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Leandro Silva

Leandro Silva

Believe / Lemon Music Records

Leandro Ribeiro is an undergraduate in Business Administration, with an MBA in Strategic Business Management and holds a PMP certification (Project Manager Professional).  Leandro has worked for companies in areas like logistics and healthcare before the position of Project Manager at the Brasil Música e Artes – BM&A, where he lead the association/NGO to develop its business model and projects to foster the Brazilian music companies and artists abroad through trade missions, business education, image promotion, and showcasing program support.

Currently, he is Head of Label Distribution at Believe and A&R at Lemon Music Records.

Where are you based?

São Paulo, Brazil

Where do you work? What do you do?

Currently I’m Head of Label Distribution at Believe. The main role of my area is to support Believe Brazil clients to have the best strategies for their new releases and also develop new partnerships with labels and artists. Besides that, I’m also partner-founder of a record label called Lemon Music Records.

What are you listening to?

Currently, as we are working at home, I’m listening to chill music, like lo-fi songs, jazz rap, Brazilian music like the band Gilsons, Remobília, Caetano Veloso, and so on. In fact, even for lo-fi songs and jazz rap, I try to discover Brazilian artists in these genres.

How do you discover new music?

Well, it’s part of my job to receive a lot of emails and contacts from artists and labels over all styles and genres and also exchange ideas with the Believe Brazil team. So, that’s likely the main way I discover new music, as it is part of my daily job. But indeed I use social media (TikTok is becoming very relevant in this field), WhatsApp groups, my own network, playlists like Indie Brasil (on Spotify and Deezer). Just to have an idea, some days ago a Label Manager of my team brought to us a huge YouTube channel called Metralha dos Bailes – dedicated only to the Brazilian Funk.

What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?

For sure, streaming services. It’s easy to organize my playlists and it’s always in my hand, wherever I am.

Where do you do most of your music listening?

Usually I spend part of my day listening to music of my clients, prospects and new discoveries. I don’t use anything special – it’s always using my laptop, smartphone, earphones or bluetooth speakers.

How do you find and listen to pre-release music?

For my situation, I know it’s a little bit redundant, but as it is part of my job, I can listen to pre-releases via my job at Believe. And as I talk to new artists and labels on a daily basis, I receive pre-releases on my WhatsApp, e-mail, etc.

What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?

In my case, no problem and no frustrations at all. In fact, I prefer to receive links to listen to new music.

“I would recommend keeping an eye on the new music scene in Brazil. The Brazilian funk beats are also gaining some relevance worldwide.”

How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?

I add to my personal playlists and/or save the artist in my library.

Do you tip other people off to new music? How?

Yes, I usually share new music with my friends and coworkers via WhatsApp and in meetings.

Anything you want to “promote”?

It’s not exactly a promotion, but I’d like to say that it was a pleasure to be part of the #HowWeListen project. And I would recommend keeping an eye on the new music scene in Brazil. Artists like Gilsons, Anavitória, Remobília, St. Lumière, Júlio Secchin, Rubel, Jota.pê (pop music). The Brazilian funk beats are also gaining some relevance worldwide. In Brazil, for example, artists are mixing this beat with other styles like rap, trap, brega, sertanejo (the artist Bressan, for example, but I would recommend to listen to playlists like Trap Funk, Brega Funk, Rave Funk, Funk Hits, etc.

I also have my own playlists at Spotify for the genres I mentioned in the 3rd question, so, I’d like to share just in case if someone would like to listen (I add new stuff almost every week):

Lofi jazz / Jazz rap / Brazilian Music

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