Takeaways from Jamaica’s Island Music Festival
THE Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Sports, Recreation, Arts, and Culture Nicholas Moyo, was invited to participate as a panellist in the second annual Island Music Conference in Jamaica.
After careful examination, his department concluded that having a musician actively engaged in the music industry alongside Moyo would greatly benefit the arts sector.
Considering my expertise in being a practicing musician, scholar, and writer, I was the perfect fit for the requirements they were searching for.
The conference spans five days and brings together professionals from the music industry, government officials, administrators, and videographers.
During the event, participants engage in workshops, panel discussions, and keynote speeches on a variety topics, including copyright law, artiste management, media relations, social media strategies, record deals, industry and government policies, wealth management, investments, insurance, publicity and branding, videography, and sync and scoring.
After each session, there was an opportunity for questions and answers, which I actively participated in.
I was extremely impressed by the attendance of Jamaican artistes at the conference.
Artistes ranging from current popular figures like Spice, timeless hit makers such as Sean Paul, Beenie Man, and Shaggy, and respected elders like Mutabaruka, as well as up-and-coming talents, were present every day. This demonstrated their eagerness to learn. Moreover, all the artistes left their egos behind, as evidenced by the absence of bodyguards and special seating.
They freely mingled with everyone else. While superstars inevitably received requests for selfies, the Jamaican artistes, known for their humility, graciously fulfilled everyone.
The conference had a packed schedule, with five to seven sessions and events taking place each day from morning until evening.
Some events even extended late into the night. Due to the extensive programme, it is not feasible to cover all the details in this article.
Therefore, only what I think was the most significant content will be mentioned.
The keynote speeches delivered by different speakers at the conference were highly sought-after sessions that attracted a significant audience every day.
The information presented was both valuable and practical.
I thoroughly enjoyed the keynote speech delivered by Wyclef Jean, a well-known Haitian singer-songwriter currently living in the United States.
He is famous for his contributions to the Fugees band, where he collaborated with singer/rapper Lauryn Hill.
Wyclef Jean impressively came equipped with visuals and audio to enrich his speech, and occasionally he would even incorporate singing or dancing, providing a distinct and memorable experience.
Wyclef asserted that the true influence in the music industry is derived from owning and comprehending the business aspects of the field.
He recounted a discussion with his father where he had foreseen a future of destitution upon declaring his profession as a musician.
Wyclef credits his ability to negate this prediction to his understanding of the music business. He asserts that his ownership of several highly popular songs around the world brings him a significant yearly income.
Included in his impressive portfolio of songwriting achievements are collaborations on well-known tracks such as “My Love Is Your Love” by Whitney Houston in 1999, “Maria Maria” by Santana, and “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira. He stresses that the revenue generated solely from these three songs is considerable.
Additionally, he highlights that he still receives payment whenever Shakira performs “Hips Don’t Lie,” regardless of whether he is directly involved in the performance or not.
He mentioned that he earns extra money from Rihanna’s “Wild Thoughts’ produced by DJ Khaled because it includes a portion of his track “Maria-Maria.”
He explained that whenever the total number of streams for both songs reaches a billion, he gets paid. He earned millions of dollars when the movie ‘Mission Impossible’ used his song “Ready or Not,” which he originally wrote for the Fugees, even though they performed a different version of the song.
He noted that syncs are a major part of his earnings, where songs and visual media like films, TV shows, ads, video games, and trailers are combined.
He proudly claimed to have 30,000 syncs and expressed satisfaction in not having to rely solely on playing the guitar to earn a living.
He believes that these syncs will support him for life and generate wealth for future generations, much like his inspiration, Bob Marley.
He offered a valuable piece of advice to artistes, encouraging them not to abandon a song that fails initially if they believe it to be a good one.