MONTEGO BAY, St James — Sumfest organisers are still tallying the figures for this year’s show which, for the first time ever, charged a fee to patrons who opted to watch live streams of three nights. As they streamed, they constantly did battle with Internet pirates who used the feed to lure subscribers to their own pages.

“It’s still a very tricky deal with the pirates. We did a lot to try to process the pirates as quickly as possible but it’s still a manual thing; you have to do it one at a time,” said DownSound Records CEO and chairman of Summerfest Productions which promotes Sumfest, Joe Bogdanovich.

During the show there were numerous streams on social media providing unauthorised access to performances from Jamaica’s top local and international acts.

“It’s kind of a hobby here in Jamaica or in the Jamaican world; they like to see if they can build their website presence. It’s kind of a game, and they enjoy that but it’s not really good for the artistes or the industry,” Bogdanovich told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

The virtual component of the show has been a staple of the event since 2016 when DownSound acquired the rights to the festival from Summerfest Productions.

Bogdanovich concedes that they need better security for the online segment of the show. Artificial intelligence has been useful in catching infringements.

“The majors are knowing when songs are playing that need copyright protection; they finally have that down. They get it from the melody — not just the lyrics from the song, just the melody. They have bots there that can figure that out,” he shared.

For US$20 patrons could watch the Global Sound Clash on July 21, Festival Night 1 on the 22nd, and Festival Night 2 on the 23rd. Bogdanovich said he would happily stream the entire event for free if he could get sponsors on board; but that would likely hinge on whether they can keep the pirates at bay.

“I prefer to do it for free. If someone would sponsor it, that would be great — that’s what we are looking to happen. But we want to know what the value is because you don’t have good security on the signal, [it] is undervalued right now,” he remarked.

For now Bogdanovich is happy with how the show went. He was quick to praise his production team which, he noted, was made up entirely of Jamaicans and who made an excellent effort that resulted in an almost glitch-free show for patrons watching online.

He also gave the physical event a thumbs up.

“All the reviews are pretty sensational. The people really enjoyed themselves but it took a lot of hard work to do it, I can tell you that,” he said.

Among the little things that enhanced attendees’ experience, he said, was the larger space available inside the venue for patrons to dance up a storm, along with more spacious areas where refreshments were served.

The organisers are already looking ahead to more events.

“We are doing our post-mortem this week and we’ll be doing that for four days straight and be bigger and better next year. I think we’ll be doing a lot of other events at Catherine Hall in the next 12 months,” opined Bogdanovich.