TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

LIST OF TABLES 2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

INTRODUCTION 8

SCOPE OF WORKS AND OBJECTIVES 10METHODOLOGY 10KEY CONCEPTS AND TERMS 11STRUCTURE OF STUDY 14CONSTRAINTS OF STUDY 14SUMMARY 14

SECTION ONE: MUSIC 16

CHAPTER ONE: GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY 16

1.1 INTRODUCTION 161.2 GLOBAL INDUSTRY STRUCTURE AND VALUE CREATING ECOLOGY 171.3 ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN: 181.4 STATE-LED INTERVENTIONS 231.5 REGIONAL REALITIES 27PROFILE ONE - EHE SEALES SCHOOL OF MUSIC, GRENADA 30PROFILE TWO- OHE ANGUILLA MUSIC PRODUCTION AND PUBLISHING COMPANY (AMPP) 351.6 POLICY AND PROGRAMMATIC ACTIVITIES: 36

CHAPTER TWO: OECS ACTION PLAN MUSIC SECTOR 41

2.1 INTRODUCTION 412.2: ACTION PLAN 42

SECTION TWO: AUDIO VISUAL SECTOR 51

CHAPTER THREE: GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF THE AUDIO–VISUAL SECTOR 51

3.1: INTRODUCTION 513.2: GLOBAL SCAN AND VALUE CREATING ECOLOGY 523.3 STATE-LED INITIATIVES 553.4: REGIONAL REALITIES 59PROFILE THREE: ROSELLE MEDIA (ANGUILLA) 60PROFILE FOUR: ST. PAUL’S DISTRICT, ANTIGUA 61

PROFILE FIVE: TRAVELING CARIBBEAN SHOWCASE 65 3.5 POLICY AND PROGRAMMATIC FRAMEWORK 66

CHAPTER FOUR: ACTION PLAN AUDIO VISUAL - SECTOR 71

4.1: KEY SPHERES FOR ACTION 71 4.2: ACTION PLAN – AUDIO VISUAL SECTOR 74

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUDING REMARKS 78

5.1 INTRODUCTION 78 5.2 SUMMARY 79 5.3 THE ARCHITECTURE FOR THE PLAN 83

APPENDICES 84

1. SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE – EOVERNMENT 84 2. SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE – EUSIC SECTOR 86 3. SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE – EUDIO VISUAL SECTOR 88

BIBLIOGRAPHY 90

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: WHO GETS PAID IN THE US MUSIC INDUSTRY? .............................................................................20 TABLE 2: EXISTING CD PRICING MODEL (APPROXIMATELY).....................................................................20 TABLE 3: MANDATE OF SELECTED INSTITUTIONS OF SUPPORT FOR THE OECS MUSIC SECTOR ....................37 TABLE 4: IMPACT OF GLOBAL PIRACY ON THE AV INDUSTRY (SELECTED COUNTRIES) - LECT ...................53

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‘Re-imagining. Re-fashioning. Re-building: Actions for our creative eco-

systems 2010 -2012’ lays out a development pathway for the OECS’ music

and audio-visual industries. It achieves this by conducting a situational

analysis of both sectors and comparing this with the vision for the industry as

articulated by a wide range of stakeholders including policy-makers, industry

members, and regional developmental agencies. This action plan

recommends a set of strategic interventions that are aimed at disturbing the

current operating systems, so that a process for closing the gaps between the

current reality and vision for the industry is formulated, implemented and

evaluated.

The rationale for the study is based on the potential of both sectors to act as

vectors for socio-economic growth in the light of the declining value-added

that is derived from the traditional industries such as tourism, bananas and

sugar. The current global recession also acts as an impetus for re-tooling the

economies of the OECS territories to sectors that are not so vulnerable to

external shocks. For instance, a recent UN ECLAC report showed that tourism

related expenditures are equivalent to 15 – 44% of GDP in the OECS territories,

and that growth is expected to slow to between zero and 2 percent in 2009.

Meanwhile, a growing body of research shows that the arts and cultural

industries can act as vectors of growth during tough economic times since

they can create jobs, generate revenue, and facilitate linkages with various

areas of the economy. For example, the Works Progress Administration

Federal One Project – FOP, (1935- 1942) that was launched during the Great

Depression under US President Franklyn Roosevelt was instrumental in putting

people back to work and generating economic activity that helped get the

US out of depression1. As such, the opportunity to develop the cultural sector

is propitious given the economic decline.

1 The FOP was divided into five components, including the Federal Arts Project which employed 5,300 visual artists and produced over 108,000 paintings and 2,500 murals; the Federal Music Project which employed 16,000 musicians and conducted music classes in 27

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In this regard, the consultants were charged with four main tasks in fulfillment

of the project objectives as follows:

1. To evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the current inputs

including the deployment of resources, training and programming to develop

the sectors.

2. To analyse the efficiency of current policy approaches as it relates to

the definition of the problem facing the sectors.

3. To conduct a stakeholder and situational analysis of the two sectors to

frame a new strategic vision.

4. To develop a new framework of action for each sector over the next

two-year period.

The action plan is predicated on a set of dual concepts that have guided the

process and outcome of the project. The first concept is related to the

production and consumption of cultural goods and services in a value

creating ecology that emphasises the linkages between the various steps

along the horizontal and vertical value chains. The notion of ‘creative

ecosystems’ refers to a set of dynamic interrelationships between artists, their

audiences and the infrastructure that supports them in bringing their work to

the market. In healthy cultural eco systems these three elements combine

to create integrated and self-sustaining communities where both the intrinsic

and instrumental value of culture is recognised. The second concept is

based on a systems approach to policy making, whereby policy is viewed as

being most effective when it interferes with existing systems in the cultural

ecology with the view to either strengthening good ones, or re-organising

dysfunctional ones. In this approach, the role of policy in directly assisting

individual artists, enterprises or associations is delimited for a more strategic

positioning within and between systems of production and consumption.

The situational analysis reiterated the findings of previous studies (Nurse, 2002,

Callender 2006, OECS-EDU, 2007) that showed that enterprises in both sectors

can be described as nascent concerns with some competitive advantage in

states; the Federal Theatre Project which employed 12,700 theatre workers and produced 12,00 plays. http://www.wwcd.org/policy/US/newdeal.html#FAP. Accessed July 24, 2009.

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the production phase of the ecology where less value is extracted. Findings

of each sector are detailed in chapters one (music) and three (audio-visuals)

and are summarised here. The economic potential of both sectors are not

fully realised due to confluence of factors, some structural and others less

pervasive. The music industry is by far the more mature of the two areas and

generates more socio-economic activity due in large part to its linkages with

the festival economy of most member states. The audio-visual sector is in its

embryonic stages but offers much growth potential given the technological

advances in media that have improved access to the tools for production.

Both areas are deficient on the consumption side of the value creating

ecology with poor distribution to markets within and outside the region. The

marketing of products is further compromised by the pervasiveness of piracy

both in physical formats and online.

The development of both areas is urgent if the OECS territories are to benefit

from the current global opportunities. In terms of music, opportunities are

related to the decline of the hegemonic strictures of the four transnational

record companies on the global recording industry as evidenced by

plummeting record sales juxtaposed against the concurrent growth of the live

performances and publishing streams. In terms of the audio-visuals, the

increasing global demand for Caribbean cultural products has aligned with

the improved access to media technology. The key findings are summarised

below:

Music:

1. The music industry is vibrant with the greatest value accrued from the live

performance income stream. The live performance stream is currently where

the ‘best value’ is positioned in the global music industry, giving the region a

new competitive advantage.

2. The value ecology is transnational and reliant on overseas markets, especially

in the Caribbean diaspora for both production (i.e. recording and

manufacturing) and consumption (i.e. live performances, CDs and music

downloads) activities.

3. The internal markets are small and exploration of external markets to achieve

sustainability is necessary.

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4. Distribution and marketing strategies are underdeveloped, and not enough

effort has been placed in optimizing trade within the Caribbean diaspora and

other developing countries to the South.

5. The decline of the global recording industry offers new placement and

promotional opportunities for the OECS music sector.

6. The EPA with the European Union offers the promise of increased market

access along with technical assistance for the formulation of cultural policies.

Audio-visuals

1. The audio-visual sector represents a small but growing industry with the best

value extracted at the production phase of the ecology.

2. The OECS region is rich in ‘stories to tell’ which can be translated into

‘products to sell’.

3. The existing distribution channels are centred along the north-south axis,

which does not benefit products from the OECS region.

4. The internal markets for audio-visual products are small and necessitate an

ongoing search for external markets.

5. The linkages between the other cultural sectors (i.e. culinary, performing,

visual arts; animation in video games, advertising etc.) to help cataylse the

industry are not fully developed.

6. Institutions of support are weak both within and outside of the industry.

7. The EPA with the European Union, which is strong on audio-visual content,

offers some promise for increased market access and improved technological

support.

Recommendations

The research highlighted the various challenges facing both sectors and has

identified the lack of a robust policy regime as the core problem. Most member

states did not pay enough attention to this critical role of policies in creating the

environment for the cultural industries to thrive. More importantly, the need to create

convergence and synergies between the various policy domains (i.e. culture, trade &

industry, tourism, community and enterprise development) was weak or completely

non-existent in most territories. Moreover, the lead role of cultural policy in framing

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and setting the tone for the other policies to follow is mute. In this regard, this report’s

recommendations are predicated on a systems approach to policy making with

more emphasis placed on creating the architecture for the industry to thrive. The

action plan also tries to redress the imbalance whereby the policy domain has

traditionally emphasized cultural production. In this regard, various suggestions are

provided to encourage activity and grow sustainable systems in the realm of

consumption through market research and distribution.

A set of broad goals has been devised for each sector. They are focused on four

main areas including human capital development, sectoral development, creation

of cultural districts/clusters and the trade in cultural goods and services. These four

broad areas are underpinned by the need for co-operation between all stakeholders

in constructing the requisite architecture to re-tool the sector. These broad areas are

developed into key actions for each sector, outlined in chapters two and four. More

detailed national action plans are outlined in a companion document. The general

actions for the AV and music sectors are as follows:

1. Developing and sustaining human capital development in the core and

ancillary areas of the sectors.

2. Developing and sustaining the infrastructure for the sector

3. Developing and sustaining the cultural economy.

4. Co-ordinating marketing and events to increase profile of the region as a

cultural destination.

5. Identifying and developing cultural districts

‘Re-Imagining, Re-Fashioning, Re-Building: Actions for our creative ecosystems

(2010 – 2012)’ concludes by employing the metaphor of constructing a house

to facilitate a more systematic approach to developing the architecture for

the industries to grow and thrive (see page 86). It also outlines the roles and

responsibilities for the array of stakeholders, (international, regional, and

national) to delimit the duplication of effort and expending of scarce

resources within the territories. It is hoped that this exercise builds on ongoing

efforts aimed at developing both sectors but that it also marks a small turn in

the road whereby regional policymakers, national governments and the

communities of artists and entrepreneurs join forces to create healthy cultural ecosystems that equally celebrates and respects both the intrinsic and

instrumental values of the OECS’ cultural industries.

8 !

The cultural industry sector has experienced exponential growth in the last

two decades, with global earnings valued at over U.S$1.2 trillion in 20052. The

small-island developing states in the Caribbean are well poised to take

advantage of the trade in cultural goods and services because it offers

opportunities to link critical development imperatives, namely cultural

citizenship and identity, spatial culture, media and communication within a

framework of sustainable economic growth. In this regard, the cultural

industries can play a major role in generating income, creating employment

and bolstering cultural confidence. However, the realisation of this potential is

dependent on a series of strategic interventions including an action plan that

would create a new framework from which the cultural industries can be

developed and promoted to the benefit of its producers and consumers.

The growing popularity of the Caribbean cultural brand especially in the

more commercially oriented sectors such as music and audio-visuals,

underscores the importance of the cultural domain as a vector for socio-

economic development in the region. In this regard, cultural tourism3 plays a

significant part in the development of the Caribbean brand, and has

assumed greater significance within the last two decades due in large part to

the competition from other tourist locations such as those in Latin America

and South East Asia that also offer sand, sea and sun, but at much cheaper

prices. Additionally, the region has had to adjust to the decline of agriculture,

its former economic mainstay due to the expiration of preferential trade

agreements with the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.

For all of these reasons, cultural tourism represents the new model of tourism

for Caribbean countries because it promotes greater intersectoral linkages

within domestic economies, encourages the consumption of local resources,

2 ‘Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2005 - 2009’ at www.pwcglobal.com. Accessed 240709.3 This term normally refers to tourism that promotes areas such as heritage, popular culture, sports, and the environment.

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and decreases the high leakage rates4 that are normally associated with the

‘sun, sea and sand’ model. In addition, it is believed that cultural tourism

builds and maintains the region’s most valuable assets in an environmentally

and economically sustainable way, while supporting local cultures and

national identities. This model also encourages governments to protect

natural landscapes, to showcase national cultures, to foster research into

local history, and to recover submerged cultural traditions. Therefore, the

appeal of the cultural tourism developmental model throughout the region is

very strong. However, this model is predicated on the existence of a strong

cultural industry platform.

The OECS’ interest in their cultural industry sector can be traced back for at

least two decades, but it is only in the last ten years that any serious attempts

have been made to map the structure and performance of the sectors. In

this regard, several studies have been commissioned including an analysis of

festivals in the Anglophone Caribbean (Nurse, 2002). This study mapped the

structure and economic performance of festivals, and featured two OECS

countries5. The study’s findings suggested that there was great potential for

growth if the requisite support mechanisms were put in place. In 2006, the

Caribbean Export Development Agency developed a strategic plan to

inform the support for the cultural industries under the 9th EDF. The plan

addressed some of the critical challenges facing Caribbean cultural industries

and outlined four areas for support. More recently, the OECS facilitated an

audit (2007) and stakeholder meeting (2008) which successfully analysed the

structure and concerns of industry practitioners. All of the studies have

outlined a set or recommendations to improve industry performance and

productivity. One of the key recommendations coming out of the 2008

stakeholder meeting was the development of a plan of action that would

ensure long-term sustainability.

4 For example, it is estimated that as much as 50 percent of the Jamaican tourist industry’s gross earnings leave the island (Ramjee Singh, 2006:200). 5 Festivals in St Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis were examined in terms of their structure and impact on their respective economies (i.e. tourist arrivals, hotel accommodation, visitor satisfaction and benefit to cost analysis).

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Therefore, this piece of work develops this recommendation by producing a

comprehensive model for activating the music and film sectors within OECS

member states. It seeks to achieve this objective by prioritising the critical

areas for action over the next two year period (2010 -2012).

Scope of works and objectives

The project consultants were responsible for conducting four main tasks,

including a review of the current literature on both sectors, meetings with

stakeholders in all nine territories, an analysis of current and proposed policies

and programmes and the development of an action plan for each sector. In

keeping with these tasks, the project objectives were described as follows:

1. To evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the current inputs

including the deployment of resources, training and programming to develop

the sectors.

2. To analyse the efficiency of current policy approaches as it relates to

the definition of the problem facing the sectors.

3. To conduct a stakeholder and situational analysis of the two sectors to

frame a new strategic vision.

4. To develop a new framework of action for each sector over the next

two year period.

Methodology

The methodological approaches that are employed in this study draw from a

wide range of disciplines including management, sociology, economics and

the emerging field of events management. Qualitative impact analysis was

employed to conduct a general situational analysis of both sectors and

management tools were used to assess the impact of existing approaches

and programmes. The study achieves these goals by engaging in a three-

step process as detailed below:

Phase One: Strategic Analysis/Diagnosis (Where are we now?) – A

strategic analysis of the structure and actors involved in the sector

along with a review of the existing literature. Two analytical tools are

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employed including (a): Environmental Scan (PEST analysis), (b): a

TOWS analysis and (c): a qualitative impact assessment.

Phase Two: New Strategic Direction (Where do we want to be?) – The

(re)visioning of each sector by incorporating feedback from internal

stakeholders along with an examination of industry best practices,

policy initiatives and the application of findings from the diagnostic

phase.

Phase Three: Implementation (How will we get there?) – The

development of objectives and actions to realise the articulated vision

of the sector.

Cultural mapping, cultural intelligence and value production chain analysis

constitute the methodological approaches for the country studies discussed

in the plan. Cultural mapping involves the qualitative and quantitative

recording of the sector’s resources for the purposes of social and economic

action. Meanwhile value creating ecology analysis is particularly useful

because it promotes a deeper understanding of the institutions of cultural

production and concerns itself with the cultural marketplace and the

consumers of cultural products. Taken together these approaches have

provided necessary linkages between the socio-cultural, geo-political and

economic dimensions of the cultural domain as they apply to the OECS

countries. Moreover, they have provided a bridge to analyse both the

theoretical knowledge underpinning policy formulation, and the more

practical concerns of planning and implementation.

Key concepts and terms

This study is underpinned by two interrelated concepts that have guided the

process and outcome laid out in the action plan. The first concept is related

to the production and consumption of cultural goods and services in a value

creating ecology. This term is derived from the supply chain method that

describes the series of steps a product (usually a tangible one) takes from the

manufacturer to the consumer. The notion of value suggests that each step

in the chain should add value rather than simply move the product along.

The notion of a value creating ecology suggests a more interactive than

linear relationship between the various steps and involves all stakeholders (i.e.

12 !

consumers, suppliers and competitors) in the production and consumption of

cultural products or services. In this way, the emphasis is placed on a more

holistic approach to value creation in the cultural ecosystem. The second

concept that is applied throughout the study is based on the notion of

creative ecosystems, which refers to ‘the set of dynamic interrelationships

between creative artists, their audiences and the infrastructure that supports

artists and brings their work to the public’ (Seifter and Levine, 2009). In healthy,

creative ecosystems these three elements combine to create integrated and

self-sustaining communities where both the intrinsic and instrumental value of

culture is respected and recognised.

Creative ecosystems bring together a variety of stakeholders who contest,

compete and co-orperate to the general benefit of the whole. According to

Bilton (2007:53), these systems are very fluid and are more responsive to

consumer perceptions of value, specifically with regards to how products are

distributed and packaged. For instance, the impact of new media

technologies have changed the relationship between producers and

consumers allowing for greater personalization, faster response times and

new forms of value added at the point of consumption (i.e. mobility,

convenience and transferability of content between devices). Figure One

attempts to illustrate the high levels of integration and mutual dependence

that is the hallmark of the creative ecosystems within the value chain for the

music industry.

Healthy eco systems thrive on intervention from both private and public

sector organizations and the community of artists. In this regard, the literature

has thrown up four main interventions that qualify as best practices in

creating sustainable creative ecologies. They include:

1. Investment in human capital - where cultural industry policies

address how to nurture creative human capital and interfaces with

both the formal education system and the knowledge gained

through informal networks.

2. Development of cultural districts - recognizes the highly

interdependent nature of creative industries clusters and their

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impact on urban development. Cultural districts maintain a high

degree of product innovation and facilitate ongoing urban

renewal.

3. Sectoral infrastructure – a set of mechanisms to promote growth of

the sectors. These include but are not limited to national

investment in content, tax incentives for R &D investment,

intellectual property legislation, and broadcast/media quotas and

policies.

4. Economic and trade policy – includes the entire range of support

for the production, distribution and export of cultural products and

services.

Taken together these concepts are employed as the basis of analyzing the

efficacy of current policy and programmatic responses in developing the

music and audio-visual sector in the OECS territories, and form the foundation

of how the plans will be articulated and activated.

Figure One- Value Creating Ecology for Music Sector

Live Performances

Distribution &

Promotion

Recording & Manufacturing

Songwriting &

Publishing

(Gov’t, supplier, consumer,

competitor)

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Structure of study

The study is divided into three sections. Section One includes a global scan of

the music industry, and positions this against the reality of the regional music

sector as it relates to the specific institutions, programmes, policies and

practices that have been formulated for its development (Chapter One).

The gaps that were highlighted from this analysis, along with stakeholder

inputs were used to fashion an action plan that brings this section to a close

(Chapter Two). In the same vein, Section Two addresses the differences and

specificities of the global and regional audio-visual sectors (Chapter Three)

and concludes with an action plan (Chapter Four). The study ends (Chapter

Five) with a proposed framework to help policy makers create the

architecture that is required to roll out the proposed action plans. Individual

country reports are compiled in an accompanying study, which can be used

to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the situation in each

territory. Each country report has a series of key actions per sector, and these

can be immediately put to use by a diverse range of stakeholders including

government officials, industry associations and individual artists.

Constraints of study

The main constraint of the study was related to the time allotted for

implementation and completion. The visits to nine territories did not yield the

wealth of information that was required since the consultants were on the

ground for a maximum of two days for each country. Visits to cultural

enterprises or opportunities to obtain in-depth interviews were therefore

rendered impossible. In addition, time did not allow for a thorough

examination of the role of regional organizations in shaping policy since trips

to CARICOM had to be shelved. Another consultant was hired to conduct

research of two other organizations in Barbados, namely CRNM and CEDA. It

is hoped that if similar projects are being developed in the future a period of

three to four months is dedicated to effect the best possible value from the

research.

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Summary

It is hoped that this piece of work will contribute in some small way to ongoing

efforts aimed at invigorating targeted approaches to developing the cultural

sector, and its important role in shaping Caribbean societal formation. It is

only through continued and sustained work in this area that knowledge of the

region’s cultural assets, resources, and modes of operation will be

improved. This improved knowledge can then be applied to policies

aimed at better preparing the region to intervene and frame

international discussions on cultural globalization.

Section One: MusicChapter One: Global Overview of the Music Industry

1.1 Introduction

Music has played an integral part in Caribbean societal formation and more

than any other creative expression is inextricably linked to Caribbean identity

formation. Music articulates the struggles and celebrates the victories of

Caribbean people while inserting their worldview onto the global landscape.

More recently, music has also become synonymous with wealth creation,

because of its capacity to generate income and create employment. In this

regard, governments have attempted to formulate policies to encourage

and facilitate the role of music as a tool for socio-economic development.

However, this brief has proven to be a daunting task because integrating

both the socio-politico and economic benefits of music into a cogent policy

framework has proved to be an elusive goal.

This chapter is divided into three sections that examine the global music

industry, the specificities of the OECS music sector, along with a review of

industry best practices and programmes. The chapter is fore-grounded by a

brief discussion of the current size and operating structure of the global music

industry, which is where the OECS music sector has been trying to negotiate

and sustain a space. This is followed by a discussion on the structure and

operating environment of the OECS music industry along with an examination

of the current set of national and regional public and private sector initiatives

that have been developed to encourage growth. The chapter will end with a

discussion on the obvious gaps that will be thrown up by the analysis of the

previous sections in terms of the specificities of the OECS music industry and

the relevance and efficiency of the architecture that supports its

development. This will set the stage for the set of policy and programmatic

recommendations that will form the foundation for the action plan, which is

laid out in the subsequent chapter.

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1.2 Global Industry Structure and Value Creating Ecology !

World retail sales of music experienced continuous growth in the decade of

the 1990’s, increasing from US $27 billion in 1991, to a record high of US $38

billion in 2000. However, piracy, the advent of new media technologies and

a global economic downturn have stemmed this growth, and the

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), states that global

music sales fell more that 8% in 2008 to US$ 12.42 billion, underscoring an

almost ten-year trend in declining recorded music sales6. In the US market, a

14.4% decline in the year-end recorded music sales is expected for 2009,

including an overall decline in CD sales of 20%7. Piracy figures have more

than doubled from US $2.1 billion in 1995 to US $4.6 in 2004. The CD market is

particularly affected, as 35 percent of all discs sold worldwide are illegal

copies. By 2006, it was estimated that 37% (one in every three) CDs

purchased were pirated products. In 2005, pirate CD sales outnumbered

legitimate sales in a total of thirty markets8. Internet piracy is also growing with

reports from 16 countries over a three-year period showing that over 40 billion

files were illegally file-shared in 2008, giving a piracy rate of around 95%9. In

spite of these figures, the industry has experienced some growth in the area

of digital sales, but unfortunately, this has failed to make up for the shortfall in

compact disc sales. The increase in digital sales is a direct result of greater

broadband access, the penetration of 3G mobile phones and portable music

players. According to IFPI, digital sales have now overtaken the value of the

global singles market and grew by 24% globally during 2008 to US$ 3.78 billion.

Digital platforms now account for around 20% of recorded music sales, up

from 15% in 200710.

The industry has also experienced a shift in the genres of music that are

currently dominating the charts. For instance, rock and roll music has given

6 ‘http://digital-stats.blogspot.com/2009/04/global-music-sales-fell-by-8-in-2008.html ‘Global music sales fell by >8% in 2008. Accessed 22/07/09. 7 ‘Holiday blues expected for music retailers’ – Reuters.com. Accessed 15/07/09. 8 http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/piracy-report2006.pdf Accessed 22/07/09. 9 http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_resources/dmr2009.html . Global digital music sales grow as music industry develops new business models. Accessed 22/07/09. 10 Ibid.

18

way to hip-hop, R&B, adult contemporary and urban music. The marketing

trends are also noteworthy as it shows that the older demographic (45 year

and older) dominate the purchasing of physical sound carriers (CDs and

DVDs) followed by the 15-19 and the 25-29 demographic respectively.

Moreover, the point of purchase is also shifting from dedicated music stores to

convenience and grocery chains. In this regard, the last five years has

witnessed the decline of Virgin, and HMV with the closing of their stores

worldwide. Instead, top ten artists choose to sell directly to big department

stores such as Walmart and Target11 in the US and Tesco in the UK to push their

product. For instance, in the US market these outlets accounted for 52.8% of

sales as opposed to 33.2% from dedicated music stores in 2005, while

supermarkets in the UK saw their share of music sales grow from 21.9 % in 2003

to 35% in 2008.

1.3 Environmental Scan:

It is fair to say that the last decade has witnessed a sea change in the music

industry as a confluence of technological and socio-economic factors have

changed the way music is produced and consumed. However, it is clear that

although some areas of the music industry (i.e. recording industry) are

experiencing a decline, there has never been a time in history when so much

music is available to so many. Consumer demand for music is higher than

ever, and in the US consumption rose by 33% between 2003 and 200712.

This surge in music production and consumption is due in large part to the

advent of new media technologies. With the improvements in home based

technology, more writers and producers are directly engaged, and exert

more control over the process of creating recordings than in any other time in

history. Digital quality recordings can now be produced in small home based

studios through Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) technology. This

11 Garth Brooks, AC/DC and the Eagles circumvented the traditional distribution system by brokering exclusive deals with the world’s biggest retail chain Walmart, with successful results. More recently, Prince entered into an exclusive deal with Target to move his latest project Lotusflow3R, a 3 CD set for $US 11.99. 12 http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_resources/dmr2009.html Global digital music sales grow as music industry develops new business models. Accessed 22/07/09.

19!

trend has enabled and ensured that greater volumes and varieties of music

have a space in the market. Meanwhile, the advent of the World Wide Web

has provided an affordable marketing and distribution network for music,

aided by stand alone computer CD burners which have made the replication

of small numbers of CD copies a practical option for many musicians and

pirates. In addition, the creation of the Universal Product Code has

facilitated the introduction of more sophisticated inventory systems, while

electronic data gathering mechanisms have made market research more

comprehensive and dynamic for record companies, broadcasters and music

publishers. Broadcast data systems have been extremely useful in tracking

airplay in the larger markets such as North America, Europe, and parts of Asia

and Latin America. These systems do not track music played in what are

deemed to be the smaller markets of Africa, the Caribbean and Eastern

Europe. Finally the growth in audience consumption can be attributed to the

growing access to broadband, cable, satellite, home videos and DVDs, cell

phone rings and computer games.

Meanwhile, the economics of music presents a far less equitable picture. The

structure of the business is primarily shaped by four transnational companies

(TNCs) operating in an oligopolistic system. They are Universal Music Group

(28.8%), Sony BMG (20.1%), EMI Group (10.9%) and Warner Music Group

(14.4%), and in 2008 they controlled 74.2 percent of global music trade13.

While, there is substantial evidence to show that their stranglehold on the

record business is shifting as earnings from CDs continue to decline, their

influence is still robust. For example, the TNCs also own major production,

marketing and distribution networks and in so doing exert a very powerful

influence on the size, structure and practices of the international music

industry and therefore set the standards for how income from record sales is

divided. In the USA for example, an artist only receives the equivalent of

eleven percent of the Published Price to Dealers ($12.05) on each CD sold.

The record company extracts a further ten percent for free goods, in addition

to the costs for recording, video production, independent promotion and

tour support. Table one illustrates the best-case scenariofor a top-tier artist

13 www.reuters.com/article/idUSL0375895920080403. Accessed 22/07/09

20 !

who sells 500,000 units of a record and obtains approximately $119,000 from

these sales. It should be noted that an artist may not even get this money in

a lump sum, since the record companies usually hold back a reserve of about

thirty-five to fifty percent in case the sales of the record were to change. This

could mean that an artist may get nothing for his/her first financial statement.

Table two lays out the percentage take for various stakeholders in the

recording business and highlights that the creative input from the artist is

valued the least, usurped by the rights of the record label and the retailer.

Morever, it is important to state that the best selling albums in today’s market

rarely ever sell more than 150,000 units14, which further diminishes the earning

capacity of the artist from the recording stream.

Table 1: Who gets paid in the US music industry?

ACTIVITY Financial detailsPublished Price to dealers (PPD) $12.05

Royalty averages eleven percent of the PPD per CD

sale (11% of 12.05)

$1.32

Royalty on sale of 500,000 CDs = 1.32 x 500,000 $660,000.00

Less 10% free goods (which goes back to the label) 66,000.00

Less recording costs $250,000.00

Less 50% of independent promotion $100,000.00

Less 50% of video costs $75,000.00

Less tour support $50,000.00

Total income collected for sales of 500,000 albums $119,000.00

Source: Carter 2007

Table 2: Existing CD Pricing Model (Approximately)

Artist Label Manufacturing Shipping Retailer Customer

8% 49% 8% 5% 30% =100%Source: Kusek & Leonhard (2005)

This system has been traditionally contested by the independent music labels

that account for approximately 20% of the world’s music business. However,

14 This trend was bucked with the rush to purchase Michael Jackson’s music after his death, where in the week ending July 3rd, over 2.2 million CDs of his music was purchased worldwide.

21!

this relationship is no longer simply oppositional, as the majors, through a

complex set of equity or joint venture arrangements, have acquired many

independents totally or in part. Many have argued that the role of ‘indies’ in

the contemporary global music scene has been reduced to that of recruiting

agencies for the major labels (Negus, 1996). However many claim that the

advent of the internet has provided artists with another distribution avenue

that can circumvent the hegemony of the ‘majors’. But the rush to use the

many social networking sites such as You Tube and My Space Music poses yet

another problem for independent artists since it leaves them vulnerable to

even greater copyright infringement. In addition, the popularity of the sites

can actually create a problem of differentiation and positioning in the

market. For example, a recent report showed that there are over a million hip

hop videos on YouTube and that it is becoming increasingly difficult for

consumers to negotiate their way through all of the noise if it videos are not

reinforced by other marketing and management support. As such, the

advent of the new media technologies while holding the promise of

increased access, are still put to better use as one aspect of an overall

strategy that at this point the major recording companies are still better

poised to exploit because of their pre-existing networks and resources.

Analytical Model

The analytical framework that would be employed in this chapter is based on

the Three Income Streams Model (see Figure 2) developed by Hull (2004:20). It

describes the structure of the music industry as it pertains to countries with a

longer tradition of commercial pop music and for whom the pecuniary

aspects of the music industry are paramount. The model focuses on the three

major sources of income, which are derived from i.) the utilization of a song,

ii.) the recorded performance of that song, and iii.) live performances of that

song as follows:

1. The Recording Stream –includes the recording artists, record labels,

producers, session musicians and vocalists, recording engineers, record

manufacturers, distributors, merchandisers and the consumers.

2. The Songwriting Stream – includes the songwriters, music publishers,

performing rights organizations, broadcasters, other media, and the

consumers.

22 !

3. The Live Appearances Stream – includes the musicians and singers,

personal managers, talent agents, promoters, venues and the

consumers.

Figure 2: Three Income Stream Model (Hull, 2004)

Songwriting Recordings Live Appearances !

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According to Hull (2004), in order for a player in any stream to maximize

security and profitability, they must have a stake in the other two streams.

Each stream has a point of control through which the creative input is

channeled; the record label, the music publisher and the personal manager.

Each stream also has a place where consumers can interface with the

product, such as through the radio, a record store or a concert venue. But

most importantly, it is the public consumption in each of the streams that

Public listens, watches & buys The public buys recordings

The public buys tickets

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Songwriters write songs

Music publishers sign songwriters and songs and license the use of song

PROs license broad- casters & others to song

Prints, movies, records and other use of song

Song performed

Song licensed & distributed

Artists perform for recording

Labels sign artists to record

Producers, engineers & artists make recordings

Manufacturers make copies of recordings

Distributors wholesale recordings

Merchandisers retail recordings

Artists perform live

Personal managers coordinate careers

Talent agents book live appearances

Promoters put on live appearances

Venues provide places for live appearances

23!

generates and guarantees profit and success. Unless the public buys records,

listens to music on the radio, in cinema, on the net, or goes to concerts - the

income generated in each stream is diminished. This model calls for an

enabling environment that provides the necessary inputs for the actors and

activities in all three-income streams. Unfortunately, the input levels for each

stream are not always available or accessible to the creators and consumers

of music, resulting in uneven income levels for the various streams, leading to

some type of government intervention.

Global Music Industry – Take Aways

1. The music industry is strong but the record business is weak.

2. Music and events merchandising, concerts and touring, and live

entertainment account for US$25 billion annually.

3. The artists are the brands, not the record company – and entertainment is the

main attraction.

4. Artists and managers will shape the future. Good managers will guide their

artist through the myriad of choices they must make to stay in the business

and prosper.

5. The publishing income is a crucial income stream. It takes longer to build but

tends to have more value and is a more reliable income stream than

recording.

6. Radio is no longer the primary way that people discover music.

7. Digital niche market outperforms mass marketing. Musicians by defining their

niche and USP can be successful on much smaller volumes reaching much

fewer people.

8. The current pricing model is obsolete. Selling content is no longer going to be

the main method of bringing revenue.

9. Music is mobile and new models will embrace more holistic business models.

1.4 State-led interventions

The previous discussion highlighted one of the most significant characteristics

of the music business, namely the oligopolistic nature of the transnational

companies that control the international trade in music, even as this very

system is under threat by free access to music on the internet. This structure

24

still has an adverse effect on the diversity of the industry by constraining the

type, quantity and quality of music that makes it to the marketplace. It is in an

effort to redress these inconsistencies that governments are drawn into the

policy arena. State responses encapsulate a full range of options that seek to

improve the efficiency of all three income streams – songwriting, recording,

and live performances - as described in Hull’s framework.

These initiatives include but are not limited to the following strategies. The first

is infrastructural development whereby the state creates an enabling

environment through tax and investment regimes, research and

development, promoting the necessary linkages within the public policy

arena, construction of the physical infrastructure, and granting pioneer status

to entrepreneurs in the sector. In this realm governments have subsidised

some part of the production and promotional music cycle. For instance in

the United Kingdom, local authorities in London have subsidized performance

venues, rehearsal spaces and even recording facilities. Secondly,

governments promote investment in the sector by developing a regime of

incentives. For example during the 1980’s, the London Enterprise Board

pushed public investment to critical areas of the independent music sector.

These initiatives led to the improvement of distribution arrangements for

‘Indies’ through agencies such as Rough Trade and Cartel. The third strategy

involves government protection and promotion of the industry through the

implementation of various protective regimes that include intellectual

property and broadcast quotas. One of the most renowned broadcast

quota systems was developed in Canada in order to develop their music

industry in the face of unrelenting domination of their airwaves by American

fare. Beginning in 1971, the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications

Commission (CTRC) set up a quota system of Canadian content (Can Con)

on the AM radio frequency, which was expanded to FM radio by 1976. They

developed what is known as the MAPL15 system that set out a series of criteria

for a song to gain radio airplay (Shuker, 2003:258). Songs had to fulfill at least

two of these criteria to gain access to the airwaves. By 1999, after a series of

15 MAPL – M-usic is composed by a Canadian; A-artist (principal performer) is Canadian; P–performance/production is Canadian; L- lyrics are written by Canadian.

! 25!

reviews with the various stakeholders, the quota was increased to 35 percent

Can con. Currently, the TV Broadcasting Regulations requires a public

licensee to devote not less than 60% of the evening broadcast to Canadian

programmes. This system is not without controversy, but it is generally agreed

that it had a positive effect on the Canadian popular music industry and

jettisoned the careers of Celine Dion and Bryan Adams.

Governments are also involved in encouraging consumption of music

products in both local and foreign markets. An example of such an

intervention is the ‘New Zealand on Air’ (NZOA), which was established in

1990 to promote local music (Shuker, 2003:261/2). One of its projects, ‘The Hit

Disc’, assists artists and record companies to obtain airplay for new releases,

and as such, ensures that every radio programme director in every New

Zealand radio station has access to broadcast quality copies of new singles

that have commercial appeal. To qualify for assistance artists have to meet

three criteria – the music must be classified as being from New Zealand, there

must be a secure record release date and accompanying plans for a video,

and the release must have broadcast potential. The programme has raised

the bar among local music groups in terms of technical quality and market

appeal.

Training and education also play a major part in government’s development

of the sector primarily through the provision of opportunities within and

outside of the school system. For example, the state of Chicago supports

various community initiatives aimed at spreading music throughout the state,

primarily to maintain its brand as a major US cultural hub. The Merit School of

Music is one such intervention aimed at giving young men and women life

changing experiences through music that has received consistent

government funding since its establishment in 1979. Merit offers a full range of

music programming for children, ages newborn to 18 years, including early

childhood classes, beginning, intermediate and advanced instrumental and

vocal group instruction, private lessons, theory classes, ensembles and

musical theatre. Merit's classes are offered at 90 sites throughout Chicago

and Northwest Indiana, including Chicago Public Schools, private and

26

parochial schools, community centers and homeless shelters, as well as at

Merit's own 40,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in Chicago's West Loop,

the Joy Faith Knapp Music Center. Since its inception Merit has developed a

distinguished alumni body that has been recruited to raise the school’s profile

and also to leverage the organization to obtain grant funding from the

private institutions and individuals. In 2008, Merit trained 7,000 young men and

women in its 90 centres throughout Chicago16. The Merit programme forms

an integral part of the Chicago’s strategy to maintain its brand as a cultural

centre specific to its contribution to the global soundscape. Chicago boosts

of being the home of gospel music, and has a sterling record of developing

some of the most renowned Jazz and Blues musicians and clubs including

luminaries such as Louis Armstrong and Chuck Berry.

Generally, the most effective policy interventions involve a combination of all

the strategies described above. However, the operating environment in

each country plays an even more critical role in the policy’s success. As such,

the availability of resources, the positioning and level of institutional support,

the understanding of the operational structure of the music sector, and the

political will of governments all contribute to the policy’s effectiveness.

Finally, all of these responses must be guided by a clear sense among

politicians, policymakers and practitioners alike- that policies aimed at

supporting popular music must come to terms with the hegemony of the

global music industry, and how it limits national and regional initiatives. We

now turn our attention to an examination of how these factors are played out

in the case of the OECS music industry by describing its structure and

examining the impact of the current set of policy and programmatic

approaches.

16 http://www.meritmusic.org/about/index.htm. Accessed on 22/07/09.

27!

1.5 Regional Realities !

The OECS region has experienced global recognition in the music arena

primarily through the success of individual artists such as Montserrat’s Arrow,

St. Vincent’s Kevin Lyttle, and Dominca’s Ophelia Marie and Michele

Henderson. The efforts of these performers have been instrumental in

creating a cultural brand for the region that now requires a set of strategic

interventions if the cultural industries, including music are to be employed in

the service of the OECS’ socio-economic development. A review of the

current set of approaches reveals uneven impacts that underscore the

urgent need to create a more enabling environment for the music sector to

grow and thrive.

The music business in the OECS territories is comprised of small or micro

enterprises and individuals operating in a fairly unregulated market. Most

recordings are produced in home-based studios, with the ongoing

collaboration with producers from within and outside the region mainly in the

Caribbean diaspora. Most entrepreneurs have limited access to financial,

technological and human resources, are self-financing and operate in the

informal sector. These deficiencies on the production side are amplified by

immature and inefficient market activities on the consumption side. The

primary challenge with the internal markets, in addition to its small size resides

in the seasonal nature of the music, which gives producers a fairly small

window of time to sell their products, since consumer interest wanes

significantly after the festivals are over. The small market size has also created

an ongoing search for external niche markets in the US and UK that have led

to the perennial boom and bust cycles and ongoing volatility.

Like their global counterparts, the members of the OECS music industry have

been affected by the loss of income in the recording stream due to high

levels of physical and on-line piracy. In fact, many of the artists who were

interviewed for this project admitted that it made no economic sense for

them to produce CDs because of the decreasing demand for their products

due in large part to the availability of cheaper, pirated CDs that can be

obtained on any city street. Income from the publishing/songwriting stream

28

is also under-performing since many practitioners did not belong to a

copyright or collection society or the existing structures were weak. As such,

the most lucrative income stream in the OECS is from live performances,

which is inextricably linked to the festival economy and cycle. This over-

dependence on one of the three possible income streams also creates

another set of challenges for the operating environment. The first is related to

the formulaic nature of the festival/popular music that seems to be negatively

influencing creativity and innovation with regards to the textual and semiotic

elements of the music. This trend has resulted in an increasingly homogenous

soundscape that will inevitably affect efforts at market placement due to

poorly developed differentiation and branding of the music product.

Secondly, the smallness and shortness of the festival performance space has

fostered an environment of intense competitiveness and strive among

members of the music fraternity making the viability and longevity of industry

associations a gargantuan task.

The development of the music sector is also hindered by the lack of a

comprehensive approach towards human capital development. A review of

the training and education programmes in the nine territories reveal that

training is primarily confined to music theory and literacy, which mainly takes

place in the secondary school system, and is substituted by some

programming by private institutions. There is very little formal training in the

ancillary areas of the music sector, most notably in the business of music

(management and marketing), entertainment law, bookings facilitation,

sound engineering, DJing, and the technical aspects of performance. As a

result, the human capital that exists consists mainly of persons who have

gained knowledge from apprenticeship/mentorship arrangements, or from

their own experience. Therefore the current human resource base of the

sector is not equal to the task of catalyzing industry growth, and in some

cases accounts for the wariness of both private and public sector agencies to

invest in the sector.

The main challenges involved in developing more comprehensive education

and training programmes are related to the financial output required, the

lack of personnel to teach and manage the programmes, and the paucity of

29!

physical resources (i.e. instruments, equipment and venues) to support their

development. These barriers are heightened by what can only be described

as the lack of political will among policymakers that make these hindrances

appear insurmountable. In the light of circumstances, it is clear that greater

collaboration between private and public sector approaches are needed.

In the cases where good private initiatives exist, government can assist by

deploying resources to make them better, and where private initiatives are

non-existent, attempts must be made to forge public/private collaborations.

The newly established Seales School of Music (SSM) in Grenada represents

one of the better arrangements in the region. The school offers training in

music theory and practice with a focus on keyboards, drums and strings. In

addition, the SSM (see Profile One) has plans to develop courses in Djing,

music production, voice control and the business of music. There is some

indication that the government of Grenada will support this initiative through

a grant from the government of Austria.

The infrastructure for the development of the music sector can best be

described as incomplete. For instance, the legislative and policy

environment is not cohesive, and it was clear that the objectives of the

various laws and policies that engage the sector are not convergent. So for

instance, in many of the territories custom and immigration laws levy taxes on

re-imported CDs which were produced locally and are sent outside for

reproduction, which puts an additional burden on music producers, while

there are no levies on the importation of blank sound carriers which are then

used to pirate the copyrighted material. Some territories17 had tax

concessions for the importation of equipment and instruments. However, in

all of the cases where these laws were in existence, practitioners were either

not fully cognizant of how they could access and utilize the facility, or had no

knowledge of the law at all. Other disjunctures are discernible in the areas of

intellectual property and broadcast legislation. For example, most member

states have established IP laws that are not being enforced, breeding a

culture of excessive copyright infringement, where some of the major violators

17 For instance, Grenada has a three-year prorated tax concession on the importation on music equipment and instruments, while St. Lucia offered relief for persons bringing material and equipment for the carnival season.

31 !

are state owned print and broadcast media. In one particularly disturbing

case there were vendors selling both local and foreign pirated goods outside

of the main courthouse in the country’s capital! Generally, members of both

the legal and protective services are not fully au-courant with the law, and

litigation costs are generally beyond the means of many in the music industry,

inevitably resulting in legislation that is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the

sector.

Public and private sector investment in the sector is also inadequate fostered

by the lack of incentive programmes. The sector’s viability is undermined by

the conservative nature of the traditional banking sector making it difficult for

most entrepreneurs to inject much needed capital in their businesses. The

Cultural Development Fund in St Lucia stands out as one of the better

government initiatives aimed at encouraging investment in the sector. The

CDF was established under the auspices of the National Development

Corporation and in its inaugural (and only) installation the CDF assisted 54

artists with grants from a pool of $EC 360,000. Participants requested grants

for material and marketing support and were given vouchers in the name of

the service providers to minimise fraudulent activity. Both government

officials and industry practitioners agreed that the fund was useful and

helped to generate activity in the industry. The reinstatement of this

programme with more effective monitoring and evaluation guidelines to

measure the fund’s impact is strongly suggested.

Profile One - The Seales School of Music, Grenada

The Seale School of Music (SSM) was established in 2008 with the view to fill the gap

for music training on the island of Grenada. The school offers training in music theory

and literacy with a focus on the steel pan, drum, keyboard and stringed instruments,

along with sound engineering. According to the principals, the demand for training is

so high, that re-location to a bigger facility is imminent when school re-opens in

September 2009. They also envisage that new courses in the business of music, DJing,

and sound engineering will also be offered in the new term due to ongoing demand.

The SSM has made a positive impact on the Grenadian music scene primarily

because of the expertise of its teachers. The school has been able to attract a cadre

31!

of renowned tutors who have foreign and regional experience along with sound

theoretical knowledge of the industry. For instance, one of the senior teachers is DJ

Biz who teaches engineering and will anchor the DJ course to be offered in the

upcoming semester. DJ Biz has played in clubs across the US and Europe and has

opened for renowned hip hop artists including De La Soul, Rza of the Wu Tang Clan

and Grave Diggaz. His Grenadian roots inspired him to return and contribute to the

music industry there. Another one of the tutors is part of a Cuban exchange

programme, whose area of expertise is string instruments with a focus on the violin.

Aixa Mijueu has lived and taught throughout the region and brings her experience to

the school.

The school is financed using a mixture of private funding, fees and private fundraising

initiatives. However, its positive impact has already attracted foreign technical

assistance as the Austrian Embassy recently announced that they would facilitate the

visit of a leading Opera performer who will be available to train Grenadians in voice

and music through the school. These types of initiatives auger well for the school, and

it is envisaged that the principals will build on this opportunity and develop more

strategic alliances with similar institutions within and outside of the Caribbean.

The institutional capacity of the sector is underdeveloped. The global

recession has meant that the vulnerability of many government agencies is

further compromised by further budgetary cuts, with some agencies

experiencing as much as 30% percent adjustments. This problem is amplified

in the private domain where the sustainability of industry associations is

threatened by resource constraints, internecine fighting, poor management

skills and the absence of belief in the efficacy of trade associations in

changing the operating environment through advocacy and organization.

Meetings with industry members revealed a mix of responses to the issue of

trade associations, including an over-dependence on government to ‘fix’

everything, an absolute distrust of any government sponsored initiative,

complacency about the ability of practitioners to sustain efforts to organize

32

themselves, and a willingness to begin the process of forming independent

organisations18.

The private sector is also engaged in institutional strengthening primarily

through the formation of the Coalition of Services Industries (CSI) organisations

throughout the region. The CSI represents members from across the services

sector and is aimed at maximizing trade opportunities with extra-regional

trading blocs such as the European Union. The cross-sectoral approach that is

employed by the CSI seems to provide a more sustainable organisational

template that is also being followed by some industry associations. For

example, the recently formed Professionals in Action for Creative Enterprises

(PACE) from St Lucia aims to bring entrepreneurs from various sectors

including audio-visual, music, performing arts, advertising, visual arts and

architecture. PACE hopes to provide a platform for advocacy, training,

networking and promotion of the various products and services of its

members. Initial funding will come from membership fees and from the

Coalition of Services Industries in St Lucia. The joined up approach that is

promoted by CSI and PACE has benefits in helping members explore and

exploit the common problems and opportunities of the cultural industries,

along with improving the profile and advocacy potential of the sector.

However, one of the more intractable problems with these matrix groups is

that individual members and/or sectors are usually at different

developmental stages, and these differences must be equally reflected in

work programme. Failure to keep all members engaged inevitably results in

their attrition and eventual organizational decline.

The uneven development of the music sector as described above is caused

in large part from the lack of a comprehensive policy framework. The music

industry is implicated across several policy domains and as such requires

joined-up approaches in the areas of trade and industry, education,

community development, tourism, media and culture. The export-oriented

approach to the cultural industries makes the convergence of the policy

arenas most urgent. However, the policy framework in most OECS territories

18 The meetings in St Kitts and Tortula generated such interest in trade associations that the participants immediately set up meetings to discuss the establishment of organisations. Both countries have since had their meetings and are poised to launch their associations.

33 !

did not reflect this synergistic approach even though most officials

understood its efficacy. Moreover, the important role of cultural policy in

bringing these seemingly disparate concerns together was generally

overlooked, as most territories did not have established cultural policy

regimes. For example, some territories including St Lucia, Dominica and

Antigua had written policies that were all over five years old and in need of

review, while others like Montserrat and St Vincent had not been successful in

activating or sustaining the policy formulation process. It is clear the

opportunity for technical assistance for cultural policy formulation that is

being offered under the recently signed EPA must be maximized.

The concept of cultural districts has not been fully explored as a policy

intervention in the OECS territories. In most of the islands there were many

areas that could be developed into creative centres with some strategic

interventions aimed at encouraging innovation, generating income and

employment, and leveraging tourism branding efforts. Notable mention must

be made of the St. Paul’s area in Antigua (see Profile Four), the emerging

cultural corridor in Montserrat, the Sion Hill area in St Vincent, and the

Carenage in Grenada. Each of these communities can be used as a

springboard for promoting the cultural industries through the hosting of

entertainment, training and trade events, which can be employed in the

service of branding the areas as creative clusters. This strategy also

represents a useful point of entry for policy makers because it can yield

almost immediate returns on investment if the events are well managed, and

can encompass all the components of the value ecology (i.e. human capital

development, infrastructure development, and co-operation between the

various stakeholders). While it is important for government to take the lead in

this area, they must involve the communities where these developments are

planned including residents, the cultural industry fraternity, the private sector

along with the relevant non-governmental organisations. Together they can

craft the most sustainable approaches to cultural industry development.

The music business in the OECS territories is in the nascent stage of

development and in need of the requisite policy and programmatic support

both on the production and consumption sides of the equation. The previous

34 !

discussion has highlighted the gaping chasms between the OECS music

industry and that of the global music economy within which it is trying to find

a space. The key lesson to be drawn is that the global recording industry

model was not set up to benefit the artistic community or the consumers who

purchase the music, which in large part accounts for its current state of

decline. In this regard, it is not a model that small island states like those in the

OECS should try to exemplify.

Therefore, the most effective deployment of the region’s scarce resources is

not in entering the game to play catch up, but rather to explore alternative

routes to market entry that can provide the members of the music industry

with sustainable livelihoods and market presence. In this regard, some clear

opportunities stand out. Firstly, the dismantling of the global recording

industry should be exploited to develop new avenues for distribution and

marketing, with the use of the internet playing a pivotal role, specifically as

this relates to the idea of developing digital niche markets which is currently

outperforming mass marketing approaches in the music business. Secondly,

the global demand for live music events presents a great opportunity for the

region, because the competitive advantage lies in this area. The growing

mobility of music can also be used to the advantage of the region, since

Caribbean people have always been very mobile, and links with the diaspora

are yet to be fully explored in terms of improving market access using both

digital and physical formats. Finally, the development of an enabling policy

environment is now more possible due to the availability of funds and

technical assistance under the recently signed EPA with the European Union.

The OECS community must mobilise to ensure they benefit fully from this

facility.

OECS Music Industry: Key Takeaways

1. The music industry is vibrant with the greatest value accrued from the live

performance income stream. The live performance stream is where the ‘best

value’ is positioned in the global music industry, giving the region a new

competitive advantage.

2. The value ecology is transnational and reliant on overseas markets, especially

in the Caribbean diaspora for both production (i.e. recording and

35!

manufacturing) and consumption (i.e. live performances, CDs and music

downloads) activities.

3. The internal markets are small and exploration of external markets to achieve

sustainability is necessary.

4. Distribution and marketing strategies are underdeveloped, and not enough

thought has been given to optimizing trade within the Caribbean diaspora

and other developing countries to the South.

5. The decline of the global recording industry offers new placement and

promotional opportunities for the OECS music sector.

6. The EPA with the European Union offers the promise of increased market

access along with technical assistance for the formulation of cultural policies.

The foregoing discussion illustrates the necessity for enterprises in the OECS

music industry to develop new business models that are hinged on

adaptability, good market intelligence, a strong HR base and a keen

understanding of the music industry. These firms must work along and outside

of governments to ensure the policy environment supports their work. One

such firm is the Anguilla Music Production and Publishing Company (AMPP)

which is partnering with the government to create a one-stop boutique

business for those in the music industry. AMPP (see Profile Two) is premised on

the ‘360 deal’ where artists can access the full range of services including

recording, touring, intellectual property protection, touring, merchandising

and training and development in one place. This model offers some hope for

the enterprises in the OECS territories specific to its combined funding

methods (private/public) and the holistic approach to artist development.

Profile Two- The Anguilla Music Production and Publishing Company (AMPP)

AMPP is a limited liability company that was established by three principals, Davon

Carthy, Allen Newman and Michael Millius to fill the gap in the island’s music sector.

AMPP is marketed as boutique enterprise built on the 360 approach to business, and

collapses all three income streams into a bundle of entertainment based firms. AMPP

36

engages in both business to business (B B) and business to consumer (B C)

arrangements, and is made up of five core divisions!including:

AMPP songs – a publishing facility that maximizes the exclusive opportunity to

take the lead in servicing both regional and international copyright holders

and musical artists on the island.

AMPRO- a performing rights organization that boasts as being the one of the

few PROs in a tax haven, and capitalizes on the accordant tax benefits when

applicable.

West Indie Records – an on-island record label and music production divisions

that is aimed at developing streams of revenue for distribution through

Universal Records.

AMPP Learning – the education arm of the business aimed at providing music

education services for young men and women whose programmes are

implemented in collaboration with the government.

AMPPAXA – an internet portal that is currently being developed. It aims to sell

merchandise, music and an on-line clearing-house. This arm of the company

is scheduled to come on-stream in November 2009.

The key principals of AMPP have been doing good work with their small roster of

artists. Their latest product, ‘Under Your Skin’ by jazz artist Jaine Rogers has performed

well both at home and in overseas markets. Ms Rogers has already played prestigious

venues such as Radio City Music Hall in New York, and is scheduled to do the

international jazz festival circuit during the next year. AMPP has employed new

business approaches to this project, by keeping down CD recording costs (all 11

songs were done in two days using live musicians). The CD is primarily used as a

marketing tool for her live performances and not solely as a source of income.

1.6 Policy and Programmatic Activities:

Governmental bodies in the OECS and Caribbean have been showing

interest in exploiting the pecuniary aspects of the cultural industries for at least

one decade. One of the earliest regional reports on the music industry was

commissioned in 1999 by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA)

37!

to explore the export potential of the sector19. The report highlighted the

major barriers to the development of an export-oriented approach and

developed a set of recommendations to ameliorate these conditions. Sadly,

the ten intervening years has not witnessed any meaningful change in the

operating environment save for a more intense gaze by national and

regional governmental agencies of the sector. A cursory examination of the

activities aimed at the development of the music sector within the

Anglophone Caribbean reveals an array of institutions (see Table 3) often with

intersecting or overlapping agendas, which often results in the duplication of

effort and inefficient use of scarce resources.

Table 3: Mandate of Selected Institutions of Support for the OECS music sector

Institution/Agency Mandate, Initiatives, Activities in the Sector

CARICOM Task Force on Cultural Industries

To develop a comprehensive regional development strategy and action plan for the cultural industries.

CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum

To explore the growth potential of emerging sectors, through the strengthening of industry associations, research, study tours and conferences.

Office of Trade Negotiations (CRNM)

To explore and develop trade opportunities for the sector through research, training and trade negotiations.

Caribbean Export Development Agency

To promote trade and investment in the sector through research, institutional strengthening, advocacy, trade and market promotion, direct technical assistance and investment promotion.

OECS-EDU To encourage export potential of cultural industries through research, technical assistance, strategic and action planning, trade and market promotion.

The activities of these agencies generally include technical assistance,

strategic and operational planning, trade and market promotion, training,

programme development, data collection and research. These initiatives

have been successful in highlighting some of the structural barriers to market

entry, building the empirical database, while offering some support to

develop the export potential of the industry. These organisations are also

involved in hosting regional meetings of the cultural industry and facilitate

ongoing dialogue between cultural entrepreneurs, government agencies,

19 Nurse, K. -The Caribbean Music Industry – Enhancing Export Capabilities and Industrial Deepening, (CEDA).

38

artists and private sector agencies. In the last five years this dialogue has

centred on the trade potential of the sector specific to the introduction of the

EPA. CEDA, OTN formerly CRNM and the OECS have also been on the

forefront of the research agenda and have also commissioned research on

the music industry which to a large extent has centred on IP protection, ICT

regulations, and the trade potential and economic impact (EIA) of the music

industry or specific festivals. The EIAs have been somewhat useful as a

catalyst to justify government investment in the sector, but have still not been

very successful in encouraging greater private sector investment on the

production side of the music sector. In addition, the CARIFORUM EU has

recently embarked on study tours to identify the constraints and opportunities

in the EU market in keeping with efforts to maximize the market access under

the EPA.

More recently, attempts have been made to strengthen the institutional base

of the music sector through the formation of industry associations. Most

notably, the formation of the Coalition of Service Industries was also

prompted in large part by the potential increased access to the EU markets.

The formation of these industry associations represent a critical component in

the overall mandate to develop the sector but the region must be mindful of

using the possibility of funding and increased access to external markets as

the carrot to mobilize stakeholders, since their enthusiasm can be easily

thwarted if the promise of these trade agreements are not fulfilled or greatly

delayed, which will only lead to greater fatigue and disenchantment among

stakeholders. The issue of sustainability is also an important issue facing trade

associations, and stakeholders must be encouraged to explore a combine of

funding sources to ensure longevity.

Several gaps have been identified relative to the work of these organizations.

Chief among them is the absence of policy formulation, implementation and

evaluation interventions as a first step in the development of the music sector.

Member states require both technical assistance and funding to develop and

activate their policies, but also require ongoing support to monitor and

evaluate policy impact. The regional development organisations are

implicated in ensuring that there is policy convergence across and within the

39!

various territories to facilitate all the programming that is required to promote

a vibrant regional cultural sector. For instance, synergies in trade and

industrial policy as they relate to production integration activities will facilitate

greater movement of cultural goods and service and marketability. The

promise of technical assistance for the formulation of cultural policies under

the EPA agreement represents a sensible first step in this direction given the

room for cultural industry policy to promote synergies between various policy

domains, namely trade, environment, education, tourism, community

development and media.

Another gap in the agenda is related to the marketing of cultural goods and

services which is underscored by the paucity of timely and accurate market

intelligence to inform planning and programming. The region continues to

make the mistake of placing emphasis on what can be produced and not

what can be marketed (Benn & Hall, 2006:237). In this regard, exploration of

a brand strategy based on proper market research is urgently needed. In

addition, regional bodies can assist in exploring the market potential of the

Caribbean diaspora by promoting institutional linkages with the Hometown

Associations (HTAs) in North America and Europe to strengthen market and

distribution of products. Relatedly, the regional bodies can also help member

states in developing the capacity to evaluate and monitor their programmes,

with special reference paid to those countries that have developed a festival

strategy to promote their music industries. The impact of these events must

include the triple bottom line approach20 to ensure acceptable return on

investment. Training and development in these new evaluation mechanisms

for the various festival secretariats across the region is a critical component in

sector’s growth.

Regional agencies can also offer some assistance in developing the value

ecology by engaging in innovation pathways using the creative district as a

vehicle. A growing body of research (Scott, 2006,Hearn et al, 2007) has

underscored the role of creative districts and urban planning in ‘enhancing

the collective order of the creative field’ as evidenced by the Bollywood

20 The Triple Bottom Line represents a more holistic method to evaluate major events that places emphasis on the economic, environmental and socio-political impacts.

40!

(India), Bronzeville (Chicago) examples that are cited in this report. Technical

assistance in the areas of urban renewal and planning, events co-ordination,

are all important policy inputs that can aid in this regard.

The current global recession with the attendant decline in funding presents

an opportunity for the regional policy making bodies to streamline their

activities to minimize the duplication of effort and improve effectiveness and

efficiency. Moreover, these organisations must also develop a culture of

measuring the impact of their interventions on the relevant target groups to

ensure their mandates are really being fulfilled including but not limited to the

increase levels of trade in the sectors, the formation new enterprises, and the

access to new markets.

In the final analysis, all of these prescriptions will amount to nought if the

political will and belief in the culture does not exist as a core value of all

Caribbean people.

41!

2.1 Introduction

The Action Plan sets out a timetable for implementation of the objectives for

developing the OECS music sector based on four broad goals as follows:

1. Developing and sustaining human capital development in the core

and ancillary areas of the music sector.

2. Developing and sustaining the infrastructure of the music sector.

3. Developing and sustaining the cultural economy.

4. Co-ordinating marketing and events to increase the profile of the

region as a cultural destination.

It identifies the key tasks, resources and opportunities, milestones and

outcomes for each area, along with the lead responsibility, and the key

partners who should play a part in delivering the strategy. The plan spans a

two year period, and it is hoped that the OECS-EDU will take the lead in the

first year, specifically relating to the first two broad goals, namely human

capital development and sectoral infrastructure. The OECS-EDU will have to

engage other regional development organizations that are named in the

plan to co-opt their buy in to assist in implementation. The plan does not give

detailed timelines since these should be determined internally based on

available resources and synchronicity with the organisation’s ongoing work

plan. The Action Plan should be updated annually and progress should be

reported to the relevant bodies. The actions outlined here are related to

those specified in the country report document, and it is envisaged that the

national ministries of culture, trade and tourism will work along with the lead

agencies to implement specific country actions as outlined.

42

2.2:

Act

ion

Pla

n

actio

n on

e: d

evel

opin

g a

nd su

sta

inin

g h

uma

n ca

pita

l dev

elop

men

t in

the

core

and

anc

illary

are

as o

f the

mus

ic se

ctor

Ob

ject

ive

lea

d

key

task

s re

sour

ces a

nd

opp

ortu

nitie

s m

ilest

ones

O

utco

mes

1. H

uman

cap

ital

deve

lopm

ent:

Put

in

pla

ce tr

ain

ing

in th

e co

re

(mus

ic th

eory

& p

ract

ica

l) a

nd a

ncilla

ry (b

usin

ess,

law

, tec

hnol

ogy)

.

OEC

S a

nd

Na

tiona

l g

over

nmen

ts

(MoC

& M

oE,

MoC

D, B

usin

ess

Dev

elop

men

t C

orp

ora

tions

)

1.1

Dev

elop

link

ag

es

with

reg

iona

l &

inte

rna

tiona

l ed

uca

tiona

l a

gen

cies

. 1.

2 A

chie

ve c

o-op

era

tion

bet

wee

n cu

ltura

l or

ga

niza

tions

to

faci

lita

te tr

ain

ing

a

t na

tiona

l &

reg

iona

l lev

els.

1.

3 D

evel

op ‘t

rain

th

e tra

iner

’ p

rog

ram

mes

OEC

S, C

EDA

and

UW

I, UT

T, E

dna

M

anl

ey.

Min

istrie

s of C

ultu

re

and

Ed

uca

tion

Dev

elop

men

t of

natio

nal t

rain

ing

p

lans

for t

he

sect

or

Esta

blis

hmen

t of

one

seco

nda

ry

scho

ol w

ith

spec

ialis

t mus

ic

sta

tus p

er te

rrito

ry.

A sm

all

cad

re o

f tra

ined

p

rofe

ssio

nals

in th

e co

re &

anc

illary

a

rea

s of t

he m

usic

in

dus

try

Mor

e re

siden

ts

acc

essin

g le

arn

ing

op

por

tuni

ties i

n th

e cu

ltura

l fie

ld.

Incr

ease

in n

umb

er

of sc

hool

ag

ed

child

ren

pa

rtici

pa

ting

in

mus

ic a

ctiv

ities

.

Incr

ease

d a

nd

imp

rove

d m

usic

p

rod

uct t

hat a

re

bro

ad

cast

rea

dy.

43

actio

n tw

o: d

evel

opin

g a

nd su

sta

inin

g th

e in

frast

ruct

ure

of th

e m

usic

sect

or

obje

ctiv

e le

ad

ke

y ta

sks

reso

urce

s and

op

por

tuni

ties

mile

ston

es

outc

omes

2. P

olic

y fo

rmul

atio

n an

d ev

alua

tion:

Cre

atio

n of

a

n en

ab

ling

and

cog

ent

pol

icy

envi

ronm

ent

(cul

ture

, tra

de,

med

ia,

tour

ism a

nd in

dus

tria

l).

3. E

nabl

ing

regu

lativ

e en

viro

nmen

t: C

rea

tion

of

leg

isla

tion

in v

ario

us a

rea

s (IP

, quo

tas,

ince

ntiv

es, t

ax

exem

ptio

ns, i

nves

tmen

t,

com

pet

ition

)

Ca

ricom

, OEC

S,

Na

tiona

l g

over

nmen

ts,

2.1

Acc

ess f

und

ing

a

nd te

chni

cal

ass

ista

nce

for p

olic

y fo

rmul

atio

n a

nd

mon

itorin

g.

2.2

Inve

stig

ate

m

odel

s of h

olist

ic

ap

pro

ach

to p

olic

y fo

rmul

atio

n

2.3

Dev

elop

m

ultid

iscip

lina

ry

mec

hani

sm (i

.e.

task

fo

rce)

to g

uid

e p

olic

y fo

rma

tion

for t

he

cultu

ral i

ndus

try a

t na

tiona

l lev

el.

3.1

Revi

ew a

nd re

vise

ex

istin

g la

ws t

hat

gov

ern

sect

or

3.2

Tra

inin

g o

f p

erso

nnel

resp

onsib

le

for i

mp

lem

entin

g la

ws

(i.e.

jud

icia

ry,

cust

oms,

taxa

tion)

.

EPA

(EU)

, OEC

S,

OTN

and

Ca

ricom

Ta

sk F

orce

on

cultu

ral i

ndus

tries

, O

TN.

Na

tiona

l g

over

nmen

ts

Coa

litio

n of

Ser

vice

In

dus

tries

, Ca

ricom

Ta

sk F

orce

on

cultu

ral i

ndus

tries

, na

tiona

l g

over

nmen

ts

Ca

pita

l fun

ds

secu

red

for p

olic

y d

evel

opm

ent.

Na

tiona

l co

mp

act

with

key

m

inist

ries b

y D

ec

2010

Ratif

ica

tion

of

revi

sed

law

s

Cog

ent l

egisl

ativ

e re

gim

e

Ratif

ica

tion

of

cultu

ral p

olic

ies b

y na

tiona

l g

over

nmen

ts.

Dev

elop

men

t of a

jo

int p

roje

ct o

r p

rog

ram

me

(i.e.

m

usic

fest

iva

l) th

at

refle

cts j

oint

a

pp

roa

ch.

Imp

rove

d p

riva

te

and

pub

lic se

ctor

in

vest

men

t in

sect

or.

Incr

ease

d a

nd

imp

rove

d p

rod

ucts

a

nd g

rea

ter

ma

rket

acc

ess.

44!

4. In

stitu

tiona

l St

reng

then

ing:

Im

pro

ve

cap

aci

ty o

f ins

titut

ions

of

sup

por

t inc

lud

ing

min

istrie

s of

cul

ture

, ind

ustry

a

ssoc

iatio

ns a

nd c

ultu

ral

ente

rpris

es.

OEC

S, C

aric

om,

Coa

litio

n of

Se

rvic

e In

dus

tries

, na

tiona

l m

inist

ries o

f p

lann

ing

and

tra

de

Coa

litio

n of

Se

rvic

e In

dus

tries

, EPA

, C

ARI

FORU

M -

EU

3.3

Dev

elop

syne

rgie

s b

etw

een

the

vario

us

law

s

4.1

Aud

it ex

istin

g

inst

itutio

ns o

f sup

por

t.

4.2

Dev

elop

su

sta

ina

ble

HR

&

fund

ing

mod

els f

or

trad

e a

ssoc

iatio

ns.

4.3

Dev

elop

p

erfo

rma

nce

mea

sure

s for

or

ga

niza

tiona

l su

sta

ina

bilit

y

Coa

litio

n of

Ser

vice

In

dus

tries

, CED

A,

OEC

S.

Tem

pla

te fo

r su

sta

ina

bilit

y of

cu

ltura

l en

terp

rises

and

in

dus

try

ass

ocia

tions

Incr

ease

d a

cces

s to

inst

itutio

ns o

f su

pp

ort b

y cu

ltura

l st

ake

hold

ers

45

5.

Rese

arch

: D

evel

op

evid

ence

-ba

sed

a

pp

roa

ch

to

pol

icy

and

p

rog

ram

min

g in

the

sect

or

CED

A, C

aric

om

Task

For

ce o

n C

rea

tive

Ind

ustri

es, O

TN

5.1

Imp

rove

ma

rket

in

tellig

ence

&

rese

arc

h fo

r ext

erna

l m

ark

ets.

5.2

Dev

elop

co

nsist

ent m

essa

ge

for r

egio

nal

&

natio

nal a

udie

nces

a

nd to

pot

entia

l in

vest

ors

5.3

Co-

ord

ina

te

effo

rts to

eng

ag

e ne

w a

udie

nces

and

in

crea

se

pa

rtici

pa

tion

of

exist

ing

aud

ienc

es

5.4

Dev

elop

m

echa

nism

s to

ensu

re re

sea

rch

info

rms p

lans

&

pro

ject

s at n

atio

nal

and

reg

iona

l lev

els

CA

RIFO

RUM

– E

U Bu

sines

s For

um,

CED

A, U

WI

Dev

elop

3 y

ear

inte

gra

ted

m

ark

etin

g

stra

teg

y b

y D

ec

2010

Gre

ate

r and

mor

e d

iver

se a

udie

nces

.

Incr

ease

d m

ark

et

acc

ess i

n th

e EU

a

nd C

arib

bea

n d

iasp

ora

46 !

5.5

Dev

elop

ca

pa

city

to

con

duc

t ev

ent/

pro

gra

mm

e ev

alu

atio

n st

udie

s (t

riple

bot

tom

line

a

pp

roa

ch)

5.6

Con

duc

t res

earc

h on

the

effic

acy

of

upco

min

g tr

ad

e a

gre

emen

ts (b

ilate

ral

with

Ca

nad

a a

nd

MER

CUS

OR)

Ca

ricom

–

CO

HSO

D, M

inist

ries

of c

ultu

re

CED

A, C

ARI

FORU

M-

EU B

usin

ess F

orum

, UW

I/ALJ

Sch

ool o

f Bu

sines

s (T’

da

d)

OTN

Esta

blis

h fo

rum

for

sha

ring

of

rese

arc

h w

ith k

ey

ga

teke

eper

s and

p

olic

y m

ake

rs

Even

t eva

lua

tion

and

tra

inin

g

pro

gra

mm

es

Esta

blis

h p

ublic

fo

rum

on

thes

e im

pa

ct o

f tra

de

ag

reem

ents

on

sect

or

Imp

rove

d b

enef

it to

cos

t of m

usic

a

nd re

late

d

pro

gra

mm

es a

nd

pro

ject

s

Imp

rove

d R

OI o

n cu

ltura

l eve

nts

Info

rmed

dec

ision

-m

aki

ng a

nd

gre

ate

r pub

lic

aw

are

ness

actio

n th

ree:

Dev

elop

ing

and

sust

ain

ing

the

cultu

ral e

cono

my

47

!

obje

ctiv

e le

ad

ke

y ta

sks

reso

urce

s a

nd

opp

ortu

nitie

s m

ilest

ones

O

utco

me

6.Em

ploy

men

t: E

ncou

rag

e a

cces

s to

em

plo

ymen

t a

ctiv

ities

in th

e se

ctor

7.

Busin

ess

Deve

lopm

ent:

Esta

blis

h th

e O

ECS

as

a

reg

iona

l hu

b

for

exce

llenc

e in

mus

ic

Min

istrie

s of

La

bou

r, En

terp

rises

a

nd

Busin

ess

&

Dev

elop

men

t

Na

tiona

l sk

ills

and

yo

uth

train

ing

p

rog

ram

mes

.

6.1

Enco

ura

ge

links

b

etw

een

educ

atio

n a

nd i

ndus

try (

i.e.

wor

k p

lace

men

ts)

6.2

Dev

elop

coa

chin

g

and

vo

lunt

eer

pro

gra

mm

es.

6.3

Link

loca

l em

plo

ymen

t in

itia

tives

w

ith c

ultu

ral i

ndus

tries

.

6.4

Und

erta

ke

dev

elop

men

t w

ork

in

scho

ols

to

raise

a

wa

rene

ss

of

emp

loym

ent

in

mus

ic

sect

or

7.1

Dev

elop

sup

por

t fo

r in

frast

ruct

ure

for

bus

ines

s a

ssist

anc

e ta

rget

ing

mus

ic se

ctor

.

7.2

Ena

ble

in

cub

atio

n in

itia

tives

to

a

ssist

g

rad

uate

s in

acc

essin

g

emp

loym

ent

CA

RIFO

RUM

-EU

Busin

ess F

orum

Cul

ture

in

dus

try

pre

senc

e in

ann

ual

care

er

fairs

a

t se

cond

ary

a

nd

terti

ary

le

vel

inst

itutio

ns

acr

oss

the

reg

ion

Incr

ease

d

aw

are

ness

of

em

plo

ymen

t op

por

tuni

ties

Incr

ease

in

num

ber

of

cr

eativ

e en

terp

rises

es

tab

lishe

d

at

the

natio

nal l

evel

48

8.

Trad

e &

Inve

stm

ent:

Ma

rket

OEC

S a

s a

lo

catio

n fo

r cr

eativ

e se

rvic

es (m

usic

)

____

____

____

____

____

____

__

9.

Cul

tura

l Di

stric

ts:

Upg

rad

e a

nd

bra

nd

sele

cted

ur

ba

n a

rea

s a

s cr

eativ

e ce

ntre

s

OEC

S/ED

U

CED

A,

OTN

M

inist

ries

of

Tour

ism,

Urb

an

pla

nnin

g a

nd

Com

mun

ity

Dev

elop

men

t

8.1C

rea

te d

ata

ba

se o

f m

usic

/cre

ativ

e en

terp

rises

8.2

Exp

lore

pro

duc

tion

inte

gra

tion

pos

sibilit

ies

for O

ECS

mus

ic se

ctor

8.3

Exp

lore

tra

de

pos

sibilit

ies w

ith m

ark

ets

in

the

sout

h (L

atin

A

mer

ica

, Su

b S

aha

ran

and

Sou

th A

frica

, Sou

th

Asia

); a

nd

the

Ca

ribb

ean

dia

spor

a i

n N

orth

A

mer

ica

a

nd

Euro

pe

9.1

Upg

rad

e

exist

ing

cu

ltura

l hu

bs

at

natio

nal l

evel

OEC

S/ED

U,

CA

RIFO

RUM

-EU

Busin

ess F

orum

OTN

, C

EDA

, O

ECS-

EDU

Hom

etow

n A

ssoc

iatio

ns

in

UK &

USA

suc

h a

s th

e C

arib

bea

n A

mer

ica

n D

iasp

ora

D

evel

opm

ent

Initi

ativ

e (C

AD

DI)

Ca

ricom

Ta

sk

Forc

e on

C

ultu

ral

Ind

ustri

es

Dev

elop

men

t of

on

e In

cub

atio

n p

ilot

pro

ject

in

se

lect

ed

OEC

S te

rrito

ries

Econ

omic

g

row

th

sect

or st

rate

gy

Dev

elop

men

t of

cu

ltura

l d

istric

t st

rate

gy

at

reg

iona

l le

vel

Imp

rove

d

bus

ines

s p

erfo

rma

nce

and

ec

onom

ic g

row

th

Ad

ded

va

lue

to

reg

iona

l ec

onom

y:

tour

ism,

trad

e a

nd

bus

ines

s rel

oca

tions

OEC

S b

rand

ed a

s a

cu

ltura

l co

rrid

or

with

in

Ca

ribb

ean

reg

ion

!

actio

n fo

ur: C

o-or

din

atin

g m

ark

etin

g a

nd e

vent

s to

incr

ease

the

pro

file

of th

e re

gio

n a

s a c

ultu

ral d

estin

atio

n

obje

ctiv

e le

ad

ke

y ta

sks

reso

urce

s a

nd

opp

ortu

nitie

s m

ilest

ones

ou

tcom

es

10. E

vent

s: D

evel

op

an

even

ts st

rate

gy

11.

Tour

ism

and

visit

or i

nfra

stru

ctur

e:

Imp

rove

th

e in

teg

ratio

n of

to

urism

a

nd

visit

or

serv

ices

a

nd

ma

xim

ize IC

T

Min

istrie

s of

Tou

rism

, C

ultu

re a

nd In

dus

try

CED

A,

CTO

, M

inist

ries

of T

ouris

m

and

Tra

de

10.1

D

evel

op

an

Even

ts

Partn

ersh

ip

Boa

rd

at

natio

nal

and

reg

iona

l lev

els.

10.2

C

larif

y re

spon

sibilit

ies

for

even

t p

lann

ing

and

d

eliv

ery

10.3

Id

entif

y ke

y ev

ents

w

hich

b

uild

on

O

ECS

cultu

ral

stre

ngth

a

nd

cele

bra

te d

iver

sity.

11.1

D

evel

op

and

in

teg

rate

vi

sitor

in

form

atio

n

and

se

rvic

es

11.2

Im

pro

ve

info

rma

tion

serv

ice

pro

visio

n fo

r w

eb,

tele

pho

ne,

and

p

erso

nal e

nqui

ries

CED

A, C

aric

om T

ask

Fo

rce

on

Cre

ativ

e In

dus

tries

.

CTO

, M

inist

ries

of

Tour

ism

Two

yea

r Ev

ents

p

lan

ag

reed

b

y Se

pte

mb

er 2

010

Dev

elop

a

n in

teg

rate

d

serv

ices

st

rate

gy

by

Sep

tem

ber

201

0

Ima

ge:

hig

h m

edia

p

rofil

e co

ntrib

utin

g

to

mor

e p

ositi

ve

per

cep

tions

of

O

ECS

reg

iona

lly

and

inte

rna

tiona

lly.

OEC

S es

tab

lishe

d a

s m

ajo

r sh

ort-

bre

ak

des

tina

tion

Visi

tor

satis

fact

ion

incr

ease

d

49

Section Two: Audio Visual Sector

51!

Chapter Three: Global Overview of the Audio–Visual Sector

3.1: Introduction

The nine islands of the OECS feature verdant foliage, diverse topographies,

black and white sand beaches, lakes, quays and distinct mountain

formations. These same features that have made them profitable as tourism

destinations have also made the islands attractive to film makers. In addition

to the physical landscape the islands also possess a rich heritage from Creole

languages, musical forms, distinctive tastes/spices and a fascinating built

heritage landscape. Spiritual festivals, spontaneous celebrations and folkloric

traditions, leave no paucity of material from which to erect rich and

meaningful fiction, documentaries, films, infomercials, or animated AV

products. A dynamic content driven industry is thus within the scope of the

OECS AV sector. However, governments have focused their efforts on

creating access for foreign film-makers and promoting their islands as film

locations. In this regard, the approach to the development of a film sector

has not directly addressed the growth of a skilled labour pool, and the

development of the requisite infrastructure.

The architecture for the development of the audio-visual sector in the OECS

territories is weak. Institutions of support are absent in most islands, with film

commissions and film desks present in only three out of nine islands21. In

addition, there seems to be a strong affiliation with the ministries of tourism,

which represents the dominant approach towards the sector as a location for

foreign films. The human capital of the industry is miniscule, and is primarily

made up of small and micro-enterprises that not up to the task of developing

a viable audio-visual sector. However, there is ample evidence of the

sector’s potential since even with minimum state support, some member

states have attracted major Hollywood films and numerous commercials that

21 Dominica, St. Lucia (inactive), and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

52

have resulted in the generation of foreign exchange and some short-term

employment.

However, a more systematic approach is required if plans to develop the

sector are to be realized. This can only be accomplished by the construction

of a solid foundation that is anchored in the process of continuous cultural

mapping, good market intelligence and ongoing stakeholder analysis with

the view to providing a more evidence-based approach to policy

formulation.

3.2: Global Scan and Value Creating Ecology

Size and Structure:

The global audio-visual sector represents a vibrant and burgeoning industry,

with over thirteen hundred film festivals in eighty countries worldwide. The US

motion picture industry generates the most income worldwide, and in 2005

accounted for over US$60 billion in revenue and created employment for

over 1.3 million Americans. The Hollywood model is built on big blockbuster

films such as the ‘Titanic’ which generated $600.8 million in the domestic

economy and $1234.6 million in the overseas market during 1997, while

‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World’s End’ yielded revenues of $423.3

million in the US market and $637.3 million overseas in 200722. The same picture

emerges in the European Union where over 1 billion Euros were generated

from the AV sector in 2000. However, much of the market is still flooded with

US content, which comprised 64% of all films screened in France during that

year. Domestic production is an ongoing issue in Europe with only 6% of all

films screened in the EU emanating from France and about 1% from the UK.

However, France produced the largest percentage of domestic films that

constitute 28% of all the films screened in that country.

While efforts towards improving domestic production of films are ongoing,

piracy has significantly diminished returns on investment. A Motion Picture

Association Inc. (MPAA) study revealed that the film industry lost $3.5 billion to

22 http://www.factbook.net/wbfilmsmkt.htm Accessed 15/07/09

53!

hard goods piracy in 200423. In 2003 the Smith Barney study projected an

industry loss of $5.4 billion (including internet piracy) for 2005, with US figures

amounting to $1.3 billion and $4.8b lost internationally. The study estimated

that $2.4 billion would have been lost through bootlegging, $1.4 from illegal

copying and $2.3 from internet piracy.24 The actual figure arrived at by the

MPAA was $6.1 billion for 2005. The study spanned eighteen months and over

22 countries and was based on consumer demand rather than on DVD

seizures. According to the study, losses from piracy were exponential world

over, with France, China, the UK and Canada losing $US 943 million, $US 2,124

million $US 220 million, and $US 14 million respectively (see Table 1).

Table 4: Impact of Global Piracy on the AV Industry (Selected countries) - 2005

NO: COUNTRY INCOME LOST FROM PIRACY

($US)

1. United States of America 1.3 billion

2. China 2,124 million

3. France 943 million

4. United Kingdom 220 million

5. Canada 14 million

Political Economy:

The hegemony of the US in terms of production and distribution of films in the

world market is a marked threat to developing nations. The following six

companies are all members of the Motion Picture Association of America and

are the major players dominating the entertainment industry, Paramount

Pictures Corporation; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox

23 World wide study of losses to the film industries and the international economies. www.fact-uk.org.uk/site/media_centre/.../2006_05_03leksumm.pdf Accessed 15/07/09 $&! (a). Bootlegging: involves either the purchase of illegally duplicated HS/DVD/VCD or obtaining of hard copies of bootleg movies. (b). Illegal copying: involved duplication of copies for self or receipt of illegal copies from peers who possess legitimate VHS/DVD/VCD. (c).Internet piracy: downloading of movies from the internet free of charge of acquiring hard copies of downloaded movies from friends and family.

54!

Film Corporation; Universal City Studios LLP; Walt Disney Studios Motion

pictures; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. These companies generally

employ independent producers, some specifically hired for a particular film

and others are established, larger entities working alongside the majors. The

‘majors’ focus their efforts on financing, marketing, merchandisng and

development.

The same structure exists in Canada where the largest eight companies

account for almost 80 % of total rental revenues and are subsidiaries of the

majors and members of the Motion Picture Association of America.25 The

majors and their production and distribution subsidiaries account for around

90% of US and Canadian box office.26 Robert McChesney of the National

Media Watchgroup writes in the article “The Global Media Giants” that these

transnational companies create and perpetuate ‘a system that works to

advance the cause of the global market and promote commercial values,

while denigrating journalism and culture not conducive to the immediate

bottom line or long-run corporate interests’27 . The majors sell their content at

lower rates than local producers due to the volume of their sales, thus

reducing the potential of local content to gain airplay and market share.

Impact of Technology

Advances in technology have increased the capacity of AV practitioners in

developing countries to produce low budget films of relatively high quality

and has boosted their collaborations due to the portability of the technology

and the possibility of remote editing. The capacity to convert movies shot in

16milimeter film to 35milimeter film through advances in camera optics,

colour film technology and blowing up of film has rendered film print quality

$" http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0002805 Accessed 22/07/09 $' !http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_film_studio Accessed 22/07/09 27 http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1406 Accessed 22/07/09

55!

between 16 and 35 millimeter almost indistinguishable.28 However, many

producers from these developing countries are still unable to afford or readily

access this technology.

3.3 State-led Initiatives

Governments have developed a variety of interventions to encourage

growth in the AV sector. They generally focus on five main action areas,

which when taken together, represent something of a tool kit for activation.

These actions include human capital development, the establishment of

cultural districts or creative clusters, sectoral infrastructure, and the trade in

cultural goods and services. The following discussion will examine some of the

best practices that have been deployed by public sector agencies

throughout the world.

Training and education (human capital development) in the core and

ancillary remains a critical component in building a robust industry. This

includes training at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels within both the

public and private sector. In this way, a cadre of well-trained individuals who

are available to create content and maximize the opportunities presented by

the global and local environments is developed. The role of infrastructure in

developing the industry is critical in creating an enabling environment for

both the production and consumption of audio-visual material. The full range

of programming involves the formulation of policies, legislation, the physical

infrastructure and institutional support that would enable the sector. This

includes the creation of tax incentives for investment in the sector, investment

in generation of content, support of trade associations, creation or

improvement of venues and institutional buildings and the design of a

legislative framework surrounding the industry.

The infrastructure for the Canadian AV is worth examining to illustrate the

wide range of policy and programmatic initiatives that are required to

encourage growth. The objectives that have guided the creation of this

framework are multifaceted and include the development of audiences, the

www.nytimes.com/.../business-technology-advances-in-film-low-budget- movies -get-a-high-gloss.html. Accessed 18/07/09

56 !

reflection of Canadian identity, investment in and reinforcement of

excellence, and the adoption of the new media technologies. A series of

public and private institutions have been created to support this mandate

including:

The National Film Board – responsible for the production and

distribution of innovative animation, and documentaries, digital media

and alternative drama productions in both English and French.

Telefilm Canada – provides infrastructural and strategic support to the

Audio- Visual sector including financial support, production and

distribution of films, television and cultural programming.29

The Canadian Television Fund – responsible for policies and funding

programmes, which facilitate creation and broadcast of quality

Canadian programming during peak hours. Their focus is on the

development of programming and audiences in the genres of drama,

children and youth programming, documentaries, and the performing

arts.

The Canada Council for the Arts- provides grants, endowments and

prizes in addition to administering funds for The Canada Council Art

Bank, the Killam Program, the Public Lending Right Commission and the

Canadian Commission for UNESCO.

The Canadian Audi-visual Certification Office (CAVCO) – administers

the Canadian Film or Video Production tax Credit (CPTC) and the Film

or Video Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC) in conjunction with the

Canada Revenue Agency.30

In addition to these bodies, there are also licensing bodies, taxes and funds in

place to ensure that members of the AV community have ample

opportunities to develop and produce. These include the Canadian Film or

Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC), the Film or Video Production Services Tax

Credit (PSTC), the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund (CIFVF), the

Canadian Television Fund (CTF), and the National Film Board of Canada

$) !http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/01/11.asp Accessed 22/07/09!30 http://www.pch.gc.ca/cavco/ Accessed 22/07/09

57!

(NFB). The Canadian Film and Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC) allows a

refundable credit of 25% of the qualified labour expenditure on a production,

while the Film or Video Production Services Tax Credit (PTSC) encourages

foreign filmmakers to use Canada as a location. Productions that employ

Canadians are entitled to a rate reduction of 16% for Canadian employees

under this regime.

Another important aspect of industry development is the presence of strong

trade associations. These entities are responsible for setting industry

standards, promoting members’ products and services, developing fee

structures and advocating for a more enabling environment, along with

training and education. For instance, the practitioners in Nigeria have

formulated Guilds and associations including the Independent Television and

Film Producers Association of Nigeria (ITPAN), National Association of Theatre

Arts Practitioners, the Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN) and The Actors Guild

and the Filmmakers Association of Nigeria which is registered in the US to deal

primarily with the formalization of US distribution. These bodies have

responded to issues such as funding and piracy by lobbying for better

conditions, negotiating with the government and with pirates in developing

working infrastructure for this burgeoning industry. In addition ITPAN hosts and

supports film festivals. One major initiative of the associations was the

negotiation for the setting up of Entertainment Departments in banks to

provide loans for filmmakers, where they have been successful in negotiating

the use of the film master copy is as collateral. Some producers have been

fairly successful in setting up independent distribution networks by partnering

with other producers in distributing their product. The persistent threat of

piracy in the Nigerian Film Industry prompted the association to lobby

government for the establishment of an endowment fund, under the auspices

of the Office of the President.

The development of cultural districts is widely acknowledged as a best

practice in growing creatives. Generally, cultural districts facilitate the sharing

of services and amenities, provide easy access to resources (human, physical

and financial), create jobs and assist in branding the cities where they exist.

The example of Bollywood in Mumbai, India illustrates the efficacy of

employing the cultural district strategy. One third of India’s vast audio-visual

58

industry is based in Bollywood and it employs thousands of persons. The state

of Maharashtra (where Bollywood is situated) is consistently ranked number

one by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry as an

investment destination in India. Moreover, the region’s GDP is highly

dependent on services (24%), followed by IT (21%), infrastructure (12%) and

automobiles (10%) by the regional government (Kukenshoner et al, 2008).

Research shows that the AV industry contributes to all four areas, and is

described as the engine that drives the Maharashtra economy by promoting

economic integration within the region since it joins up the music, video, TV

and live entertainment sectors with ancillary areas such as transportation,

hospitality, finance and textiles (ibid).

The trade in cultural goods and services is yet another aspect of creating an

enabling environment for the sector to thrive. In this regard, governments are

involved in developing a set of programmes to encourage production along

with ensuring that they lower barriers to the market. This intervention often

takes the form of national broadcast quotas, which plays the double role of

encouraging local production while limiting the dominance of foreign

content. It should be noted that these measures are seen by some as

protectionist and an anathema to the free market approach that is

advocated by the United States and enshrined in the tenets of the World

Trade Organisation. France is noted for the use of broadcast quotas.

Beginning in 1928, the Herriot Decree was enacted to stave off US

dominance. However, the US was able to ameliorate the impact of the

decree by attaching certain conditionalities to Marshall Aid funds in the re-

construction of Europe after World War 2. They created ceilings for the

number of US films to be screened in France, which that was reduced from

one hundred and fifty to one hundred and ten between1936 to 1951. Later

on the BluByrnes agreement (1952) was passed and designated that four out

of thirteen weeks should be reserved for the screening of local films. In 1948

French audio-visual content accounted for 40% of all screening in the

country. 31 Currently, France insists on 60% EU programming, 50% of which

must be in French in addition to other stipulations of programming for

31 http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/french_postwar_cultural/Date Accessed 22/07/09

59!

television stations to ensure that films on television do not clash with releases

of new shows in cinemas.

Taken together, these interventions create a thriving environment for the

sector’s growth. For the best results governments work along with other

stakeholders including private investors, practitioners, entrepreneurs and

intermediaries to develop a shared vision for the industry. In this regard, the

emphasis of what type of intervention is required may shift over time. For

instance, the Canadians initially emphasized the issue of broadcast quotas32

to encourage production (1971), and later on turned greater attention to

setting up of policies to encourage the country as a competitive location for

films . They also developed promotional platforms to showcase content such

as film festivals such as the renowned Toronto Film Festival, which was

established in 1975 and is staged in September of each year. We now turn our

attention to the situation in the Eastern Caribbean to establish how the AV

sector is structured, and to analyse the efficacy of the current set of

government interventions to encourage its development.

3.4: Regional Realities

The OECS AV sector is in its early stages of development and there have been

uneven interventions to encourage its growth. For instance, efforts at human

capital development are inadequate along each stage of the value chain.

Stakeholders have outlined the need for training across the board, from core

skills such as videography, editing, colourisation and scriptwriting to support

areas like IP law and event management. However, the lack of resources

makes the establishment of wide-ranging training programmes impossible. In

this regard, a more strategic approach must be devised to share resources

that involve both private and public sector organisations along the lines

employed by Roselle Media of Anguilla. Roselle Media engages young men

and women in vacation internships that are funded in part by private sector

sponsorship and involves stakeholders from the public sector including

32 Canadian Content legislation or CanCon was first introduced in 1971 beginning with music content on the AM radio bands and was expanded to the FM bands in 1976. By 1999, a 35% quota for both print and electronic media was agreed by all stakeholders.

60

teachers and parents (see Profile Three ). This joint or combined approach

saves money and provides opportunities for organisations to promote their

corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, while obtaining the crucial

buy-in from teachers and parents. It also gives the host organization a much

needed injection of human resources to complete some of its own projects.

However, it is important that this type of programming is enhanced by more

formal training interventions and that sustainable modalities are established to

ensure sustainability.

Profile Three: Roselle Media (Anguilla)

___________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Crispin Brooks is a young entrepreneur who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film

from the American University and is currently completing his Masters in Film. He

recently returned from the US and has established Roselle Media to develop radio

programming and videography for events and music videos.

During the August vacation Brooks engaged the support of the private sector in

hosting workshops for students. The first program was known as Anguilla Vibe for

which the website Anguilla Vibe .com was constructed. This was a pilot program

teaching students how to write for film. Teachers were asked to select 5-8 of their best

sixth form English students to participate. Seven students were trained and a

photographer was also brought in to give basic training. The students were required

to produce a feature length story (700 words) and a side bar. One of the students

went on to study journalism and Brooks currently employs another of the graduates of

this programme with his company Roselle Media. During the summer of 2006 with the

assistance of sponsors, a choreographer, and theatre teacher from the Hill Middle

School in Virginia were invited to administer workshops. Over 30 children at the

primary school and high school level participated in the “Creative Kids” Programme.

In 2008 on his return to Anguilla and after Carifesta, Roselle Media planned an acting

workshop for adults facilitated by a Barabadian filmmaker known as Nala. Brooks

currently has one intern training on the camera.

While all workshops were beneficial to participants, the final workshop was funded

primarily by Roselle Media and was a financial strain. Other workshops were well

funded by the corporate sector because it was marketed to students. Brooks

company will use leverage gained through contracts with corporate clientele to

continue to support the development of the industry through summer workshops.

61!

The concept of cultural districts or creative clusters is one that has not

engaged policy makers in the OECS. The efficacy of this approach relative to

the encouraging innovation, promoting healthy competition (co-opetition)

and sharing of scarce resources was acknowledged by most stakeholders,

but the injection of capital to realize this goal was cited as a major barrier.

However, stakeholders identified districts in the various islands where this

concept could be developed with the appropriate vision, management and

the injection of some resources. For example, the St. Paul’s district in Antigua

(see Profile Four) has some of the critical ingredients for the development of a

cultural district. St. Paul is home to at least eight festivals that include sailing,

music, and the culinary arts. These initiatives need to be incorporated into an

overall festival strategy aimed at developing capacity, encouraging

innovation and co-petition, and strengthening linkages with the tourism

sector. Similar examples can be found in the Sion Hill area of St Vincent and

the new capital city of Montserrat. The activation of the creative cluster

strategy will require the development of joint strategies between various

ministries including tourism, culture, sport and community development to

brand these urban centres.

Profile Four: St. Paul’s District, Antigua ___________________________________________________________________________________

The St. Paul area is an emerging cultural district with its diverse offering of cultural

festivals including Culture Fest, Music Fest, Model Boat Competition, Classic Regatta

and Antigua Sailing. The existing activity creates the basis for inter-sectoral linkages

and therefore enlargement of audiences for cultural sectors. The table below details

some of these festivals.

Selected festivals staged in St. Paul’s District (Antigua)

FESTIVAL DATE DESCRIPTION

Culture Fest March Themed ‘Rich, Diverse, Alive’ this festival

seeks to highlight and advance arts and

event management skills

Model Boat Competition April Hosted by the Ministry of Tourism assisted

by the Ministries of Culture and Agriculture

62 !

featuring 4 ft, 5ft, 6ft and 7ft races.

Antigua Classic Yacht

Regatta

April Formalised in 1967 and staged by the

Antigua Yacht club this event features

several days of races

Music Fest- Romantic

Rhythms Festival

June Highlights cuisine, heritage and culture of

the ‘love islands’ of Antigua and Barbuda

while featuring the ‘sounds of love’ from

local and International artistes.

Mango Fest July This includes a Mango-Pineapple Culinary

Competition, and Art poster competition.

Antigua & Barbuda

Literary Festival

November This involves a youth day, workshops and

readings for children, students and adults.

With a variety of established events, St. Paul’s is well positioned as a cultural district

that can be branded as a festival city and perhaps the festival capital of the

Caribbean. The Minister of State the Honorable Eleston ‘Namba’ Adams is intimately

involved with these initiatives and fully supports the producers and participants, as it is

his constituency. The Minister is responsible for Culture, Carnival, Independence, the

Romantic Rhythms Music Festival, the National Festivals Office and National Parks. He

can thus be a key driver in rolling out plans and realizing further infrastructure for the

development of the district as a festival center. As the festivals range from sporting

activities to culture with an obvious environmental concern, a number of foundations,

community groups, public and private enterprises as well as Ministries of Culture,

Tourism, Finance and others can partner to support and promote the district. The

success of such partnering is assured as the festivals affect, involve and attract a

wide cross-section of locals and foreigners.

___________________________________________________________________________

The foundation for a strong AV sector is dependant on the establishment of

supporting infrastructure through the setting up of appropriate policy and

legislative regimes, financing, venues, and ongoing research. The lack of

sectoral infrastructure is the most deficient area in the OECS AV sector and

calls for most urgent action, since without an enabling environment the

development of the sector will prove an increasingly elusive goal. For

example, an examination of the country reports (appendix) reveal that

63!

although most territories had laws against IP infringement, they were not

properly enforced resulting in rampant piracy. Additionally, attempts to

establish an investment and tax regime to encourage growth is piecemeal

and uneven. In the rare cases where some provision was made to

encourage investment such as the Cultural Development Fund in St. Lucia,

the impact was not measured, making it easy to discontinue the facility even

though the stakeholders (both government officials and practitioners) agree

that the initiative was extremely helpful. The importation of equipment is yet

another area for concern, since there was little evidence of a comprehensive

approach by the various Immigration and Customs Departments on this issue.

In some islands, such as Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St. Vincent and the

Grenadines, there was some provision made to waive importation fees on

equipment, but it was clear that the practitioners were not properly informed

about the existence of these facilities, or more importantly, how they could

be accessed. There also seemed to be some ignorance on the part of

customs officials regarding knowledge about the type of equipment used in

the sector sometimes resulting in the incorrect fees being applied. Finally, the

contentious issue of broadcast quotes was raised in all territories, with

practitioners calling for a regime that would mandate a percentage of local

content in the print and electronic media. It is clear, that some compromise

and rationalisation is required between the various media owner

associations33, the practitioners, and international trade policies to which most

OECS territories are signatories that view these quotas as protectionist.

Generally, all member states lacked an overarching policy framework to

develop the AV sector, and overlooked the crucial role of a comprehensive

cultural industry policy in bringing all these seemingly disparate concerns

together.

Institutions of support were also woefully inadequate to the task of

spearheading the development of the OECS AV sector. For example, only

three territories had film commissions or film desks and their primary concern

was selling the islands as locations for foreign films. Those in existence were

not afforded the requisite resources to conduct even that limited mandate,

33 In the OECS territories, most media houses (print and electronic) are owned by the state, which should make it easier to negotiate these quotas.

64 !

and as such they are incapable of incorporating the more expansive role of

taking the lead in developing the local AV industry. The problem of poor

institutional capacity is exacerbated by the paucity of trade/industry

associations throughout the region. There are no active bodies in existence

to advocate for a more facilitative environment, to set industry standards or

to share resources and experiences. However, it is anticipated that a

Caribbean Film and Audiovisual Association (CFAA) will be established in the

near future. The CFAA initiative emerged out of a meeting that was held in

Santo Domingo in March 2009, under the auspices of CEDA, aimed at

examining some of the key issues affecting AV practitioners along with some

recommendations for encouraging growth. If this initiative is successfully

launched and sustained, it can serve as a critical component in creating a

joint regional approach to the sector’s development.

The creation of an enabling environment for the trade in audio-visual

products will be a crucial component in building a vibrant industry. There are

currently many regional and international trade agreements that can have

medium and long term impacts on the way Caribbean audio visual content is

produced and consumed. In this regard, the recently signed Economic

Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union holds both promise

and threat and it is important that the market access and co-production

issues are resolved if the benefits are to be fully derived. The same holds true

for the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) which promised free

movement of artists and goods but seems to have reached a stalemate. A

more inclusive and evidence-based regional approach to upcoming trade

negotiations including the bi-lateral with Canada and the newly developing

concept with the Boleverian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) is imperative if

successful implementation is to be fully realized.

In addition to working out the various protocols in these agreements, it is

critical that OECS member states improve the communication strategies to

sensitise the practitioners about the impact of these and future agreements

on their sector. Most stakeholders revealed a lack of understanding and

knowledge of new and existing trade agreements, and how these might

affect their sector. Awareness campaigns, an information desk, incentives for

export and technical assistance are required to prepare stakeholders and

65!

governments to treat with the issue of cultural trade effectively. Meetings

between the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Culture are essential to

strategic intervention for the smooth development of the sector. The Road

Map to the EPA is a positive intervention aimed at promoting a co-ordinated

approach among public sector enterprises, but must include representation

from the AV community if it is to be a meaningful exercise.

Given that the issue of resource scarcity will be an ongoing challenge in the

OECS region, it is imperative that co-operation and convergence are

developed as a key strategic approach. With the global economic

recession threatening to affect the earning capacity of the OECS territories in

the short to medium term, a co-ordinated strategy to synergise policy

approaches, to share scarce resources in keeping with the concept of

product integration, and to promote and brand their cultural products must

be developed. The small size and lack of distinctive unique selling properties

of audio visual content between the various OECS territories make a unified

approach propitious. The Traveling Caribbean (see Profile Five) showcase is

an initiative that can be expanded and developed to travel outside of the

region, including the Caribbean Diaspora overseas and markets to the south

(Africa, Asia and South America.)

Profile Five: Traveling Caribbean Showcase

___________________________________________________________________________

The Traveling Caribbean Film Showcase highlights the ‘similarities and diversity of the

cultures of the Caribbean nations and the conservation of the spiritual memory and

heritage of its peoples’. It is sponsored by a range of governmental and non

governmental bodies including UNESCO, UNICEF, TELESUR, Republic Bank, the Cuban

Ministry of Culture, the Cuban Institute of Film Art and Industry (ICAIC) along with

CARICOM and Caribbean official and academic institutions.

The showcase includes films by Caribbean citizens in the region and within the

diaspora along with non-Caribbean authors who focus on the region. The selection

committee sends out an invitation for films, which are judged during the exposition.

The First Traveling Caribbean Showcase was staged in 19 countries in the region in

addition to the American Cinematique in Hollywood and the British Museum in

London. The Second Traveling Caribbean Showcase included works from 27

countries. Latin America will be included in The Third Traveling Caribbean Showcase

66

scheduled for Argentina later this year was based on a request by the Forum of

Ministers of Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The event has served as a platform for increased visibility of Caribbean works and

perspectives, while simultaneously providing a space for sharing and exchange

between filmmakers and their audiences.

___________________________________________________________________________

The preceding discussion has shown that the AV sector is not fully developed.

However, there is room for optimism if consolidated efforts are made toward

policy and product development, along with industry strengthening.

Opportunities for development are based on a combination of factors

ranging from the emergence of niche markets within the film industry, to the

establishment of relationships with international organisations, regional blocks

and other countries. These opportunities can be exploited using the strengths

inherent in the region’s film sector. The emergence of niche markets

worldwide, as evidenced by the exponential growth of Nollywood and

Bollywood, is based on an increasing demand for audiovisual content that

speaks to the particular culture of the viewer. The Caribbean possesses an

identifiable aesthetic that can be marketed to its diaspora in North America

and Europe as a response to this growing demand for ‘authentic’ cultural

products. In addition, the Caribbean’s rich flora and fauna, along with its

striking land and seascapes, imbue its cultural products with an element of

‘exoticism’. However, these opportunities must be bolstered by timely and

relevant government intervention. The following section examines the

efficacy and effectiveness of various government approaches to the sector.

Policy and Programmatic Framework !

Within the Caribbean region, there are a limited number initiatives meant to

develop the productive capacity of the AV sector as well as its underlying

infrastructure. Regional organizations such as the Caribbean Export

Development Agency (CEDA), the Caricom Task Force on the Creative

Industries and the Office of Trade Negotiations (formerly CRNM) have all

developed research projects aimed at mapping the sector and co-

67!

ordinating a more strategic approach. For instance, attempts have been

made to strengthen the sector via the facilitation of dialogue between

cultural entrepreneurs, artists and policymakers. CRNM and CEDA have been

particularly instrumental in this regard. They have hosted meetings and

workshops and commissioned projects and papers all in an attempt to foster

dialogue and the dissemination of information among the various

stakeholders in the creative industries. These initiatives, which have led to the

development of the audiovisual sector, most notably in the establishment of

film commissions, include but were not limited to the following:

A workshop on The Impact of Trade and Technology on Caribbean

Creative Industries (Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port of Spain, Trinidad, November

2004 - CRNM).

A workshop on The Creative Industries and Trade Policy (Hotel Grand

Barbados, Bridgetown, Barbados, October 2006 – CNRM)

A report on the ‘Cultural Industries in CARICOM: Trade and Development

Challenges’ (Lead consultant: Keith Nurse, 2006 -Commissioned report for

CRNM)

A workshop on the Audio Visual Sector (Dominican Republic March 2009 –

CEDA)

A workshop on Best Practices re: Regulatory Regimes and Incentives to

Develop the Audiovisual Sector in the Caribbean (Barbados, June 2009 –

CRNM)

The establishment of the CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum financed by

BizClim.

Initiatives undertaken by the newly-formed CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum

included:

A study tour of stakeholders to Europe in April 2007

68 !

The meeting of participants from two priority sectors (i.e. ICT and

Creative Industries – Film and Audiovisual) held in Trinidad in July 2007

A study tour of stakeholders to Europe in 2008 (with the primary

objective of identifying constraints and opportunities of the business

environment between CARIFORUM and EU in light of imminent signing

of EPA). Regional institutions represented included CAIC, CEDA CRNM.

Recommendations and key issues resulting from the 2008 Study Tour to Europe

include:

The importance of co-production agreements and financing support to

the development of the audio-visual sector.

The opportunities provided by the Spanish markets for other CARIFORUM

countries besides the Dominican Republic.

The exploration of other EU markets such as France while taking into

consideration the relationship with the DOMs and access to the France

Sud funds.

The necessity of securing double taxation treaties to accompany EPA

signatures.

The need for the region’s audio-visual sector to achieve critical mass in

order to provide a sustained effort in European markets.

Public sensitisation, a key element in the sustainable growth of any sector, is

also being addressed through a recent CARICOM, CEDA and UNIDO

Regional Caribbean Creative Industries Project: Piloting a System of

Cinematic & Entrepreneurship Motivation Awards (CEMAs) for CARIBFilm-

Dream Teams. CEMA, a region-wide joint development initiative, is geared

towards encouraging film productions with a distinctive Caribbean identity,

while fostering linkages among the creative producers and practitioners in

the audiovisual sector. The project, in its current form, does not extend to

local TV programming. It is hoped, however, that it can be extended to other

media developments in the region. CEMA’s ultimate goal is to aid in the

establishment of an environmental and industrial framework that will secure a

means of livelihood for practitioners in the cinematic audiovisual sub-sector. It

intends to do this through the following:

69!

The establishment and reinforcement of networks of people working in

entrepreneurship and small enterprise development.

The identification of good practices in the cinematic audiovisual sub-

sector of the creative industries.

The dissemination of information among film practitioners on what actually

works in the audiovisual sub-sector at the local, regional and international

levels with a view of feeding into policymaking on the sub-sector.

The need for infrastructural development is also being addressed through the

establishment of a regional task force for the cultural industries. The task force,

a Caricom initiative, was established to develop a Strategy and Action Plan

for the cultural industries (film, music, fashion, festivals, literary arts and others)

in the Caribbean. So far, the lack of empirical data on the cultural industries

within the region has hindered the task force in the execution of its mandate.

The OECS is represented on the regional task force by the Export

Development Unit (EDU) with the primary goal of ensuring that the sub-region

contributes to the broader regional planning. The unit is also meant to secure

consideration for the conditions faced by the small-island states of the OECS.

The Aid for Trade Initiative, funded by the IDB and IADB, is another

intervention that can provide film practitioners with the funding needed to

facilitate the trade and distribution of their products. Developments in

technology, resulting in cheaper and more efficient ways of producing and

distributing audio-visual content, also present the film practitioner with

opportunities for the production and retention of revenue.

Despite the existence of all these activities as described above, the impact,

on the AV sector is still not clear in terms of actually increasing market access,

entrepreneurial skills and technical capacity of the sector. In addition, there

seems to be some duplication of effort and targets. This situation must be

urgently resolved and greater clarity regarding roles and responsibilities is

suggested. Even with these improvements, it is fair to say that the future of

the audiovisual industry lies in the hands of local policymakers, practitioners

and stakeholders. Policies for the sector must be formulated to govern the

operations of the industry while contextualizing it development in a

70

philosophical framework. In this regard, OECS member states are well

minded to create a more enabling policy environment for the sector to thrive.

71!

4.1: Key Spheres for Action

The action plan developed, based on information presented in this

document, is organized thematically under the best practices identified in the

literature for sector development: Human Capital, Sectoral Infrastructure,

Cultural Districts, Trade & Diversity and Collaboration. A general ‘tool kit’ is

created which is based on developing the architecture for industry

development using the metaphor of a house as its guide. The foundation is

related to developing the core values philosophy of the cultural citizens. The

various levels above the foundation represent policies, programmes, projects,

and products while the framework represents the legislative and regulatory

regime. The fence must be built around the house to control access including

content restrictions etc. created by broadcast quotas and other policies.

Human Capital

Within the OECS training is required to develop the skills of producers including

filmmaking: generation of story ideas, script writing, screen writing, shooting,

(camera work), lighting, sound, editing and distribution. Training is also

needed in the business aspect of the film sector including marketing,

branding, distribution and events management. Teachers need to be trained

and finally assistance is needed in policy design and implementation.

The breadth of needs, small numbers and cost of training renders it

impractical to make provisions for capital development separately for each

island. As such islands, which have equipped facilities such as the Cultural

Centre in Montserrat and the new Audio-Visual laboratory in Grenada can be

used as headquarters to conduct regional programs.

Sectoral Infrastructure:

Development of a policy and legislative regime is a critical component in

growing the AV sector. This includes generating policies and frameworks to

access funding for policy formulation through the EPA , funding for product

development through governments, product export, information and training

through CEDA, CRNM and Aid for Trade and platforms for collaborations

72

through the bi-lateral with Canada the EPA and ALBA. It also includes the

setting up of film funds and the creation, tax incentives and broadcast

quotas.

Cultural Districts

The development of cultural districts was recognized in some islands

especially the district of St. Paul’s in Antigua and Sion Hill in St. Vincent. As

such the identification of cultural districts is recommended with the

establishment of a facility to house trade associations within the named area

and incentives created to support the development of the area.

Trade & Diversity

The synchronization of various trade policies and the development of an

OECS approach which involves the input of stakeholders, the corporate

sector, ministries and supporting agencies is essential. A system of interface

for bodies and stakeholders should be set up. Training in preparation for trade

of goods and services should be provided to stakeholders to ensure that the

OECS is well represented through every exchange. Training includes

awareness campaigns, product, marketing and distribution development

and contract negotiation.

Collaboration

Initiatives falling under collaboration also support the development of Trade &

Diversity in effecting sub-regional, intra-regional and international

collaborations. Creation of a joint calendar or magazine which deals with

issues faced by practitioners, while functioning as a point of contact between

practitioners can also work as a marketing tool to stimulate interest by

potential foreign trading partners. Inter- ministerial networking and planning

especially between the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Culture can

strengthen strategies for developing trade opportunities and can facilitate

the process of an adequate clause for trade within cultural policy or film

policy documents. Out of the ‘tool kit’ presented in the Action matrix

countries can select actions for immediate implementation.

!

74!

4.2:

Act

ion

Pla

n –

Aud

io V

isua

l Sec

tor

actio

n on

e: D

evel

opin

g a

nd su

sta

inin

g tr

ain

ing

pro

gra

mm

es fo

r the

cor

e a

nd a

ncilla

ry a

rea

s of t

he A

V se

ctor

.

bje

ctiv

e Le

ad

ke

y ta

sks

reso

urce

s and

op

por

tuni

ties

mile

ston

es

outc

omes

1. P

ut in

pla

ce tr

ain

ing

in th

e co

re a

rea

s (p

re-p

rod

uctio

n,

pro

duc

tion

and

pos

t-p

rod

uctio

n) a

nd a

ncilla

ry

(bus

ines

s ma

nag

emen

t, en

terta

inm

ent l

aw

, etc

.) of

the

aud

iovi

sua

l sec

tor

2. D

evel

opin

g a

tra

in-th

e-tra

iner

p

rog

ram

OEC

S M

inist

ries o

f C

ultu

re,

Educ

atio

n

1.1

Linka

ge

with

reg

iona

l ed

uca

tiona

l ins

titut

es a

nd

ag

enci

es.

1.2

Esta

blis

hmen

t of

inte

rnsh

ip p

rog

ram

s in

colla

bor

atio

n w

ith p

riva

te

and

pub

lic se

ctor

a

gen

cies

(AV

or

com

mun

ica

tion

div

ision

s).

2.1

Linka

ges

with

reg

iona

l a

nd in

tern

atio

nal t

rain

ing

a

gen

cies

.

BA in

Film

at U

WI,

St.

Aug

ustin

e US

and

Eur

opea

n in

stitu

tions

A

rts a

nd C

ultu

ral

Ente

rpris

e M

ana

gem

ent (

AC

EM)

pos

t gra

dua

te

dip

lom

a o

ffere

d b

y UW

I, St

. Aug

ustin

e EU

CA

RIFO

RUM

A

V fa

cilit

ies i

n M

onts

erra

t (N

orth

ern

Ant

illes)

A

V fa

cilit

ies i

n

Gre

nad

a (S

outh

ern

Ant

illes)

A

id fo

r Tra

de

CED

A

Esta

blis

hmen

t of

mem

ora

ndum

of

und

erst

and

ing

b

etw

een

rele

vant

a

gen

cies

for t

he

pro

visio

n o

f tra

inin

g.

Dev

elop

men

t of a

hu

ma

n re

sour

ce

dev

elop

men

t pla

n (H

RD).

Esta

blis

hmen

t of

mem

ora

ndum

of

und

erst

and

ing

with

re

gio

nal a

nd

inte

rna

tiona

l ag

enci

es

for t

he p

rovi

sion

of

train

ing

.

Ca

dre

of t

rain

ed

pro

fess

iona

ls in

th

e co

re a

nd

anc

illary

are

as

of th

e A

V se

ctor

. C

ad

re o

f tra

ined

te

ach

ers i

n A

V

pro

duc

tion.

75!

actio

n tw

o: D

evel

opin

g, s

usta

inin

g a

nd e

nab

ling

infra

stru

ctur

e fo

r the

AV

sect

or

obje

ctiv

e le

ad

ke

y ta

sks

reso

urce

s and

op

por

tuni

ties

mile

ston

es

Out

com

es

3. C

rea

tion

of a

n ov

era

rchi

ng p

olic

y fra

mew

ork

for t

he

sect

or.

____

____

____

____

____

4. E

sta

blis

hmen

t of

syne

rgie

s bet

wee

n cu

ltura

l pol

icy

and

ot

her p

olic

y re

gim

es

(med

ia, t

rad

e,

educ

atio

n, to

urism

).

____

____

____

____

____

5. C

rea

tion

of a

su

pp

ortin

g le

gisl

ativ

e en

viro

nmen

t (ta

x ex

emp

tions

, in

vest

men

t

Gov

ernm

ents

OEC

S

Film

Com

miss

ions

AV

Sta

keho

lder

s

CA

RIC

OM

Min

istrie

s of C

ultu

re

Coa

litio

n of

Ser

vice

In

dus

tries

Gov

ernm

ent

AV

sta

keho

lder

s

Coa

litio

n of

Ser

vice

In

dus

tries

Gov

ernm

ent,

AV

St

ake

hold

ers,

Priv

ate

se

ctor

3. 1

Dev

elop

men

t of

a c

ultu

ral p

olic

y or

re

view

of e

xist

ing

p

olic

y fra

mew

ork.

3.2

Dev

elop

men

t of

syst

ems t

o m

onito

r a

nd e

valu

ate

im

ple

men

tatio

n of

p

olic

ies.

4.1

Dev

elop

men

t of

inte

r-sec

tora

l and

in

ter-r

egio

nal

com

mitt

ees o

n th

e cu

ltura

l ind

ustri

es.

5.1

Revi

ew a

nd

revi

sion

of e

xist

ing

la

ws.

5.2

Cre

atio

n of

su

pp

ort l

egisl

atio

n

EPA

CA

RIFO

RUM

EU

CA

RIC

OM

OEC

S

Coa

litio

n of

Ser

vice

In

dus

tries

WIP

O, N

atio

nal

gov

ernm

ents

, UN

IDO

, Coa

litio

n of

Se

rvic

e In

dus

tries

Ratif

ica

tion

of

com

ple

ted

cul

tura

l p

olic

y.

Ap

poi

ntm

ent o

f a c

ross

-se

ctor

al

and

inte

r-re

gio

nal t

ask

forc

e

2.2

Esta

blis

hmen

t of a

p

ublic

aw

are

ness

ca

mp

aig

n

Pass

ing

of t

he re

leva

nt

leg

isla

tion

Incr

ease

d m

ark

et

acc

ess f

or A

V

pro

duc

ts.

Imp

rove

men

t in

the

qua

lity

and

qua

ntity

of

the

AV

pro

duc

ts

rele

ase

d.

Esta

blis

hmen

t of

pro

ject

s or p

rog

ram

s b

ase

d o

n a

mul

ti-d

iscip

lina

ry

ap

pro

ach

. E.g

. re

gio

nal f

ilm fe

stiv

als,

et

c.)

Incr

ease

d

pro

duc

tion,

loca

l co

nsum

ptio

n a

nd

trad

e

Incr

ease

d

76

ince

ntiv

es, I

P p

rote

ctio

n)

____

____

____

____

____

6. E

sta

blis

hmen

t of

inst

itutio

ns o

f sup

por

t.

____

____

____

____

____

7. Im

pro

vem

ent o

f re

sea

rch

cap

aci

ty.

____

____

____

____

____

8. D

esig

n a

nd

imp

lem

enta

tion

of

eva

lua

tive

mec

hani

sms.

Gov

ernm

ent,

AV

st

ake

hold

ers,

Film

C

omm

issio

ns

not i

n ex

isten

ce

6.1A

udit

of e

xist

ing

in

stitu

tions

of s

upp

ort

2.2

Esta

blis

hmen

t of

ave

nues

for f

und

ing

.

6.3

Cre

atio

n of

su

pp

ort i

nstit

utio

ns

tha

t do

not c

urre

ntly

ex

ist.

7.1.

For

mul

atio

n of

a

rese

arc

h a

nd

dev

elop

men

t a

gen

da

.

8.1A

pp

oint

men

t of

an

eva

lua

tion

com

mitt

ee

Na

tiona

l G

over

nmen

ts,

Inte

rna

tiona

l fun

din

g

ag

enci

es

Inte

rna

tiona

l fun

din

g

ag

enci

es,

CA

RIFO

RUM

EU,

Re

gio

nal u

nive

rsiti

es

Na

tiona

l g

over

nmen

ts, O

ECS,

C

ARI

CO

M, r

egio

nal

univ

ersit

ies

Ap

poi

ntm

ent o

f Boa

rds

of D

irect

ors f

or th

ese

org

ani

zatio

ns.

Sig

ning

of m

emor

and

um

of a

gre

emen

t bet

wee

n fu

ndin

g a

gen

cies

and

re

leva

nt p

arti

es.

Offi

cia

l op

enin

g o

f ve

nues

Pub

lica

tion

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77!

actio

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ark

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78 !

5.1 Introduction

‘Re-imagining. Re-fashioning. Re-building: Actions for our creative eco-

systems’ has examined the current set of approaches that are employed to

develop the music and audio-visuals sectors in the nine OECS territories. The

report has echoed the findings of previous studies and reiterated the fact that

both areas constitute nascent industries in need of strategic interventions at

the local, national and regional levels. In the decade or so since OECS

governments have turned their attention to the cultural sector as a potential

vector for socio-economic growth, the regional gaze has intensified and

resulted in a plethora of activities including but not limited to, the

establishment of new institutions, the hosting of technical workshops, the

incorporation of music education at the secondary school system, the

institution of regulation in selected areas, and the building of better research

capacity. However, all of these initiatives have not resulted in the type of

gains needed to elevate the cultural sector as a whole. While there certainly

have been some individual gains, as witnessed by the much cited success of

Kevin Lyttle, Jamsey P, Michele Henderson or Mitzi Allen, these have not

translated into industry gains. In fact, the common mistake of equating

individual talent with industry success has stymied the need for more co-

ordinated approaches to the sector’s development. Successful artists, award

winning films or records do not make an industry successful.

In this regard, there has to be a major shift in the core values and approaches

that have underpinned the thinking of key industry stakeholders thus far. The

challenge lies in establishing what type of interventions are required, and

where, when and how those interventions can be positioned to effect the

best value. As a starting point, this report identifies the lack of a cogent

policy framework -underpinned by a strong philosophical base - as the main

cause for stasis in the OECS cultural industry domain. As such, it focuses on

the establishment of a robust policy regime as the critical component in

ameliorating the threats and weaknesses affecting the two sectors. The

methodology endorsed here draws from the body of work that espouses a

systems approach to policy making whereby full recognition is given to the

79!

entire value creating ecology, and where interventions are positioned along

both the horizontal and vertical value chains. More importantly, this action

plan is predicated on the notion that the formulation of cultural industry

development policies (CIDP) can act as the fillip to facilitate the ‘joining up’

of the other policy domains (i.e. trade & industry, tourism, enterprise

development, education and community development) that are implicated

in the cultural industry domain.

The cultural industry development policy (CIDP) framework suggested here

seeks to redress the imbalance that has continuously plagued approaches to

the sectors’ development, namely the emphasis on cultural production. This

action plan while continuing support for the creation of musical and audio-

visual products also focuses on the consumption side of the equation by

supporting efforts to market and distribute. In this regard, CIDP systems must

be flexible enough to move through the entire value creating ecology with

the view to giving better support to already existing networks/clusters of

cultural activity (horizontal), while helping to identify and build routes to

market for cultural producers by supporting distribution and delivery platforms

(vertical) first within the locale and then in the wider global community.

Instead of targeting individual organisations and emphasizing cultural

production, the CIDP systems approach is directed towards recognising and

supporting a viable infrastructure wherein creativity can thrive. Examples of

this approach are delineated below.

Setting up or supporting joint marketing initiatives among cultural enterprises.Setting up or supporting alternative distribution networks (i.e. independent record labels for the music industry)Setting up or supporting training networks and programmesSubsidising local venues or infrastructure (i.e. providing physical space to showcase local films, or to put on live music shows, subsidising a recording studio).Providing sources of capital via grants, venture capital and educating investors about the ROI from intangible assets.Documenting and exploring the systems within which firms operate, in terms of facilities, resources and connections other sectors

5.2 SummaryThe application of this model to the OECS is only possible if there is co-

operation between the various regional development agencies, the

80!

respective national governments, and industry stakeholders with the view to

developing a more co-ordinated approach to the sectors’ growth. This

method will also assist in minimising the duplication of effort and expending of

scarce resources that characterises the current practice. This action plan is

predicated on the construction of relevant industry infrastructure/architecture

and employs the metaphor of constructing a house (see page 83) as its point

of reference, and also specifies perspective roles for the various stakeholders

as follows.

i. The foundation – this represents the core values and philosophy on

developing the cultural industries. Clarity and consensus on this issue

are fundamental, and form the basic platform for the sectors’ growth.

The country visits revealed that a fair amount of ambivalence still exists

with regard to this issue. Efforts to mitigate this situation should be

ongoing, and addressed by national governments.

ii. Level One (ground floor) - represents the full range of research

activities including but not limited to mapping exercises, market

research, impact assessments, studies on product integration,

programme monitoring and evaluation. This knowledge can then be

used to inform policy formulation. Regional organisations such as the

OECS and CEDA play a pivotal role in this regard.

iii. Framework – represents the policy regime that structures and directs

activities in the entire sector. The regime is fore-grounded by cultural

industry policy, but encompasses the full range of policies that affect

the sector, including trade and industry, competition, broadcast &

media, community development, tourism and enterprise

development. International and regional and development

organisations can provide technical support for national governments

to formulate and monitor their policy environments.

iv. Level Two – represents the full range of planning and programmatic

tools required to activate policies. These include strategic, marketing,

business and operational plans along with programmes aimed at

training stakeholders, marketing products or obtaining investment.

81!

National member states can take the lead in deploying these activities

with technical assistance from external agencies.

v. Level Three – represents the actual products and services that

emanate from the sector. It is envisaged that the marketing and

distribution of the products and services would have benefited from

evidence-based policies and planning. Networks of artists, enterprises,

industry associations along with national and regional government

agencies are implicated in this activity.

vi. Roof – represents the legislative and regulatory framework for the

sectors. This regime serves as the covering or protection for the various

industry stakeholders, and includes but is not limited to laws related to

intellectual property protection, tax and incentives, customs,

broadcast and media. National governments can take the lead in this

area with technical assistance from external agencies and

consultation with industry stakeholders.

vii. Windows and doors – represent the avenues through which

stakeholders access provisions, programmes, and other types of

resources to develop their products and access markets.

viii. Fence – represents both the physical and intangible borders that

control the content and channels that enter or leave a country. This

relates to trade, broadcast and media regimes that affect the

exchange of cultural products. Regional development agencies such

as the OTN can take the lead in area, supported by input from

national governments.

The preceding discussion has underscored the quantity and complexity of

interventions that are required to fulfil the vision of a robust cultural industry

sector. The systems approach outlined above seeks to provide some clarity

with regards to the type of infrastructure that must be constructed along with

suggestions about the best points of entry. It is hoped that a well-organised

re-imagining, re-fashioning and re-building of practical and strategic

alternatives can flow from an understanding of these issues. However, as

always the burning challenge remains whether the will, the knowledge, and

82

the resources required to perform these tasks exist in sufficient quantities to

make a difference.

!

83!

5.3 The Architecture for the Plan

1. Foundation - Core Values and philosophy2. Level One (ground �oor) - Knowledge and research3. Framework - Policy regime 4. Level Two - Planning & Programming5. Level Three - Products and Services6. Roof - Legislative and Regulative regime7. Windows - Institutions of support8. Fence (Border control) - Export and Access (control of content; channels that enter and leave a territory).

1. Foundation

4. Level Two

7. Windows

5. Level Three

6. Roof

8. Fence (Border control)

3. Framework

84 !

Appendices

1. Sample Questionnaire – Government

Date:_______________ Location:____________________

Identify the current state policies aimed at developing the music and audio-visual sectors?

1. a. Is there a cultural policy? If so, how is it being resourced and activated?

b. If not, what plans are being developed to formulate one?

2. What is the main focus of the state’s current programmatic framework (education, fiscal incentives, infrastructure development)?

3. How were these areas arrived at as priorities?

4. What are some of the issues that hinder or facilitate these state interventions?

5. a. What efforts are being pursued by government to develop human capital in the two sectors?

a. How successful are they and how are they evaluated?

6. a. What efforts are currently in place or being considered to boost the infrastructure of the music and audio-visual sectors? (venue, research & development, tax incentives).

b. How effective are they and how are they evaluated?

85!

7. Best practices in cultural industries development policies emphasize the impact of ‘cultural districts and clustering’. Can you point to such areas here, and what if any interventions can come from the state to further their development?

8. How is the government positioning itself to utilize the opportunities and mitigate the difficulties enshrined in various trade agreements?

a. European Partnership Agreement

b. Bilateral with Canada

c. Caribbean Single Market and Economy

9. Identify 3 key areas where state action can be the most effective in making a positive difference to these sectors.

b. Give reasons for your answer?

10. What initiatives can the cultural practitioners take for themselves that might improve industry conditions?

86

2. Sample Questionnaire – Music Sector

Date:_________________________ Location:_________________________

1. What has the government done to develop the music sector in the following areas?

a. Creating and recording (i.e. tax incentives for importation of equipment & instruments, IP legislation)

b. Distribution and marketing (i.e. attendance at trade shows, sponsorship of events, broadcast quotas)

c. Live performances and consumption patterns? (venue development, training of artist and event managers etc)

2. How effective have these programmes and interventions been?

3. What are the institutions of support for your sector (collection agencies, film commissions, trade associations)?

a. How effective are they?

b. What challenges have they faced in fulfilling their mandate?

4. How effective have private and public sector initiatives at education & training been in developing your sector?

87!

5. How is the music sector positioning itself to mitigate the difficulties and/or benefits from opportunities offered in the trade agreements?

a. European Partnership Agreement

b. Caribbean Single Market and Economy

6. Identify 2 key areas where action by the government, private sector, and members of the music sector can make the most difference to the development of the music sector.

a. Government

b. Private sector

c. Members of the music sector

7. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being lowest and 5 being the highest), rate the effectiveness of this workshop.

1 2 3 4 5

8. What is the most effective thing that you have learnt?

88

3. Sample Questionnaire – Audio Visual Sector !

Date:________________________ Location:______________________

1. Describe and rate the government interventions that have been developed to facilitate growth in the film sector in the following areas (tax incentives, attendance at Trade shows, funding, training)

a. Location Development (infrastructure including venues for shooting

and venues for showcasing)

b. Production of indigenous content

c. Distribution and Marketing locally and abroad

2. How effective have these interventions been and how are they evaluated?

3. Identify and describe the institutions of support for your sectors (both

formal and informal: film commissions, trade associations, training programs)

4. What initiatives/programs have been conducted to deal with industry

challenges?

a. What impact have these programs had?

b. What challenges have these programs faced?

5. What aspect of the film sector is most underdeveloped and what action is

required to address the situation?

a. What best practices should be adopted in your local and regional

film sector ?

89!

6. What types of organisations have you collaborated with in producing and distributing film and how?

a. How have these collaborations benefited you/your company and the industry?

b. What types of regional and extra regional collaborations do you

think would be beneficial to your company and the industry?

7. How effective have educational initiatives been in developing your

sector?

8. What education option do you think is most suitable to the film industry in

your country and why?

a. Travelling educators who visit monthly. Course material is also administered online

b. Quarterly symposiums and meetings open to the general public c. Train the Trainer programs which serve to prepare individuals to

teach at Primary Schools, High Schools and Community Centers d. Visiting lecturers on location for 3-6 months annually

9. Describe the most suitable action/framework for practitioners to mitigate the difficulties and or benefits offered in the trade agreements

a. European Partnership Agreement

b. Caribbean Single Market and Economy

10. Identify 3 key areas where state action can be most effective in

affecting the sector positively.

11. Describe 3 ways in which film-related enterprises and business units external to the sector assist in the development of the industry

90

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