Roots Archives Forum

apology accepted and not at all necassary. we all ghave a right to state our case. It's a free internet, as they say...

leggo rocker wrote:I actually wonder if it isn't the format's that are in their death throes but in fact music itself.

I hope not, that's why I wrote the piece. I don't want reggae (either roots or dancehall) to die. That's why I think that we need to look at other ways of distributing *new* music, in addition to the always-popular archive 45 market. For instance, rather than rolling over and letting the riddim album market die thanks to illegal downloading and, worse yet, the wanton theft perpetrated by the likes of the audiomaxx dude, I'd like to see JA producers making their riddims available as soon as they are cut via the internet, encoded at a decent bitrate (320kbps MP3s would be ideal) and charged for. That keeps the music viable, embraces the new technology and gets people paid...

Anyway, I've got work to do. Nice speaking to you all.

The revenue stream from *new* music as we know seems to be almost dead. The problem is finding the new one.

Advertising with free downloads maybe? It is, after all, the way most of us get our television programs, ie: served with a generous dash of adverts in between. Although, maybe, that is also an outmoded model given that people are using Internet technology to 'steal' television programs and also methods to edit out ads from the shows.

Perhaps the future is in product placement, increasingly a part of TV and film revenue. So we'll have songs with words like:

"I was walking down the road when I saw a girl in a really nice Ford, go down to your dealer know there's finance you can afford"

etc.

Interestingly, if music revenue really does collapse totally, we could see the hands of time turned way back to where music becomes fragmented, delivered in a more personal way, like live shows and artists don't use record labels and actually have to work hard on the concert-road to make cash.

Not too much to add here except that I still buy new 7"s and enjoy getting a box of swag from Ernie every couple of months. MP3s? Forget it. I don't deal with MP3s, I never play them on my radio show and I never DJ live with an iPod. Although I suppose at some point I will have to embrace the new technology whether I like it or not...

Mick Sleeper wrote:MP3s? Forget it. I don't deal with MP3s, I never play them on my radio show and I never DJ live with an iPod. Although I suppose at some point I will have to embrace the new technology whether I like it or not...

I think maybe we are twins separated at birth Mick!

If I had to DJ with CD or MP3 I wouldn't want to do it. Period.

DJ = DISK Jockey.

I'm a DJ, not a CDJ or an MP3J

Ouch ! Ernie got owned by the article dude

Big ups to ernie for keepin' it up with the 7's, lp's, etc.. Some of us, like me, can't afford the original pressings and by selling the re-press at perfect prices it makes our lives easier, it makes me not take the mp3 way, keep it old' school.

Vinyl can't done...
As a business owner in the Reggae industry (and also someone who gets dubplate 10s pressed for my sound on the regular), vinyl is an INTEGRAL part to our success..At Trade Roots, Cds sell just as much because of the fact of WHAT WE CARRY. Being in San Diego, CA, Ernie B. can tell you how much HARD ROOTS Music is sold to such a small community. My average customer is not someone walking around with all the latest technocracy when it comes to vinyl transfers to cds, labtops, etc..They are real people who want REAL MUZIK...I can't waste the budget I set aside for Muzik (whether its thru EB's,VP,Live N Learn,etc)on Riddim Cds...They don't sell and never did @ Trade Roots. Our customers are the average cats you see driving around bumpin' hard roots and everyone around SD is the set way...75% of our customers are African and out of that a HUGE % are ETHIOPIAN. They are the first to buy The MIGHTY THREES rather than anything that Morgan Heritage (no disrespect) is putting out...Fi Real!
My soundsystem, BLACKHEART WARRIORS HIFI, is a STRICTLY VINYL/Strictly STEPPERZ sound..No sampling, just authentic Vinyl...Most of the time its 10s we run, and from looking @ EB's site, 10s don't seem to be going nowhere...
I say keep the VIBEZ alive!!! CDS/LPS..Man, we even still sell tapes!!!! Now thats ROOTZ!!!!

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ROOTZ OUTLETS!!!!
One Perfect Luv...

Sound System means Vinyl.

It was very nice of the newspaper article to post a reply without getting upset...I would not be pleased if the situation were reversed. So with all due respect, here goes...

If the headline was based on a quote from someone, perhaps the headline should have read "David Rogigan Claims That..." That sets a more factual tone to the article...if all article used that premise for headlines then we'd end up with:

"Hillary Clinton Not Qualified to be President"
With the election coming later this year, everyone we talked to thinks that Hillary Clinton hasn't enough experience. Joe Blow, who used to vote but doesn't anymore, said Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president.

I think newspaper articles are supposed to report facts and then let the reader sort out what it means. Otherwise facts get mixed with the writer's opinion which doens't make for great reading unless it's on the editorial page.

Bottom line:
Sales of new dancehall 7s are down, except for good tunes which still sell in high numbers.

This line is absurd: "and increasingly there's no international market, either,"

I interpret this to mean that there is no market, or that soon there will be no market (which means no sales at all)..an absolutely ludicrous exaggeration. A more accurate statement would be "sales overseas have been lower over the last few years, however Jamaica is still the world's largest exporter of vinyl records".

It really doesn't matter, with regard to sales, whether or not the serious soundguys are using MP3 or vinyl...what matters are 2 factors: 1) how many soundguys are changing to MP3's (a lot, I agree) and 2)are there a lot of new soundguys just getting into it that are using vinyl? There are lots that fit into category #1 but they are far outnumbered by #2...there are so many new guys coming into the scene that are stoked with vinyl that MORE DJ'S OVERALL spin vinyl today than anytime that I know of. I can't believe the sheer number of DJ's there are, all over. And it's exploding. You look at the orders going out of here on any given day the the majority of them have 7s on their pile.

Another factor to consider when getting the sales opinions of distributors is that, without being modest, we are taking a lot of customers from others so of course the business is going to look poor to others...they might think it's the industry in geneeral but a large portion of the sales downturn for them is due to the fact that their customers order from us now. Also, when distributors stop selling completely (Music Ambassador, Reggae One Love, etc) the customers that they had left at the end are left without a supplier (unless they know about us)...so until they find us or their end-users find us there will be a downturn in volume being exported from JA.

I know that 7s are here to stay and new dancehall will continue to come out on 7s. There will be some experiments from producers trying to market songs digitally only, but so far this has been totally unsecessful...and I don't see this working in the near future. Even it if does, I know there will always be room to sell hundreds of copies of lousy tunes and thousands of copies of good tunes.

Perhaps my reaction to the story was party due to the fact that I have an intense hatred for the media in general, so maybe I was a little out of line. For example, read below to see what gets under my skin...this has nothing to do with the Guardian article but it's the SOP for the media everywhere.

If I turn the news on during a rain shower, they have the reporter standing in the street dressed in yellow raingear: "Let's go live to Joe who is right in the middle of the storm! Joe what is happening now?!......Well I can tell you that rain is falling right now AS WE SPEAK! Water is literally running down the gutter...and there seams to be NO END IN SIGHT!...back to you in the studio...OK Joe thank you VERY MUCH for your report! So much rain this year, it's ironic, miraculous and we'll have to talk about potential possible flooding maybe. Wow!"

Or they could have reported it this way: "it rained again today, bringing the total so far this year to 4.52 inches, which is above normal".

I prefer version #2 of the story.

Well anyway thanks for trying to support reggae music but the article is harmful in my opinion.

OK I feel better now...

Keep on bucking the so-called trend Ernie!