The year of 2009 has arrived with the economic downfall that everyone is experiencing by now. What is new for the music business? We have had our own economic problems for the last decade and are managing to cope with a combination of resilience, creative ideas, a better approach to the music, new legislation and the certainty that no one is going to do it for us. So, we have an advantage when confronted with crisis, we are well trained for it.

In the Latin Market in particular, we can see many differences with the so called mainstream market, the internet is not a factor that can, in the short term, replace the sales that we are losing with the closing of so many record stores. 70% of the Latino population in the U.S. has origins in Mexico, the other 30% have roots in the Caribbean and Central/South America. The lack of stability and economic wellbeing of the immigrants from those regions prohibit them from entering into the digital era of purchasing music, and therefore they continue to look for physical product or CD’s. Wal-Mart is the source of that product for them.

A recent conversation with the heads of some of the Latin record companies in the U.S. showed an alarming dependency on this account. Wal-Mart purchases an average of 70% or more of the total sales of the Latin labels. This statistic should lead us to a profound analysis of the business model of all the labels and publishers in this market.

If in the last decade we, as an industry, lost the monopoly of the entertainment for young people against the video games, DVD’s and the internet, and we are now facing the possibility of losing the monopoly in the development of new artists by commercial giants like Coca Cola, Bacardi, Sauza, mobile phone companies and any other company that would like to sell its products with a musical component on it.

Where are we, as Independent Music Publishers, in this scenario? In the middle of the storm! But we have many ways of riding the wave. Despite the many recent attacks towards the free use of music and the piracy on the internet, we are defending our copyrights and intellectual property effectively. Decisions by the Supreme Court and the Royalty Tribunal in our favor were huge achievements during the last years, and although there is a long way to go yet, as long as we have very secure rights as to our music, we will be able to navigate the storm and arrive to shore in the best condition. However, today more than ever before, we have to be creative, think outside the box and find new ways to exploit our music; there are many opportunities with the mobile technology and the internet and even with a different music industry in the very near future.

Hasta la próxima!