#MEX17: BMI to host Song Camp in lead up to Music Exchange
The BMI Song Camp will run from the 4 September till the 8 September in lead up to this year's Music Exchange (MEX17) at the Academy of Sound Engineering studio complex, in District 6, Cape Town.
Attracting some of the world’s top writing talent, the five-day creative boot camp will feature guest writers, including include Grammy nominated pop singer-songwriter, Jann Klose from New York, Christian Wright from Abbey Road Studios, New York based singer-songwriter for Armada Record and Lifted Sony, Alicia Madison, and Columbian music producer and songwriter, Marcela Arciniegas.
Marcela Arciniegas
Brandon Bakshi, executive director, writer and publisher relations at BMI, will return to Cape Town this September to foster creativity among the four key international songwriters with hopes of writing a string of future hits.
Investing in the local music economy
“Last year was a phenomenal success, and the proof in the pudding is that most of the songs written at the BMI Song Camp have been placed and cut by artists having success on TV and radio in South Africa. Our stretch goal this year is to have hit songs cut and broadcast in the United States.
BMI continues to invest in the local music economy, as we’re building a company profile in Africa, and helping songwriters to affiliate with us, as well as tap into our creative support. Ideally, we would like to see more African writers receiving royalties from BMI, for their broadcast performances, said Bakshi.
All will be unpacked and promoted at MEX17, post the BMI Song Camp, protecting and growing artists repertoire and their ability to collect rightful royalties is what BMI is known and respected for.
Protecting and growing artists
“The performance right has become sacrosanct in a world continual rights fragmentation. BMI is protecting the rights of our affiliates, as well as growing their income stream. In fact, last year BMI distributed and administered a record-breaking $931m (R9,3bn) to its songwriters, composers and publishers, which represented the most public performance revenue and royalty distributions by any music rights organisation in the world. We expect to top that number this year,” adds Bakshi.
“In my opinion, the best way to move forward in creating international hit songs is to cultivate international collaborations, vis-à-vis our BMI Song Camp, such as this one in South Africa.” concludes Bakshi.
Although the BMI Song Camp is a closed, by-invitation-only event, MEX17 delegates will get full access to each of the songwriters, producers and industry heavyweights over the two days of this 120-delegates-only conference.
For MEX17 booking details, and more information, visit the Music Exchange website.
