1. Leo Morel – 01/08/14
NYU and FGV Workshop: Emerging Models and Markets for Music
Rio de Janeiro Carnival Music Scene and Music Career Development

2. Rio de Janeiro Carnival music scene

3. 2 scenes
Sambódromo Street Carnival

4. Rio de Janeiro Carnival music scene
• It attracts 900 thousand
tourists per year;
• It makes 650 million dollars in
revenues.
(source: Brazilian Association of
the Hotel Industry – ABIH)

5. “The Biggest Spectacle on Earth”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRBLROPGIDs

6. Samba Schools
• 20 Samba Schools
compete for a 2.2 million
real award
(US$812,000.00)
• The Samba Parade is a
really glorious
competition for which the
scores are given by the
judges. It offers
entertainment while it
has its rigid rules.

7. Samba Schools
• Each Samba School has
90 minutes to parade;
• 2,500 to 4,000 members;
• 300 percussionists.

8. Samba Schools
The Rio samba Schools are
similar to huge soccer teams,
in many aspects. They have a
flag, a color-scheme and
devoted (usually life-long)
supporters. They clearly
resemble modern corporate
organizations, with several
departments, sub-divisions,
strategic partnerships and
apply strong marketing
technics.

9. Sambódromo numbers
• Boxes cost from R$30,000
(US$11,000) to R$120,000
(US$44,500) a day;
• Grandstand tickets cost
from R$10.00(US$3.6) to
R$6,500(US$2,400);
• It holds 70 thousand
people;

10. Samba Schools
• High levels of logistics
expertise;
• Constant search for
innovation;

11. Live performances
• Company parties
• Weddings
• New Years Eve Concerts

12. CDs

13. Street Carnival
• Non-competitive goals;
• Parades are free;
• Cordão do Bola Preta
attracts 1.5 million
people;
• 600 percussion
ensembles (blocos)

14. Monobloco
The biggest percussion ensemble
(bloco) from Rio’s street carnival.

15. Monobloco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx8m79aPAqQ

16. Monobloco
• It is the subject of my
second book: a
biography in celebration
of its 15th anniversary.
• Its mascot is a
combination of Lego
and Bibendum.

17. Crowdfunding campaign

18. The beginning
Created in 2000 from a
percussion workshop,
Monobloco became one
of the biggest percussion
ensembles in Brazil, with
an international career.

19. Monobloco
Its innovative model has
differentiated Monobloco
from the other blocos,
thus becoming a huge
success in Rio’s street
Carnival.

20. Monobloco
Firstly, it differs from the
others because it has
formed its own drum
section. The older blocos
used to hire professional
musicians, mostly from
Samba Schools.

21. Monobloco
This musical formation
was set up at a percussion
workshop focused on
people who did not wish
to become professional
musicians. This workshop
became an important
income source for
Monobloco.

22. Monobloco
It is the first example of
the professionalization
process of a Rio de
Janeiro’s percussion
ensemble.

23. Monobloco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0EAwi3_mY4

24. Monobloco
Its repertory is made up of
music of several styles and
rhythms, not only samba.
This was also novel and
attracted lots of people,
mostly young ones.

25. “Alagados”
Paralamas do Sucesso Monobloco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfi9K97ulmE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaC3gsE2_j0

26. Monobloco
It spontaneously became
a huge hit of Rio’s street
Carnival, and demand for
its live performances
started to grow.
Monobloco then went on,
giving live concerts.

27. Phonographic Market
Monobloco got inserted
into the phonographic
market without using
traditional media to
promote its work.
People started consuming
its music in large scale.

28. Monobloco
• Promotes its own paid
events to fund its open
parade.
• The parade costs
700,000 reais
(US$257,000)

29. Monobloco
Today, Monobloco has an
international career,
having performed in
several countries, such as
Japan, Mexico, England,
Australia and New
Zealand.

30. Monobloco
Monobloco was selected
to record Coca-Cola's
official soundtrack for the
2014 World Cup.

31. Monobloco
It also did the FIFA World
Cup Trophy Tour,
performing in several
countries, such as
Guatemala, Mexico and
Japan, together with local
artists.

32. Changing the subject

33. Music and Technology
The impact of
technological innovation
on music production,
promotion and
consumption.

34. Brazil’s digital music market is still in its
formation stage
• Itunes began operating
in Brazil in 2012.
• Streaming services have
recently started in
Brazil.

35. • How are Brazilian artists
dealing with this new
era?
• These artists are
positioned at different
Brazilian market
segments.
• It is a landmark
moment for the
Brazilian music
business.

36. Geraldo Azevedo
He is a musician and
composer who has gained
prominence in the
Brazilian music scene,
starting at the beginning
of the 1970s with his
music that mixes
Northeastern and
Caribbean rhythms with
lyrical influences.

37. Geraldo Azevedo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCzH6dvhc2w

38. Geraldo Azevedo
Azevedo, who was one of the owners of Estudio
Discovery, commented the impact of
technological innovation on music production:
“Today (only) one or two of them (major studios)
are needed; there is no more market for them,
as everybody has a home studio. And you record
very well at home these days.”

39. Geraldo Azevedo - career development
Geraldo Azevedo stated that, even though he
has consolidated his professional career, he has
problems administrating his own work: “I
release an album every year, so the difficulty I
have is financial: you must invest in your work
when it is independent. I have never found
anybody that would bankroll a project of mine.”

40. Geraldo Azevedo - Piracy
“I don’t even know what piracy is or isn’t
anymore. What was once pirated on a cassette,
today is digitally pirated on a CD with perfect
sound: there is no difference in quality. All this is
free promotion for me, even piracy promotes.
However, it is negative, as it violates copyright.
At the same time, it gives your work more
margin for success; this can’t be denied.”

41. Market changes – political issues
“The dictatorship (1964-1985) was a fact that
changed the cultural history of Brazil in the sense of
concepts, the press, and the news. Many artists
went from being successful to living clandestinely. I
personally went through the process of being
imprisoned, and others even left the country. All this
radically changed Brazilian music. The dictatorship
blocked that music business and opened the
international market with a bunch of alien trends. It
was a difficult story for us. ” (Geraldo Azevedo)

42. Cálice
• https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=6tfKKM4lL
hw
• Technological
innovations change the
music market;
• Political issues change it
too.

43. Cálice - metaphor
Cup
• “Pai, afaste de mim esse
cálice.”
• “Pai”comes from Pátria
(Homeland)
• Homeland, put this “gag"
away from me.
Cale-se
• “Shut-up” / gag

44. Geraldo Azevedo
• https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=TgeF4V_N
sbE

45. Leoni
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bhzMyId45o

46. Leoni
This musician and
composer was a key figure
in the Brazilian music
scene in the 1980s as the
leader of the band Kid
Abelha e os Aboboras
Selvagems

47. Leoni
• https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=IgazSIxzCJ
Q
• https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=R8ADiPFj
NHo

48. Leoni – Music Market
"The world ended. That world that I knew, Kid
Abelha had a record label that contracted it,
recorded its album, invested money in its
support, and got cuts from the album played on
the radio. This world ended, selling albums
doesn’t make money anymore.”

49. Leoni - portability
"People think that the music market crisis had to
do with physical counterfeiting, mainly in Brazil,
and with digital piracy, on the Internet, but I
guess that it has had more to do with the new
ways of listening to music, with portability."

50. Leoni – illegal downloads
"People want to use mp3 in their players. For
this, a person doesn’t need to buy products, they
can be downloaded. And this creates a new
model: one of cheap music, almost for free. It is
difficult to recover from this. ”

51. Crowdfunding campaign
R$135,332 = US$50,000

52. Jay Vaquer - Born in transition
A musician who had lived
through the transition
between the decline of
the old centralized record-
sales based industry
model and the explosive
growth of the new,
decentralized, Internet-
based, one.

53. Jay Vaquer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A1UcArL3ms

54. Jay Vaquer - radio
He affirms that it is still the radio stations that
dictate what is going to be a hit or not on the
market and says the record company executives
are very influenced by what is happening on this
communications medium.

55. Forfun: bringing new methods of work
Best Band of VMB in 2009,
this band, which has been
gaining followers
throughout Brazil,
promotes itself exclusively
over the Internet.

56. Forfun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3o0uWqwBow

57. Forfun was a record breaker in Brazil’s
crowdfunding initiative
US$70,000

58. Dead Fish - a new record breaker in Brazil’s
crowdfunding
US$96,000

59. “We built our own record label with other
financial standards and with other beliefs also.
We built a base and, from that, everything
came: press agent, TV agent, etc.” (Danilo
Cutrim)

60. ”I am not going to be a hypocrite: to have your
music playing on the radio and TV is very cool,
isn’t it? Furthermore, it generates much interest
and influence. We still feel the effect that TV and
radio have if you are playing at a big festival.
They still make a big difference.“

61. Brazil bears a cultural peculiarity, which is its
strong links with traditional media. This occurs
at the same time when Brazilians comprise one
of the biggest social network user groups,
second only to the USA in access to platforms
such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, for
example.

62. More information at http://leomorel.wordpress.com

63. Thank you!
• leonardomorel@gmail.com
• http://leomorel.wordpress.com
• @leomorel