Caribbeat Music Marketing - Jamaica

The Caribbean music industry is grossly underdeveloped because most of the region's music producers operate through micro enterprises that are simply not up to the task of promoting local artistes and their music internationally. Consequently, Caribbean artists usually resort to the major mainstream record labels in North America and Europe for international exposure, even though these record labels often only produce their music as an occasional sideline. Caribbeat Entertainment Limited is a private, limited liability company set up in Jamaica in 1999 specifically to promote, distribute and represent Caribbean artistes and music producers using the latest ICT applications, particularly e-commerce and the Internet.

The music and entertainment sector is one of Jamaica’s key socio-economic leverage sectors. Within six years it plans to develop and expand the Caribbean music industry to its full international potential. Its timing is excellent for two reasons: (1) the global demand for Caribbean music is set to rocket in the next five years; and, (2) Jamaica has just introduced a number of favourable tax and investment incentives for the entertainment industry.

Read more about IICD's Jamaica Country Programme.

In 2004, Caribbeat received support for the consolidated five-year business plan incorporating the activities of three projects - CME, Caribbeat and the DMMT. This was the last project intervention directly supported by IICD.

Given the project owner’s active role in Information Network (IN)activities (Caribbeat is the coordinator for the Music-Entertainment theme), the project may indirectly benefit from IICD support in this area and be further mainstreamed in the Music/Entertainment sector.

Caribbeat aims to become the exclusive world leader in producing, promoting and distributing the Caribbean's many different music genres and intends to become the main Caribbean music portal with sites for the online retailing of CDs, digital downloading of recorded music, and Internet radio. It will also offer other services such as a recording studio and performance bookings and artiste and label promotions. It will:

• Promote and increase the volume and variety of its music products and services to reflect the entire spectrum of English, Spanish and French Caribbean music genres within the first six months of the project
• Promote its music products and services primarily through Caribeatradio.com to in excess of 1 million monthly by the end of the first year of its expansion programme and improve the responsiveness of its sites to customer enquiries
• Improve customer services to ensure delivery and/or confirmation to clients within 14 days of receiving orders. By the end of the sixth year profits are expected to reach the 380,000 US dollar mark

Caribbeat will create a dynamic, professional network for all those involved in the Caribbean music industry in order to initiate collaborative ventures and identify cooperative marketing and distribution strategies. Strategic alliances with like-minded organizations such as Caribbean Music Expo (CME) and sectors such as the IT and tourism industries will also be forged. This will benefit the region's economy and boost the international exposure of local artistes and producers. The network will be a vehicle for knowledge sharing to improve its members' skills and (technical) competences. The wide range of activities planned by Caribbeat will also produce heightened (music) product diversification and increase the contribution of music industry revenues to the Gross National Product (GNP) of Caribbean countries. As the only international promoter to focus exclusively on Caribbean music, Caribbeat will bring many Caribbean music genres to a global audience for the first time, thus stimulating worldwide interest in and awareness of the Caribbean's rich musical heritage. Many new jobs will be created in the entertainment, IT, media and tourist sectors and the region's share in the global market for entertainment goods and services will also expand.

Read more about IICD's approach towards Livelihoods.

Overly strong individual ownership may hamper openness, learning and collaboration

In the dotCom euphoric era, IICD and project partners set overly ambitious goals, resulting in low rates of success. Project objectives should be based on accurate judgment of realities – not aspired ones.

Although, impact may be low, the catalyse effect has been reasonable.

Caribbeat Entertainment Limited provides expert and professional management and legal services for artists, music producers and events.

Caribbeat specialises in  music genres from the English, Spanish and French speaking Caribbean such as Reggae, Dancehall and Reggaeton.