Rising Viewership For Spanish Music
It became the network's highest-rated music special…
Rising Viewership For Spanish Music
This year has been a massive one for Spanish language music, particularly in the realm of pop culture. The 2019 Billboard Latin Music Awards saw an 11% increase in viewership from 2018 and saw Telemundo pushed to No. 1 in Spanish-language prime time. The awards ceremony, which featured performances by Ozuna, Anuel AA, Karol G, Marc Anthony, and others outperformed the combined delivery of all Spanish-language broadcast networks.
The Billboard Latin Music Awards grew out of the Billboard Music Awards program from Billboard magazine and are the Latin music industry’s longest running award. The first award ceremony began in 1994 with notable winners including Enrique Iglesias who has won 47 awards and Shakira with 41 awards. Since 1999, the awards ceremony has been broadcast on the television network Telemundo, where it became the network's highest-rated music special.
In the United States, the viewership increase stretched beyond just Spanish language programming - specifically in Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Houston. On social media, the awards show ranked as the most social non-sports program of the day across all broadcast and cable networks and generated over 1.7 million global actions and 19 million global views on social platforms.
Finalists and winners of the Billboard Latin Music Awards are determined by sales, streaming, radio airplay and social data that informs Billboard's weekly charts during a one-year period from the rankings dated February 3, 2018 through this year's January 26 charts.
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the Rising Viewership For Spanish Music! Want to broaden your foreign music library? Check out our official Spotify playlist below!
Capturing Isco Via Musica
Spain’s most wanted drug trafficker is in police custody after making a cameo appearance in a music video…
Capturing Isco Via Musica
Spain’s most wanted drug trafficker is in police custody after making a cameo appearance in a music video.
Photo: TheTimes.co.uk
Francisco “Isco” Tejon, who is thought to be the leader of the Castanas gang, which “dominates the hashish trade between Morocco and Southern Spain” has been on the run for nearly two years earlier this month, when he emerged from hiding in an unexpected fashion - in a cameo appearance in a music video by Cuban artist, Clase-A.
The video was uploaded on October 7th and was viewed nearly 50,000 times on YouTube before being replaced by an audio-only version to draw away from Tejon's controversial appearance. Spain’s National Police said Tejon’s arrest “dismantled the top level of the biggest hashish-smuggling gang that operates in the Campo de Gibraltar area” and praised officers’ “ceaseless” pursuit of the gang’s inner circle. However, the battle for La Linea de la Concepcion is far from over as Los Castanas were estimated to control 60% of the drugs trade.
We hope you enjoyed Capturing Isco Via Musica! Do you think this arrest will signal a drop in crime and drug trafficking throughout Spain? Join the conversation below!
The Virgin Mary Musical
As part of a new musical, those wishing to learn more about the Virgin Mary based in Manila, GUADALUPE, might prove to be just what they’re looking for.
The Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City is among the widely visited religious sites in the world and has inspired travelers from all over the globe seeking to pay homage to the Virgin Mary. As part of a new musical, ‘Guadalupe: The Musical,’ those wishing to learn more about the Virgin Mary based in Manila, will have access through this new production.
At the start of Guadalupe: The Musical, audiences experiencing a retelling of the mysterious events revolving around the Blessed Virgin in 1531. The original English musical marks the return to stage acting of Cocoy Laurel, who essays the real-life role of Juan Diego, the Aztec mat weaver who witnessed the apparition of the Blessed Virgin.
Official Catholic accounts state that the Virgin Mary appeared four times before Juan Diego and once more before Juan Diego's uncle. According to these accounts, the first apparition occurred on the morning of December 9, 1531, when it is said that a native Mexican peasant named Juan Diego experienced a vision of a young woman at a place called the Hill of Tepeyac, which would become part of Villa de Guadalupe, a suburb of Mexico City. Speaking to Juan Diego in his native Nahuatl language (the language of the Aztec empire), the woman identified herself as the Virgin Mary, "mother of the very true deity" and asked for a church to be built at that site in her honor.
Composer Ejay Yatco has said that Guadalupe: The Musical took 2 years to create with Upstart Productions founder, Joel Trinidad, initially writing the lyrics and the script. Learn more about the production, cast and more by clicking below.
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about The Virgin Mary Musical! Is this production something you would hope to see make an appearance in the U.S.? Join the conversation below!
Play On The Spanish Stage
If you’ve ever wanted to join musicians from all over the world onstage in Barcelona, IMEXA may have just the opportunity you’re looking for…
Play On The Spanish Stage
If you’ve ever wanted to join musicians from all over the world onstage in Barcelona, IMEXA may have just the opportunity you’re looking for. The Independent Music Exporters South Africa (IMEXSA) is now accepting submissions for participation at the Primavera Sound music festival in Barcelona, Spain, on 28 May 2019.
Founded in 2001, IMEXSA's focus is to develop and increase the number of music exporters in South Africa by identifying trade opportunities and assisting companies to take advantage of those opportunities. IMEXSA is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry and has been operating over the past eight years. During this time, the organization has presented unsigned and independent South African music professionals at Popkomm (Germany), WOMEX, Primavera Pro (Spain), Canada Music Week, MIDEM (France) and SXSW (US).
Primavera Sound's first edition took place in 2001 in Poble Espanyol and in 2005 it moved to the Parc del Fòrum. The festival frequently includes up and comers in independent music and well-established acts while presenting an array of styles and genres. Every installment of the festival has shown growth both in terms of numbers and in terms of media exposure both nationally and internationally. The first festival in 2001 closed with an attendance of 8000 people with the latest run in 2015 concluding with 190,000 attendees.
To apply, interested applicants should complete or download an application form on the IMEXSA website.
Looking to experience this ever-growing festival in the heart of Spain? Our culturally immersive group classes and native teachers are sure to prepare you for all of your foreign musical adventures! Click below to learn more.
The Red Line For Music
The conflict between music publishers and SGAE could be reaching a boiling point…
The Red Line For Music
The conflict between music publishers and SGAE (The Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers) could be reaching a boiling point. As you may remember from our previous article, “The Wheel of Royalties,” a number of Spanish TV broadcasters and music-publisher affiliates have schemed to play more of the songs they own themselves on the air and collect the royalties, thus leaving tens of millions of dollars less each year for everyone else whose music is played on Spanish TV.
Music publishing giants Sony/ATV, Universal Publishing, Warner/Chappell, Peer Music, and BMG may leave Spanish rights’ society (SGAE) by the beginning of next year as the argument over “mistreatment” of broadcast rights rages on. Momentum for this shift picked up late last year when reps for Warner/Chappell, Peer Music and EMI, were ousted from the board of directors for surpassing their term limits. SGAE then replaced the publishers on its board with reps of publishers owned or affiliated with Spanish television stations, in a scheme opponents dubbed “The Wheel.” The publishers took up the issue with the courts, which rejected their appeal, Billboard reports.
Now, the publishers are looking at other options to manage their authors’ royalties. According to local media reports, the companies last Friday effectively handed in their six months’ notice and requested the PRO remove their international repertoire in relation to broadcasting.
Those companies at war with SGAE collectively represent nearly 60% of broadcasting music rights in Spain, including the famous artists Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, and Radiohead to name a few.
SGAE collected 246 million euros in royalties last year, with television and broadcast royalties accounting for more than 12% of the total. While they do not necessarily desire to leave, the collective of publishers have stated that that "if things changed before January 2019” that they may reconsider their decision.
We hope you've enjoyed learning about The Red Line For Music! Do you think the publishers will have to resort to leaving the SGAE? Join the conversation below!
The Wheel of Royalties
The global music publishing community is putting increased pressure on a controversial Spanish song rights collecting society…
The Wheel of Royalties
The global music publishing community is putting increased pressure on the controversial Spanish song rights collecting society SGAE, stating that publishers may be forced to find other ways to license their rights in the country.
Image credit: Gavin Whitner
SGAE has been the subject of many controversies in recent years including an alleged scam titled ‘the wheel’ that incorporated royalties paid by TV networks and alleged that SGAE members had colluded with executives at Spanish TV stations in order to collect a disproportionate amount of the TV royalties. The scam chiefly involved TV stations playing music by certain SGAE members overnight, so that those members could claim a portion of the broadcasters’ royalty payments.
This incident resulted in an investigation by the World Intellectual Property Organization following action by the International Confederation Of Music Publishers that suspended SGAE’s membership until it dealt with the controversy.
In a recent statement, the ICMP said: “Despite having been reprimanded in recent months by a WIPO Arbitration Panel, the international publishing community and the international community of collective management organizations, the society is returning to its inappropriate and unbalanced television broadcast distribution scam by rejecting the decision of the WIPO Arbitration Panel to which it is bound”. ICMP has also expressed concern about “the lack of firm action coming from the collective management community to address the seriousness of this situation”, which is presumably a coded dig at CISAC.
ICMP Chair, Chris Butler, has stated firmly that: “We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: it’s time for the collective management community to work decisively towards a definitive solution. If they don’t, we will have no choice but to look at alternative licensing options”.
We hope you've enjoyed learning about The Wheel of Royalties! How do you think the World Intellectual Property Organization and the International Confederation Of Music Publishers should handle the continued saga of "the wheel?" Join the conversation below!
The Evolution of Latin Music
Spanish-language music has hit record highs and reached more people than ever before in America over the last year, but it’s not just a momentary phenomenon or passing phase, and it seems that the trend is showing no signs of slowing.
The Evolution of Latin Music
In 2017, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” skyrocketed to the top of the charts, and J Balvin quickly followed with the hit song “Mi Gente,” adding to his repertoire of hit Spanish songs throughout his career. Those two hits alone introduced millions of people who may not have normally listened to Latin music to the genre.
Spanish-language music has hit record highs and reached more people than ever before in America over the last year, but it’s not just a momentary phenomenon or passing phase. The Latin genre has been growing steadily in popularity around the world since the original Bossa Nova boom in the 1960s, and it seems that the trend is showing no signs of slowing.
The term "Latin music" originated from the U.S. due to the growing influence of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the American music market by pioneers including Xavier Cugat & Tito Puente.
As the Brazilian Bossa Nova became widespread in Latin America in the 1960s, it led to a rising interest in Latin Music globally. Rock en español became popular with the younger generation of Latinos and gave birth to the famous Mexican-American Latin rock guitarist Carlos Santana began his decades of popularity.
Salsa music became the dominant genre of tropical music in the 1970s. Fania Records was credited for popularizing Salsa music through to the 1980s, as the Latin ballad continued to be the main form of Latin pop music. As the traditional Salsa lost it’s attraction, fans gravitated to the slower rhythms and romantic lyrics which characterized the aptly named: Salsa Romantica era.
Bolero music saw a resurgence of popularity with the younger audience in the 1990s and gave way to artists that are still recognizable today such as Ricky Martin, Shakira, and Enrique Iglesias.
As the 2000's rolled in, Reggaeton became popular in the mainstream market, with Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, and Wisin & Yandel pioneering a new sound that would shape the genre and would eventually be dominated by up-tempo rhythms including Electropop, Urban, and contemporary Bachata music ushering out the era of the Latin Ballad in popular radio play.
As the ASCAP Latin Music Awards wrap another successful year in NYC, the ever expanding - and diversifying - Latin music industry is proving that it has no plans of fading into obscurity anytime soon.
We hope you've enjoyed learning about The Evolution of Latin Music! Check out some of our favorite tunes by following the official JP Linguistics Spanish playlist!