Venezuela: the economics behind piracy

Venezuela: the economics behind piracy

8 March, 2008 | 4.09AM

• Section: Music News Topics: South American Music Conference
• Written by: Christen Reutens

With its political and economic instability, Venezuela’s DJs, producers, club promoters and artists are struggling, as I found out chatting to Venezuelan producer Moreon aka Gustavo R. Moreno.

President Hugo Chavez has crippled the electronic music scene indirectly.

“We don’t care who is president, or who is in government. We just want to make music, DJ and have good parties,” he says.

“The main problem we have in Venezuela is that the government totally regulates the economy in order to keep the currency stable.

“If you have a credit card, you’re limited to a maximum spend of just $500 US per year on the Internet.

“Even if you have money, you’re not able to spend it.”

As I argued in a previous post about the economics of South America, the dance music scene’s ability to grow depends on two huge factors - access to credit cards, and the region’s attitude towards piracy.

The fact that Venezuela’s citizens aren’t allowed to spend more than 500 bucks per year on the Internet was a impediment I never even knew about.

“It’s crazy,” says Moreon. “I can’t even get a credit card, because you have to go through a very tough approval process.

“Many DJs team up together and share credit cards to buy music from Beatport.

“For instance, one DJ I know has credit cards, so I ask him to buy tracks for me and I give him the cash.

“But even then, he has a limit of $500 per year and that soon runs out.”

The fact that it’s very difficult to get a credit card, and that you’re not allowed to spend more than $500 per year on the net using credit cards ($5000 per year altogether) feeds the illegal download trade.

“Piracy in Venezuela is everywhere, because we don’t have a choice,” says Moreon.

“We want to support the scene and give money back to it, but we have no way to do that.”

The club scene too is being affected by the instability of Venezuela’s political climate.

“The scene has moved from free parties in the late 1990s to a club scene that’s more professional and legal,” reveals Moreon.

“But for our bad luck, the crisis in the country has really affected the scene.

“There are heavy problems, but you can find good clubs if you look.

“There’s a couple in the capital city which are really good.

“One thing we have a lot of is talent.

“There’s so many DJs and producers in Venezuela, and everybody is trying to produce good things.

“They have the Internet and can see what is happening in the rest of the world, like the minimal techno explosion.

“The problem is there are too many DJs, and not enough clubs so the fight for DJ spots can be tough.”

But producers like Moreon are finding ways to get their music and names out there.

Even though his first release was in May 2007 on In Progresso Records [check it out in the player below], Moreon has built up a decent profile.

He passes me a CD featuring some of his unreleased music, including an excellent wonky minimal techno track called ‘Vamos A Zara’.

Check it out here.

Moreon & Klipp ‘Vamos A Zara’

“My studio partner is Klipp. He’s more of a producer, whilst I’m more of a DJ,” explains Moreon.

“‘Vamos A Zara’ is tech house and minimal with little bit of groovy electro through in.

“It has a really weird bassline and a hypnotic melody that goes up and down creating a weird groove.”

The South American Music Conference too, is helping Moreon and other Venezuelan producers to network and spread their music.

“I came to SAMC because we wanted to promote our new record - which we hope will the first release for In Telecto.”

Moreon as you can see is a tall attractive Venezuelan - in another place and another time, he could be a model.

But for now, he’s a 24-year-old aspiring electronic music producer trying to escape the shackles of Venezuela’s instable economy.

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• Check out Moreon & Klipp on Beatport