When in 2005 the Soy Cubano ecommerce agency launched its selling music service through digital downloads, many entrepreneurs in the music industry, artists and promoters felt they had entered a science fiction universe. If you remember that just a decade ago, Cuba had begun to become familiar with the experiences of virtual networks is not difficult to understand the surprise of those people with a mechanism that allowed Cuban products could, in minutes, cross thousands of miles to be heard immediately by interested buyers from all over the world.
However, only four years later, that fledgling business platform, had built a service for the distribution of other national cultural goods: www.mallcubano.com department store, which apply marketing trends in vogue in the on-line market as coupon codes, volume rebate, gift cards, modules of comments and votes, photo galleries and social networking integration.
The significant increase in sales with the creation of the mall, has been limited due to the limited availability of raw materials for the reproduction of physical resources demanded by users, such as posters, DVDs and music CDs. So now the commitment to digital music commerce becomes one of the main goals of agencies and companies of this type.
Marketing platforms of Cuban music on the Internet operate taking into account how international trends move. In 2012, the music industry had its best performance since 1998 worldwide, largely due to the incorporation of new digital services. An example of this is that, to have a presence in over twenty countries two years ago, services like iTunes, Deezer and Spotify, have successfully introduced it today to a hundred nations.
On the other hand, a report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) published in the first half of 2013, reports that most of the sources of income on digital sales are rising and legal offers are a viable alternative both for industries and consumers.
“The music has not only adapted itself to the Internet, but that is the real engine of development,” says the executive director of IFPI, Frances Moore, considering that this kind of cultural product drives technological development, contributes to the sale of devices, fuels economic growth and causes a chain reaction that transcends the phonographic market.
The rescue of the commercial character of the Cubadisco International Fair as one of the fundamental purposes of the organizing committee for this XVII edition turns out to be an element for the updating of the working lines advocated for so far. The general manager of the ALTAFONTE distributor, Florian Van Hoyer, who gave a workshop on these issues as part of the meeting, believes that one of the advantages of music of the island is that the brand “Cuba” is already created in the market
However, Cuban companies must face constraints such as access to the U.S. market, the main stage for the consumption of products and services on the continent. The policy of the U.S. economic embargo on the island makes banking transactions very difficult, placing Cuban materials in major download stores, access to channels first level promotion and management of live national artists in that territory.
However, Cuban companies must face constraints such as access to the U.S. market, the main stage for the consumption of products and services on the continent. The policy of the U.S. economic embargo on the island very difficult for banking transactions, placing Cuban materials in major download stores, access to channels first level promotion and management of live national artists that territory.
Despite this, the national record companies now have the ability to access markets that previously it had no opportunities to get, especially for the diversity of institutions that have managed to ally. To cite just one example, Ruth Tienda (www.ruthtienda.com) a trading platform for Cuban music and books online, he says, over a little more than a year of opening the disc download service, which products labels like EGREM and Colibri are known directly by some 10 000 users subscribed to its newsletter.
Still Cuba-the contrary to what has happened in other countries, has not incorporated to the high level streaming services, subscriptions and others that use video to attract large audiences. The development of facilities based on “the cloud”, a topic which now occupies the four most advanced companies in this sector (Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon) still seems distant to the reality of the country.
In addition to exploring new possibilities of expanding trade, those who manage digital music on the island must overcome difficulties arising from low social recognition of this activity in the Cuban institutional system, the low effectiveness of foreign trade management and poor coordination achieved so far with media and advertising niches.
Experts predict that there are opportunities to advance in the on-line music business despite the obstacles. The existence of prestigious labels with vigorous catalogs and highly skilled human capital involved in the music industry are some of the arguments used in favor of trade of Cuban music on the Web.
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Author
Mabel Machado
