ‘Talking CARIFESTA: Opportunities for the Creative Sector’ at the BCSI’s office at Harbour Road, Derek Wilkie, Managing Director of the Barbados-based CRS Music explained that copyright today is essential for doing business and he is adamant that musicians and artistes must have a good understanding of it.
Wilkie’s comments came as he explained that there is money to be earned through the various “conduits” that promote music, but the artistes can only benefit if their material is protected. He made the point while noting that apart from performing live and getting paid, “publishing is the next frontier.”
“You have to treat content and copyright as like real estate. You don’t know when it is going to come to the fore but you have to have conduits to allow people to hear it so it is exposed globally so that people can find your music [on] Spotify and Rdio and all the streaming sources provide these opportunities; they are gateways to people hearing your music and wanting to licence it, wanting to use it.”
He added, “Make sure it is protected, get into the conduits and things can start to happen. It is almost like a stocks portfolio where you have a catalogue of music, you have to know where it is, who is using it, what’s happening with it and that way you can protect it and earn your revenue streams.”
Referring then to the development of the cultural industries, Wilkie said he is of the belief that Barbados “is coming of age” in that area, and paying more attention to the role the cultural industries can play. Moreover, he said many are starting to also see how commerce can be created through that sector.
“I believe we have a group of young individuals who are really embracing this from a business perspective and not from just lip-syncing the words cultural industries. I can see it shaping and I have a lot of hope that it is going to be going a lot further than the region. There is money in the region, but real money is outside of the region, in the huge countries and big cities,” the CRS Music official stated. (JRT)