In its first edition, the Porto Musical, which took place from 30th January to 2nd February, 2005, in the week preceding Carnival, established itself as the main international music and technology convention in Pernambuco, as well as one of the main events in this field in Brazil. The Porto Musical was the brain child of Astronave Iniciativas Culturais and Womex (World Music Expo), one of the biggest music conventions in the world. During that week, there were 42 presentations, half of them by overseas presenters and the other half by Brazilians.
The Porto Musical Conference is divided into three platforms: Go International! where themes related to Brazilian music in the international market, recording production, international tours, promotion and marketing are debated. Go Brasil! Which deals with topics such as orientation for artist, producers and record labels interested in the Brazilian marked. And Go Digital! which debates the connection between music and technology, dealing with themes such as new media, distribution, copyright law, new markets, state of the art technology and technology for music.
The event is geared towards music and technology professionals and the aims of the talks are, besides creating a network of ideas and debates, to trace a panorama of what is taking place in Brazil and abroad, and to debate the most recent news in the digital world.
The Porto Musical is the first Womex event outside Europe. Participants from over 10 countries as well as from Brazil come to Recife to follow the debates and to see the shows of artists from several parts of the world.
The producers of Porto Musical carried out a research with the participants at the end of the first event in order to assess the results of the project. The period of the event, the week prior to Carnival, was approved unanimously. According to the participants, it was possible to add work and pleasure during this time of the year in which the cultural activities in Pernambuco are more intense.
It was in this way that the second edition of the Porto Musical took place from 19th to 22th of February, 2006. Once again, the focus of the event was the creation of opportunities for artists, record labels, producers, media and technology companies, who could meet to debate common objectives and interests and to start new collaboration networks which can meet the demand of a market in constant change. The event had 34 talks by presenters from 11 different countries. During those three nights, local, national and international artists performed on an open-air stage, which was open to the general public. The programme was complemented with much debating, networking and a pilot business fair with some companies that could show their latest releases and services to the participants.
The spirit of the event and the number of new connections made were a clear indication of its success. An increase of 25% in the number of registrations was another indication. There were over 400 participants from 20 different countries, 90 of them journalists from local, national and international press. In that year, the Brazilian Minister of Culture, Giberto Gil, chose the Porto Musical to make a special announcement regarding the ambitious season of cultural projects with Germany, the Copa da Cultura (Culture Cup), scheduled to coincide the the Soccer World Cup in June.
After this participation of the Ministry of Culture, the Minc decided to make, in 2007, the Feira Música Brasil (Brazil Music Fair) in Recife at same period of the Porto Musical. The third edition of the PM took place, therefore, together with the Feira Música Brasil from 8th to 10th February, 2007. The Porto Musical was the main pillar of the conferences of the Fair and kept its stage at the Praça do Arsenal da Marinha. There were 28 presentations and 14 showcases at the stage of the Porto Musical and a natural increase in the number of registrations.
The forth edition of Porto Musical will take place at the Bairro do Recife from 11th to 14th February, 2009.
