The Tecnobrega Business Model arising from Belém do Pará

Esta é a publicação em inglês do resultado da pesquisa sobre o Tecnobrega de Belém do Pará. A versão original em português pode também ser encontrada aqui no Overmundo.

This document is the result of qualitative and quantitative research made on the
Paraense tecnobrega for the Open Business Models – Latin America project, with the purpose
of comprehending how the chain of agents works within this cultural scenario.
The tecnobrega market of Pará is part of a cultural industry that adopts a different
business model when compared to most other music markets: under this perspective, the
copyright laws who protect the artist’s compositions do not constitute as a source for income
nor give exclusive rights over their creation. Although tecnobrega is one of the most rhythmic
sounds of Pará, its business model adopted by this market is very little known and, many
times, not understood by major sectors of the music industry, that have in the production of
CDs and at the receiving end of the copyrights revenues, a part in profits made for its
sustainability.
The tecnobrega, musical style, typical of Belém do Pará, was created from the
traditional brega1 produced during the 1970s and 1980s. Since 1990, a series of
reformulations of traditional brega have provoked the manifestation of different styles in this
musical genre, such as the tecnobrega, bregacalypso, cybertecnobrega and bregamelody.
Although these are all outcomes from traditional brega, such styles are in fact the result on
different musical innovations: bregacalypso was created during the 1990s, whilst during the
years of 2001 and 2003, tecnobrega was created, and from this particular musical style,
cybertecno and melody have originated.
Tecnobrega parties and concerts are mostly restricted to neighborhoods of the Belém
do Pará outskirts. Although this social-spatial delimitation exists, it is possible to affirm that
brega music manages to attract a considerable public to its parties. Estimates show that
sound systems2 and brega bands promote about 3.162 parties and 849 concerts per month in the metropolitan region of Belém, respectively. This certainly makes the tecnobrega parties
and concerts one of the most popular means of entertainment in the metropolitan region of
Belém. The numbers impress even more when taking into account that this is a particular and
distinctive model for the music market, without the presence of major recording studios or
labels.
In this context, we present a market analysis of the Paraense tecnobrega, seeking a
better comprehension of the relevance and dynamics of this cultural phenomenon, of the state
of Pará. The tecnobrega parties and concerts and the social network of this musical genre, are
rich cultural phenomena that show a specific cultural musical expression, other than a peculiar
business model with its own dynamics, distinctive from the traditional music market.
This work is divided in 8 (eight) parts, including this introduction and a conclusion. The
second chapter presents the methodology used for the accomplishment of this research on
the tecnobrega musical genre of Pará. The third (chapter) seeks to familiarize the reader with
history of brega, since the 1970s, showing how this musical genre consolidated in Belém and
how it transformed, giving birth to other music genres, such as: brega pop, tecnobrega,
bregamelody, and so on… From the fourth chapter of this research onwards, this work shall
focus on the tecnobrega market. This way, within this section, we shall analyze the business
model implemented by this market that is, its functioning, network relations, actors’ interaction,
copyrights and so on… The fifth chapter shall concentrate on the characterization of each
tecnobrega market agent: sound systems, party planner, artists, DJs, non-authorized reproducers,
informal street vendors, and so forth… For being a quite distinctive business model
from the traditional phonographic industry, the sixth chapter is dedicated to analyzing the
distribution and promotion, or advertisement, of tecnobrega CDs and DVDs. As it will be
observed, the tecnobrega artists release their songs in a very peculiar approach, if compared
to other music markets. At last, the seventh chapter shows the economical importance of this
cultural phenomenon, of Belém’s tecnobrega; in this case, information shall be presented
relating revenues, to creation of direct jobs, and the vending of CDs and DVDs of this market,
amongst other data.

Open Business Models Project
Core Team
General Coordination
Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade da FGV DIREITO RIO:
Ronaldo Lemos
Oona Castro
Overmundo:
Hermano Vianna
José Marcelo Zacchi
Field Research coordination and accomplishment
FGV Opinião
Marcelo Simas (General and quantitative research coordination)
Elizete Ignácio (Qualitative research coordination)
Alessandra Tosta (Qualitative phase main researcher)
Monique Menezes (Quantitative phase main researcher)
Economic analyses
FIPE-USP
Ricardo Abramovay
Arilson Favareto
Reginaldo Magalhães
Supported by International Developement Research Centre (IDRC)