Music Export 101 in Cebu to help artists become globally savvy

This Friday, August 18, music entrepreneurs and creatives, artists, and producers from the Philippines and abroad will gather for “Music Export 101: Boutique Conference + Artist Showcase”, 1:30 to 6 pm at Making Space, located on the third floor of Mango Square Mall.

Organized by the British Council Philippines, Cebu label 22 Tango Music Group, Sonik Philippines, and Homonym, and supported by the Department of Trade and Industry, “Music Export 101” will have free admission talk sessions on how to export music to a global audience which will help maximize their passion for creating music, gain new fans outside the country, and be savvy on global music distribution.

The four sessions are: “Growing Your Fanbase in Foreign Markets” by panelists Satria Ramadhan from Indonesia, Cat Lazarra from the UK, and Nunari Amalia from Asia; “What is Music Export?” by Mike Constantino from Sonik Philippines, Lazara and Amalia; “How to Apply/Participate in Music Festivals” by Dylan Amirio aka LOGIC LOST from Indonesia, Andy Jones from the UK, and Ramadhan; and “How Government Support Fuels the Exploration of Filipino Music” by Lazarra, Constantino, and Camila Anino from Spain.

Cebuano acts TREV, Dom Guyot, 22 Tango’s Jericho Streegan, Kubra Commander, and Indonesia’s LOGIC LOST are the performers of the 8 pm artist showcase after the conference. At 6 pm, a singer-songwriter showcase will also take place at The Gallery (Pope John Paul II Ave., Cebu City) with Nomer, Criszzia, GL, Iano and Paula Pagalan.

The event is moderated by 22 Tango founder Cattski Espina and Homonym CEO Mike Constantino. Both are helming “Music Export 101” under Homonym’s “Sonik Sessions”, the premier international music conference and artist showcase in the Philippines. This will be the first time that a Sonik Session event will take place outside Manila.

“Cebu is perfect because it’s not the usual [location for a music conference] as they often happen in Manila. This will help put Cebu on the map,” Espina told The FREEMAN.

Espina and Constantino were among three selected Philippine delegates by the British Council to represent the country in the three-day festival “The Great Escape” in Brighton, England last May which inspired this conference in Cebu. Espina was likewise in Hong Kong last June as one of the speakers at Ear Hub 2023.

During these two trips, she witnessed how artists were given the opportunity to promote their music outside their countries by performing at these kinds of events. She also networked with fellow music entrepreneurs for possible collaborations. “The key takeaway is that the global music community is big and welcoming, and the Philippines can have its place there,” she remarked.

With “Music Export 101”, Espina hopes that local artists gain an audience outside the country, and get invited to perform in international music festivals.

“The goal is to empower artists to look beyond Cebu or the Philippines. This will equip them with the necessary knowledge to do just that,” said Espina,

^{More things to look forward to in ‘Blue Beetle’}

While we’re all excited to hear our very own Inka Magnaye voice the Scarab in the Philippine release of “Blue Beetle,” there are many other things to look forward to about the all-new superhero movie from Warner Bros. Pictures and DC that will hit cinemas this Wednesday, August 16.

Focus on family

Says director Ángel Manuel Soto of the close-knit Mexican-American Reyes family at the center of the film, “In this origin story, the family – contrary to other superhero movies where the hero keeps the secret from everybody around him – the secret really happens in front of the family. So, Gareth [Dunnet-Alcocer, screenwriter] always said, ‘Good luck trying to hide a secret from your mom in a Latino household, they always know!’ And we kind of like embraced that, so this made for a very unique journey where the family is part of the adventure, not a group of people or an object of rescue, but on the contrary, an integral part of the construct of this superhero.”

The humor

“It has to be funny,” says Mexican-born screenwriter Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer “I’ve never met a Mexican person that wasn’t funny, so there’s no way the movie wouldn’t be. But what kind of funny it is, is wonderful, and I think it’s really inspired by the tone of the early Blue Beetle comics, where you have a hero that’s fallible.”

Fun with superpowers

Jaime Reyes’ experience as a new hero in a brand new suit is unique. “Can he fly? Yes. Is he strong? For sure. Are there big action sequences? Absolutely,” says producer John Rickard. “But it’s the special abilities of the suit, which are unlike anything else in the DCU, that make it so ridiculously cool, because it allows Blue Beetle endless superpowers. He’s literally a 20-something who has a suit that can create anything he can imagine. And so, what does this young kid do with these powers? He pulls from what he knows: pop culture. Things he knows in his everyday life. Our action sequences in ‘Blue Beetle’ are definitely inspired by a lot of gamer combos, which makes it feel like a video game come to life. Those who know will know.”

All-original city

In the comics, Jaime Reyes and his family live in El Paso, Texas, but the studio thought it would be a better idea to create an entirely new setting – a new place unique to the world of Blue Beetle called Palmera City. “They thought it might make sense to give Jaime and Blue Beetle his own unique city, much like Superman has Metropolis, The Flash has Central City. We loved this idea,” says producer Zev Foreman.

“It suddenly got brighter; it suddenly got more colorful. It suddenly got the idea of water and how it combines with this place. The idea of the different sides of a place like Miami, in terms of the people that live there, the wealth that’s there, other things. It provided so many awesome opportunities to create a really unique environment in a superhero genre. And, again, it starts to inform the sounds, the music, the feeling, the lighting, all of these things, and I think it was an amazing choice.”

In “Blue Beetle,” recent college grad Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Super Hero Blue Beetle.