LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Latin music in the U.S. has been growing for the past five years, and in 2020 made up 5.4% or $655 million of the total revenue for U.S. sound recordings. Last year, two of the top three most streamed artists globally on Spotify were Latin musicians. This year’s Annual Meeting by the Copyright Society of the USA examines the opportunities and challenges facing the increasingly mainstream Latin music industry in the Society’s first-ever panel entirely in Spanish.
The panel, “Copyright En Dos Idiomas: A Conversation About the U.S. Latin Music Community”, will be moderated by Sofia Castillo, counsel in Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp’s Entertainment Transactions Department, and feature a dynamic group of practitioners and artists with deep knowledge of the U.S. Latin music community. They will address the important copyright issues that have emerged from this exciting market.
With the U.S. Latin population at 18%, there are more Latin people in the U.S. today than the populations of Argentina, Colombia or Spain.
“As the Latin music industry is exploding and becoming more entwined in the fabric of American culture, entertainment companies are seeking to develop closer ties with the U.S. Latin creative community to improve the diversity of their content,” said Castillo. “The growing amount of content from an incredibly diverse and vibrant community of Latin creators presents important opportunities for copyright professionals, and I’m looking forward to a lively panel conversation with some of the best and brightest in the industry.”
Along with Castillo, panel participants include Elena La Fulana, a Nicaraguan American bilingual singer-songwriter and leader of the band Elena & Los Fulanos; Jessie Abad, vice president of Legal and Business Affairs at indie record label Rimas Entertainment, whose 30+ year career in the music industry includes 17 years as counsel for Estefan Enterprises; and Roberto Sueiro, an internationally recognized tort, copyright, trademark, and defamation litigator who has represented many Latin artists and creators in the entertainment, advertising, licensing, and merchandising industries in courts throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.
To promote diversity, equity and inclusion, this is the Copyright Society’s first panel conducted entirely in Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation in English. Among other things, panelists will share how they have leveraged their bilingualism and biculturalism to pursue careers in the U.S. Latin music industry, and how diversification of income streams has become increasingly important with the rise of the digital age. The panel will take place virtually on Thursday, June 10 from 12:00 – 1:15 p.m. ET. In addition to Castillo moderating the panel discussion, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp is a sponsor of the annual meeting.
About Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP
Since 1908, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP has proven its ability to understand the complex, demystify the mysterious, and define the unknown. With more than 130 lawyers and offices in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., MSK is often distinguished as a “go-to” firm by industry and legal insiders and has extensive experience in a variety of practice areas, including Entertainment & IP Litigation, Labor & Employment, Entertainment Transactions, Immigration, Corporate Securities, Regulatory, Tax, Trusts & Estates, Real Estate and International Trade. Relentlessly innovative, our lawyers have developed groundbreaking legislation, established influential precedents and shaped the legal landscape. For more information, visit www.msk.com.
