TTEnt offers world of opportunities to artistes

High on the agenda was its Online Music Portal, as well as its Revolving Investment Arrangement (RIA) and its Entertainment Registry (e-registry).

Chief Executive Officer Dionne McNicol shed some light in the new services her company is offering. She said they have put a team together to work to benefit the artistes, TT’s culture and to contribute to building a sustainable and globally competitive entertainment industry while branding TT.

TTEnt has now positioned itself to be part of artistes’ management team, to act as promoter and marketer, financial sponsor, global mediator on behalf of local artistes, artists, entertainment service providers and sector professionals to introduce Trinidad and Tobago’s entertainment to the world and in effect, brand TT.

With that, familiarisation tours, marketing and promotions and establishing international joint ventures and partnerships are now in the works, so too is its National On-line Entertainment Database - www.ttentonline.com, while its Revolving Investment Arrangement (RIA) continues. Those in music, dance, theatre, carnival, visual arts and steel pan among other artistes can be part of that drive to brand TT. They can benefit via investment opportunities, local and international marketing and exposure, representation before international embassies and consulates and professional advice in the areas of Entertainment Law, Intellectual Property, Marketing, Rights Management and much more.

Tatiana Parrott, Project Manager explained that RIA, a self-sustainable fund for future local artistes to access had been set up to support local entertainers with international projects. Artistes can apply to the RIA by simply logging on to www.ttentonline.com where the guidelines are available, or an initial softcopy may be submitted via e-mail but must be followed by submission of two hard copies of the completed form.

Some of the requirements she added are concise project description, proposed project time-line, detailed budget, evidence of international marketing and distribution arrangements and affiliations relevant to the project and projects must be able to show capacity for returns.

The selection criteria involves international impact and income-generating qualities of projects, as well as feasibility.

The artiste/group receiving RIA funding will sign a legally binding and enforceable contract which ensures TT Ent’s branding of the project, participation of the awardee in TT Ent’s “entertainment e-registry”, participation in TT Ent’s online retail site on a non-exclusive basis, explicit agreement based on negotiated project returns on TT Ent’s investment, explicit agreement to provide a written report and proof of project expenditure. The contract also outlines the RIA disbursement procedure: 75 percent upon signing the contract; 25 percent after receipt of submission of final report and documents.

Phillip Lopez, PR and Marketing officer, explained the workings of the music download portal.

Recognising that there are no categories for calypso, soca or chutney soca on any international online portals, to place TT music on the world scale, TTEnt now offers music downloads through non-exclusive agreements with TTEnt for the listing and selling of music tracks and catalogues.

The website has a listing in almost 100 international music download portals including iTunes, Napster, AOL and Finetunes. Lopez said track owners get 70 percent of net for each track purchased. However to begin any contracts, artistes will be required to sign a licensing and distribution agreement (in duplicate), fill out the music cue sheet for each album or track and submit two commercial CDs of the recording.

A national database of artistes and cultural entrepreneurs called Entertainment Registry (e-Registry) has been developed to enable cross-content, a one-stop shop for promoters, investors, fans etc. to search and contact artistes, promotion and exposure of the entertainer and a greater chance of being selected for upcoming TTEnt projects, both local and international. To become a member of the website one can log into the e-Registry page, identify their specific category/categories, add their name, contact info, profile and media file.

TTEnt is of the view that marketing the entertainer will be for the latter to receive exposure in new/untapped markets, as well as it could also result in recognition of his/her talent internationally and become new revenue sources for him/her. But most of all it will fulfill one of the objectives of the company, which is to market the local talent.

Artistes can register in the TT Ent e-registry, thus opening up for themselves a world of opportunities as international exposure is priceless.