Spain Calls For Government Support On Music Exports

Spanish music-industry insiders have slammed the Spanish government for failing to keep up with their European neighbors in providing state assistance in selling domestic music abroad.

The criticism was aired Oct. 30 during a multi-industry debate here called "Spanish, An Asset With an International Vocation," organized by the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX), the Casa de America private cultural foundation, and Spain's authors and publishers society, SGAE.

Several European countries now have official cultural export offices, whose aims include boosting the overseas sales of national music. Referring to such government initiatives, SGAE secretary general Francisco Galindo says, "I have nothing but envy for the Belgians, Scandinavians, the Dutch, and especially the French." Galindo says the Spanish government "behaves as if music does not exist."

But subsequent to the debate, Billboard has learned that one new music-export initiative will debut early next year. Unlike the efforts in other countries, though, it will be a private-sector venture. Under the banner BOA International, the initiative will launch at the MIDEM trade fair January 2003 in Cannes. The prime mover in the scheme to boost exports is Madrid-based indie distributor BOA, which will push domestic releases from BMG, Warner, DRO East West, and Sony to its export partners.

BOA Records director Fernando Luarces tells Billboard: "The idea was born out of our own experiences as a leading Spanish distributor and No.1 Spanish hip-hop operator, in which we constantly face the problem of lack of official support."

The only exception to this is the ICEX, which is part of the economy ministry. "But, ICEX apart, since SGAE began actively promoting Spanish music at international music trade fairs—such as MIDEM and PopKomm—some 10 years ago, not one Spanish public institution has understood that the export of Spanish music constitutes a great business opportunity," Galindo told the audience at the debate.

Hans-Jürgen Ploenes, Latin director of Germany's annual PopKomm trade fair—held each August in Cologne—said he was regularly in touch with German-radio music programmers and could vouch that "Spanish music has little importance in Germany, compared to French music, for example. Spanish acts have a disadvantage in Central Europe in general."

Ploenes cited the French music-export bureau as an example of how governments should relate to their domestic music industries. "In 1992, French domestic repertoire sold 2 million albums outside France. The bureau was set up in 1993, and by 2000, sales of French domestic repertoire abroad were up to 32 million albums."

Looking further afield, Inma González, the cultural attaché of the Spanish embassy in Beijing, noted that the Far East was "a huge potential market in which nobody in Spain has yet invested a minimum of time or money."

Sony Music Entertainment Spain president José María Cámara claimed, "The [Spanish] administration is not grasping the opportunity open to it. It looks the other way, while Spanish CD pirates sell illegally in the streets with impunity. What Spain needs is a multi-national Spanish label or a process of pushing Spanish-language awareness within multinationals that have offices here."

Noting that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's figures for 2001 show Spain as the world's seventh-largest music market, Cámara said: "Somebody should tell the administration to take the initiative and create incentives to export Spanish music."