In Latin America, content derived from music is a strong seller. As in the US, music industry revenues have been slow. But as Latin music cross borders becoming mainstream, 3G networks and technological advancements come into place, internet use by US Latinos and Latinamericans grow at an impressive rate and sophisticated mobile devices are beginning to take the market by storm, the industry is poised for phenomenal growth.

Speakers Include
José Guilherme Novaes, Divisão de oferta Premium, Diretoria de Segmento Premium, VIVO- Brasil	Seth A. Schachner, Vice President, Digital Business Latin America, Sony BMG Music Entertainment	Victor Kong, VP Strategy and New Media Development, MTV Networks
Filipe Ferreira Diniz, Gerência de Serviços de Valor Adicionado – Móvel, Brasil Telecom	Felippe Llerena – Executive Director, iMusica S/A	Marcus Owenby, Director of Hispanic Marketing Operations, AT&T Mobility
Alfonso Perez-Soto, Director of New Media Latin America & US Latin, Warner Music	Paulo Firmeza, Director of Mobile Services, Portugal Telecom Inovacao, Brasil

Some interesting facts

In Brazil the biggest seller is popular music, a lot is from national content and brands are very important, soccer (futbol) accounts for 12% of the market.

In Argentina, international music is the most downloaded content, then films and TV and then Latin pop, tango only accounts for 4%.

Mexico has something very interesting—the song La Cucuracha accounts for 32% of total downloads, also sound effects take up 22% of the business and ranchera music is a significant portion.

Latin music is expected to drive growth in US ringtone sales that are currently dominated by hip-hop and rap artists. According to Gartner Research, the US market for ringtones and other wireless entertainment services has been driven by 15- to 25-year-olds.

The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that Hispanics will be the largest teen minority group by year’s end, and will account for 20 percent of teens by 2015. Hispanics also spend $10 more per month on their phone bills and 25 percent to 50 percent more on mobile entertainment applications than other groups do.

Important business issues affecting Latin mobile music today

Today’s mobile carriers know their subscribers network settings, handset and personal preferences and therefore have a strategic advantage when it comes to delivering mobile music. However, when it comes to the ‘entertainment’ side of mobile music like streaming and full track downloads, they risk losing share to device vendors, record companies and other solution providers.

How to develop and implement the right content partnerships, pricing strategies, content partnerships, licensing deals, distribution channels and marketing are issues that Latin American carriers are juggling to define. The lack of solid business models has been an issue of frustration for labels, and therefore the music delivery value chain.

Technical challenges such as Digital Rights Management (DRM), storage capacity on the mobile device and network coverage add to the array of concerns that today’s operators must resolve.

In the US, wireless carriers perceive mobile music as a key service offering, practically alongside with long-hailed SMS as their stellar mobile data service revenue generators. These operators have also recognized the power of Hispanic music purchases, launching ingenious and innovative marketing campaigns for their mobile music offerings targeted specifically to Latino consumers.

Manufacturer’s such as Motorola, LG and Nokia have launched aggressive marketing campaigns for their mp3-capable handsets, both in the US and Latin America. Mp3-capability will soon become the norm of mobile handsets, creating a great opportunity for operators to push their music portals to an attractive addressable market.

Because the mobile phone is a device that people carry everywhere, consumers now have the ability to listen and download songs whenever and wherever. Because of over-the-air downloads (and safe and secure billing via a mobile phone), mobile operators are in a position to create a craze for music downloads. Since there are more mobile handset owners than iPods, the market universe for mobile operators, both in the US and Latin America, is extremely promising.

Apple’s entry into the device market with the iPhone, providing mobile access to iTunes, along with other digital music shops such as Microsoft’s upcoming Zune offering (that will allow WLAN access to its music shop) will compete directly with mobile carriers’ portals. What will be the impact of the cultural phenomena - in the short and long run- created by these software and hardware products in Latin American markets?.

These and many more issues will be addressed at Latin Mobile and Digital Music 2007!

Do not miss this unique and one of a kind conference addressing one of the most promising content markets in the world!