Listen to How the Latin Music World Is Coping With Coronavirus: 'We Never Saw This Coming'

On the latest episode of Billboard's El Factor Latino podcast, Tomas Cookman, Henry Cárdenas & Mayna Nevarez talk navigating the new reality.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the music industry with canceled shows, tours and festivals around the world leaving musicians and executives navigating a global health crisis with no point of reference.

The latest episode of Billboard's El Factor Latino podcast explores the potential impacts of the coronavirus on the world of Latin music, from consumer and industry perspectives.

For this episode, Billboard editor Leila Cobo speaks with Tomas Cookman, founder of Industria Works; Henry Cárdenas, founder of CMN; and Mayna Nevarez, founder of Nevarez Communications, each dealing with challenges in their own way.

"We didn't see this coming," Cárdenas says. "I'm still thinking and trying to answer that question myself: 'What happened?' We shut business down, we don't know what to do in the next four or five weeks or what do we do with the staff?"

Some of the CMN-produced tours that have been postponed include Prince Royce's Alter Ego Tour, Marc Anthony's Opus Tour and Sech's Sueños Tour.

Meanwhile, Nevarez, publicist for artists like Carlos Vives and Daddy Yankee, is trying to "adjust all the campaigns and find ways to maximize streaming. And also do a lot of data analytics to see what's working and what's not [on platforms]."

After canceled tours and shows, Cookman and Cárdenas discuss concert insurance which does not cover a promoter in case of a pandemic or virus. "Insurance policies for live shows is really detailed and extremely complex," explains Cookman. "Look at SXSW which is hundreds of millions of dollars and their cancelation insurance did not include any sort of pandemic virus like what's happening now. I think there's a lot of lawyers trying to redefine force majeure and what they can get out of that but it'll be difficult."

Cárdenas, Nevarez and Cookman also speak about how they're dealing with the situation personally and what this means for the Latin music industry moving forward.

El Factor Latino/The Latin Factor is Billboard’s podcast featuring essential conversations with and about the hottest and most fascinating personalities, topics and works in Latin music and culture, produced every two weeks by Billboard’s Latin edit team: Leila Cobo, Suzette Fernandez, Griselda Flores and Jessica Roiz.

Find past episodes here, and subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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