Hello, All.

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Piracy Fuels Brazil's Tecno Scene

Friday, October 19, 2007
By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer

BELEM, Brazil u This steamy city at the mouth of the Amazon river is a
haven for pirates _ the digital kind who copy CDs and DVDs by the thousands
for illegal sidewalk sales.

Belem is also home to one of Brazil's most thriving pop scenes: tecnobrega,
a musical movement that's expanding exponentially thanks to musicians and
producers who see copying as a marketing tool rather than intellectual
property theft.

All around the city of 1.5 million, tecnobrega's cloyingly sweet melodies
and synthesizer-driven shuffle beats blast from cars, river boats and
curbside speakers set up by street vendors hawking the latest hits.

While piracy is the bane of many musicians trying to control the sale of
their songs, tecnobrega artists see counterfeiters as key to their success.
Artists, who make their money off of live shows, deliver their CDs directly
to the street vendors, who determine the price that market can bear. This
"mixtape" phenomenon is popular in other parts of the world,
including Argentina and the United States, where it is an integral part of
hip-hop.

"Piracy is the way to get established and get your name out. There's
no way to stop it, so we're using it to our advantage," explains Gabi
Amarantos, who frequently appears on Brazilian TV on the strength of
bootleg sales of her CDs (from which artists don't get a cut).

Aspiring tecnobrega artists also e-mail MP3s of their latest efforts to
producers and DJs who burn CDs that go straight to the copiers and street
stall vendors nationwide, selling for as little as 50 cents. Legal CDs sell
for around $15 at record shops.

"It's this really gritty tacky, sleazy jungle music. It's just
genius," said John Perry Barlow, a former lyricist for the Grateful
Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates
protecting free speech in the digital age.

Barlow sees tecnobrega as following in the footsteps of his hallowed
"Dead heads," whose trade in bootleg Dead tapes boosted the
band's popularity for decades.

"It's making it possible for every kid in Brazil to know their songs
by the time they turn five," Barlow said. "It's actually good for
a lot of money _ you give it away and it will come back. That's literally
true with information, not with property."

Ronaldo Lemos, a law professor at Brazil's respected Getulio Vargas
Foundation, an elite Rio de Janeiro think tank and research center, says
tecnobrega and other movements like it represent a new business model for
the digital era, where music is transformed from a good to a service.

"This year the multinational record labels will only release about 40
records by Brazilian artists, while tecnobrega artists will release around
400," said Lemos. "The record industry argues if intellectual
property isn't protected there will be no innovation. But tecnobrega has
shown that's not true."

Brazil's National Anti-Piracy Association dismisses tecnobrega as an
insignificant movement that makes light of piracy, which it says costs the
Brazilian economy two million jobs a year and $15 billion in lost tax
revenues.

"Piracy in Brazil is undermining the ability of the music and film
industries to invest in the next generation of local talent. Lower revenues
from current sales mean less money to invest in new artists," the
association's general director, Andre Borges, said when he announced the
industry's plan to sue illegal downloaders in Brazil.

Brazil is one of the world's biggest markets for music theft, with more one
billion tracks illegally downloaded each year, according to the
London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
Counterfeited discs account for around half of the all Brazilian CD and DVD
sales.

But tecnobrega also is an economic engine _ moving about $5 million a month
through Belem's economy, according to a study by the Getulio Vargas
Foundation. The average singer makes about $850 a month _ about five times
the minimum wage in Belem, and a decent salary for a musician.

Tecnobrega producer Beto Metralha said the music developed out of necessity
in a place where few musicians could afford to pay a whole band and most
music consumers don't take home enough money to buy non-pirated CDs. The
average ensemble consists of little more than a keyboardist and a singer,
sometimes accompanied by an electric bass. The signature shuffle rhythm is
derived entirely from a single program on an electronic keyboard.

The distribution scheme also grew out of necessity _ few record companies
were interested in tecnobrega, but enterprising copiers figured out there
was a market to exploit.

Brazil's top-selling Banda Calypso, whose "brega" sound paved the
way for tecnobrega, claims to have sold more than 4 million CDs nationwide,
avoiding traditional distribution networks and marketing its CDs directly
through news stands and other unconventional outlets.

The best songs are played by "aparelhagens," hugely popular DJs
running shows with laser displays, smoke machines and giant video monitors
that alternate images of the dancing crowds with psychedelic imagery.

"Before you couldn't get your record played on the radio if you
couldn't afford payola. Now if a song hits big with the aparelhagens, the
radio has no choice but to play it," says Metralha. "The dynamic
has changed."
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Later,
Sean

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