Policies for the music sector
The Ministry of Culture and Heritage fosters the promotion and dissemination of Ecuadorian musical and phonographic production, throughout strategies and programs that encourage the professional practice and the production, distribution and circulation of goods and services coming from this sector. Thus, several actions have been initiated, among which the generation of direct financing plans for national music production is highlighted.
A very good example of this policy has been the creation of the “Phonographic Fund”. This project links to a policy of supporting emerging talents and providing Ecuadorian artists the access to markets, free circulation of content and local consumption of domestic products.
As a result, from 2012 to 2014 editions, a total of 523 participants were registered. Among these, a total of 42 winners in 13 music genres obtained funding for cultural projects.
Local consumption and diffusion of national music production
In order to strengthen the local consumption of national talents productions, a project was launched to record 12 albums of Ecuadorian music, brought together in "Anthologies" constituted by 133 singles of 104 Ecuadorian artists of 10 different musical genres. These songs were produced following the strategy for compliance with the Ecuadorian standard 1x1, established in the Organic Law of Communication (LOC), which main objective is the promotion and dissemination of Ecuadorian musical production. Currently, these productions circulate in the most important music media of the country.
To complement this distribution strategy, a cooperation agreement was signed with the public newspaper "El Telegrafo"; in order to guarantee the circulation of the produced albums. Thus, citizens, with a small investment for the purchase of the newspaper, had access to the original and high-quality musical material.
The execution of effective public policies that respond to the basic needs of culture workers has been a priority. In 2012,a study of the critical points of the phonographic industry and labor conditions of musicians was carried out, which resulted in the book called "Diagnosis and policies for the development of Ecuadorian Phonographic Industry" in 2013.
The capacity building actions addressed to the cultural actors related to the phonographic industry, leaded to carry out the "Copyright Development Conference". In addition, in order to gather proposals for the LOC, a series of dialogue panels regarding the "1x1 standard" were carried out in Quito and Guayaquil, which resulted in the inclusion of a section related to this topic in the aforementioned legal document.
Implementation of programs for the distribution of community radio frequencies
Article 85 of the Organic Law of Communication defines community media as "those whose ownership, management and direction belong to non-profit groups or social organizations, to communes, communities, peoples and nationalities", in benefit to which “the Ecuadorian State shallapply necessary public policies for the creation and strengthening of community media as a mechanism to promote plurality, diversity, interculturality and plurinationality; such as: preferential credit for community media training and equipment purchase; tax exemptions to import equipment for print media, community radio and television stations; access to training for communicative, administrative and technical community media management.”
In this regard, since 2010, the National Secretariat for Policy Management (SNGP) supports the development of community radios. In the last seven years, community radios in Ecuador have become a paradigm for Latin America. The long-term plan is the operation of new radio stations, including 13 of the existing indigenous nationalities.
The process of conferring community radio and media is carried out by public contest, which develops open and transparent, involving all natural and legal persons who do not have legal disqualifications or prohibitions. According to data from the Telecommunication Regulation and Control Agency, until the year 2016, the number of FM Radio Broadcasting reached 51 (see Annex 1).