'Women in Music' Se Encontram Em Miami

Women in Music Comes to Miami

Women in Music held it’s first ever event in Miami with some 80 women in attendance, ranging from senior publishing executives to managers, publicists, concert promoters, songwriters and media executives. The turnout on a Friday night (Feb. 23) at Social Hive, an upstart video production and digital marketing company doing exciting creative work, signaled that Miami’s women in Latin music (because the vast majority were Latin) are more than ready to have a discussion about their place in the industry. 

The fact that many in attendance run their own companies after having worked for multinationals didn’t go unnoticed. 

“This is what happens,” said one former label executive. “Women start at the labels and then, for some unknown reason, they fall out.”

The lack of women in top executive positions and on the charts was a concern. 

“When I moved to the U.S. there were a lot of women in the charts, and something happened and they disappeared,” said Paula Kaminsky, who was formerly VP of marketing for Sony Music Latin and now runs her own company, with Maná and Luis Fonsi among her clients. “I think the industry is not giving the support and patience women artists need.”

One thing that doesn’t favor women, said songwriter Erika Ender of “Despacito” fame, is that labels are now working singles. “And reggaeton is the thing, and reggaeton tends to be aggressive,” she said. 

And because there seems to be limited space for women, they tend to compete with each other, added someone wryly. 

But the tone on Friday evening was anything but competitive. Instead, it granted a rare opportunity to discuss as a group, and on many levels, how to move women’s issues forward in a positive and proactive manner. 

Bringing Women in Music to Miami was the brainchild of Mayna Nevarez, who owns PR and marketing firm Nevarez Communications (clients include Daddy Yankee, Carlos Vives and Elvis Crespo) and met Women in Music directors at a breakfast at Midem last year. 

“I realized women in Miami didn’t have those resources,” says Nevarez, who is still networking with women she met at the Midem event. “I felt we needed to support each other in Miami and that we, as female executives, could benefit from the tools and support that Women in Music provides.”

Nevarez contacted Women in Music president Jessica Sobhraj and planned for a launch event in October that got postponed after hurricane Maria. On Friday night, global membership co-chair Cassandra Kubinski attended, and plans are underway to officially open a Miami chapter.