Teino Evans, Staff Reporter

Lloyd Stanbury - Contributed

As the creative sector seeks to reposition itself for greater viability and benefits, key players are being urged not to ignore critical markets that remain untapped.

"We are losing millions of dollars because of the weaknesses within our system of royalty collections and our narrow approach to marketing," bemoans entertainment lawyer Lloyd Stanbury. "Not enough emphasis is placed on selling products and performance services in markets such as South and Central America, Africa and Asia."

According to Clyde McKenzie, former chairman of the local Entertainment Advisory Board, data collection is a major weakness in the sector and poses a problem in quantifying earnings.

"The problem is it's very hard to track the data because some of what comes in as foreign exchange for tourism is really entertainment money, because entertainment brings in money in all shapes and forms," McKenzie tells The Sunday Gleaner. "So, it's hard to quantify. And what we really should be looking at is how we can make more money and not concentrate so much on what we are bringing in now, because there is a vast amount of money still left out there to be made. How much it actually brings in is different from how much it is actually worth, as worth has to do with potential," he adds.

International trend

McKenzie explains that "the problem is we don't consume music like how the rest of the world does. Our thing is more on live music, so we go to concerts more than how we buy records." He says this now has become an international trend.

"We just need to put the necessary infrastructure in place to make the money, because the music is popular, people love the music. It will take some good partnership between the public and the private sector," asserts McKenzie.

Everyone agrees, there is money to be made from the music industry. And studies have shown it to be a very lucrative foreign-exchange earner, but what of its actual worth in dollars and cents?

According to Stanbury, "There is no precise economic data on the value of the local music industry." He points to studies suggesting the global recording industry is, however, valued at just over US$31 billion with Jamaica/reggae music's share estimated at less than one per cent, according to the latest annual report of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.