Rimas Entertainment celebrates 10 years in music: 'No copy and paste here, every artist has an identity'

Rimas Entertainment is celebrating 10 years in business, and its executives — including Noah Assad (CEO), Junior Carabaño (vice president) and Raymond Acosta (general manager, Habibi) — reflect on their successes over the past decade.

During a panel held on Tuesday (Oct. 15) and moderated by Bulletin board'small Leila Cobo, Assad, Carabaño and Acosta gave their first public interview as a team and talked about the evolution of the label, which started as a record label with Jowell & Randy as their first artist, and later became a strong label that hosted a global star. Bad Bunny, with new divisions such as Habibi (management that houses Karol G and Grupo Frontera) and Rimas Sports.

“I'm doing what I love to do,” said a soft-spoken Assad. “I named the company Rimas obviously because of rhythm, but it has another meaning. My brother's name is Samir and he likes music. Reemas is Samir spelled backwards.”

Carabaño went on to explain that the company initially focused primarily on monetizing music videos on YouTube. “We started monetizing digitally, with YouTube videos, watching and calling each other all day. One day we made $100 and another $1,500, then we said we can live off this.”

And the rest is history, with marquee clients Bad Bunny and Karol G becoming two of music's biggest stars over the last four years.

Below are the best quotes from the Ten Years of Rimas Entertainment panel.

The Role of Mediators

Noah Assad: “We started out as, and still are, facilitators of our customers in all the business we do, but we started out kind of as a back office and we were a facilitator for complaints from artists who needed help resolving these issues. We are doing the same thing now but on a larger scale. And then our only income was doing shows or from YouTube videos, it was a new era of people making money. We were learning to go from physical to digital, we were there early on.”

Working with Bad Bunny

Assad: “Benito [Bad Bunny’s real name] it has been a blessing and opened many doors for us to show the world what we can offer. It helped pave the way and helped us build what we have today.”

Right people, right time

Junior Carabaño: “More than sitting down and planning what we wanted to do, we were the right people at the right time. We saw an opportunity where we could also share our passion with the industry. Today, we see it like 10 years ago, but it doesn't seem like that because every day, we do what we want. We found there was a way to make a living working at what we love.”

The importance of acceptance for continued learning

Raymond Acosta: “Fifteen years ago, I was working as a security guard at Choliseo. Our individual journeys are important. There will come a time when you start criticizing other people's work, even when you haven't been through what they have. But once you're willing to learn about every aspect of the business, you can understand a team member, help them, and say, “Don't worry because I've been there.” It's about empowering ourselves.”

Asad: “I'm 34 now, but I really started when I was 15. I can say today that I can do any job in the industry. Really, I can. I can help set up lights, DJ, record vocals, I've worked in every field and that's important for anyone wanting to work in the industry. Wanting to learn is important and accepting to learn.”

Working with Karol G

Acosta: “We are proud of what Karol has achieved. She is a woman who works every day, she doesn't rest, she wants to keep growing in what she does, she opens her heart. He challenged us when he told us he wanted to take a tour of the stadium. All you can do for an artist like him is make the way for him to run.”

What do they look for in an artist?

Assad: “When it comes to management, Raymond says to me, 'Let this be the opportunity.' And I respond with “What do you think?” And if he says I love them, then so do I. Sometimes I don't see the vision, but someone else on the team will. If that person believes in an artist, we know there's a reason. We trust that team member who recognizes an artist and says, “I can do this for that person.”

Billboard Latin Music Week 2024 coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards airing at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 20, on Telemundo. It will be available simultaneously on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.