| SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST |
#43 |
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Recent months have seen whisperings of a high street retail decline develop into a full-blown slanging match. Fopp's untimely demise comes hot on the heels of a series of uninspiring results from HMV, while ERA have recently been drawn into a bout of public mudslinging with the Mail on Sunday regarding their highly controversial Prince covermount.
High street retailers large and small are under pressure. With supermarkets selling the big hitters at loss-leading, sub-wholesale prices and online physical-format retailers like Amazon offering unrivalled choice, the specialist multiples are being attacked on two fronts. Add to this an industry-wide downturn that may still have some way to go, and the outlook looks increasingly bleak.
It's not just the high street chains that are suffering, though - small independent operations are closing down left, right and centre: from York's much-celebrated Track Records and Reveal in Derby right through to Atlas, Koobla, Reckless and most recently, Disque, here in the nation's capital.
The appeal of the specialist indie has historically been based on the twin pillars of service and the stock. Indies employ knowledgeable staff capable of providing good service and targeted customer recommendations: scenester staff for scenester customers. This policy brings with it the added bonus of fostering a shop culture, which in turn affords customers entry to an inner sanctum of cool. This appeal is then consolidated by an impressive depth of stock and the fact that you really can listen to the music before you buy it.
The problem is that the online domain now fulfils these needs, from shop-manager Graham's weekly picks being usurped by purchase-based recommendations and Last.fm, right through to online communities and social networks catering for the need to belong. Record shops may once have been clique epicentres, but those days are long gone now little Johnny scenester can discuss, disparage and recommend from the 'comfort' of his own bedroom. And when the Amazons, Plays, Boomkats and Junos of this world offer unparalleled depth of stock, delivered to your door the very next day, you start to wonder how some specialists have managed to last this long. After all, the same staff-consumer relationships that engender shop culture also foster a cliquey vibe that can be intimidating for the uninitiated.
Rough Trade's latest venture, which acknowledges that the goalposts have shifted, could however represent a glimmer of hope. The high street store of the future is conceivably a much more interactive affair, coupling physical and digital music-buying with immediate live music and a healthy dose of the discussion/recommendation, which was a cornerstone of the more traditional incarnation. While forums, blogs and the metacritics of this world continue to expand and refine the myriad ways we expand and communicate our musical oeuvre, the human animal still longs for a bit of old-fashioned, face-to-face contact, and the current boom in the live sector suggests today's music fans know there is still no substitute for actually being there.
Let's hope Rough Trade's blend of service and experiential sweeteners can hit the right note well into the 21st century.
Editorial by Sam Shemtob
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| JOE POX - Rihanna |
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Machine-built, lazer-guided pop is the real sound of 2007. 'Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control)' and 'Umbrella' are the bone fide hits of the summer and expose the supposedly-authentic Johnny Borrell, Gary Lightbody and Him From Editors as being as little more than nutmeg in Fanta - neither interesting nor palatable.
All summer, doing a kind of 21st Century perv-robot rain dance, Rihanna has controlled the UK charts and laughed in the face of the wobble-lipped pretenders to her throne, sending them back down the pile with a nonchalant flick of her wrist. A 10-week number 1 song that is still as thrilling as the first time you ever heard it.
So, what on Earth possessed her to go about ruining the whole thing by doing (ten weeks late) a tie-in branded umbrella (see the creative there and weep) with Totes? Her next single is called 'Shut Up & Drive' so we can expect a tie-in with Castrol GTX when it starts to exit the charts. It's one thing to miss an open goal; it's another entirely to clumsily hoof a ball goal-ward when everyone else on the pitch has gone home and are having fish fingers and chips. What a load of old bollocks (ollocks-ollocks-eh-eh).
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| INDUSTRY DIARY - Other Events |
29 SEPT - MUSIC IN MIND: IMAGES & REFLECTIONS
A one-day seminar for instrumental and vocal teachers that will explore some particular dimensions of music teaching. An introduction to meditation and its relevance for musicians will draw on some fascinating recent medical developments in brain imaging.
The importance of music of earlier periods to instrumental teaching is reflected in a talk on the life and work of Arnold Dolmetsch by his granddaughter Jeanne.
Moving from the old world to the new, we turn to the pivotal role of the piano in nineteenth and twentieth century music-making, with a demonstration of the mechanics of the instrument.
Concluding with a recital of music from the baroque to the twentieth century, this seminar will provide a perhaps all too rare opportunity in today’s world for reflection, as well as some food for thought and for the ear.
ISM members £40 (Student members £10), ISM non-members £60, to include lunch and all refreshments.
For details and booking form, visit the ISM website...
http://www.ism.org/musicinmind
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| WISE MONKEY - Planet Earth Covermount |
THE STATS BEHIND THE COVERMOUNT DEAL...
Planet Earth is Prince's 46th Album.
Authoritative industry comment suggests Prince would have received up to £300'000 from the Mail on Sunday (MOS) as a covermount license fee.
Prince also receives a royalty on every copy of the MOS sold - typically up to 10% (14p) per copy, retailing at £1.40 per unit - total £406'000.
Approx 2.9 million copies of MOS were sold as opposed to its weekly 2.3 million average (ABC audited figures).
Assuming he owns 100% of the copyright for each and every track, he would have received in the region of £200'000 via MCPS and his UK Publishers, based on a 7p royalty per copy.
With sales for his last album, 3121, achieving 80'000 copies in the UK, by comparison, this covermount is likely to have earned Prince approximately 8 times as much.
Associated Newspapers' costs for the covermount deal is estimated to be approaching £1million.
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| FROM OUR OWN (FESTIVAL) CORRESPONDENT - Lovebox Weekend |
SUNDAY AT LOVEBOX
"Write an awesome review!" shouted one gleeful punter who'd spotted me scribbling during the final set. Well, OK then.
Despite forecasts of rain and water chaos surrounding much of the UK, London finally got its day in the sun, its chance to collectively celebrate summer's arrival.
And with a musical line-up to shame many a three-day festival, it's very own sanded volleyball beach and barbeque scents wafting through the air, Lovebox rose to the occasion.
In contrast to many outdoor London events, the organisers had gone to a lot of effort to transform Vicky park, with both artful graffiti and all manner of random touches and signs in the unlikeliest of places.
El Barrio got the Brooklyn look down to a tee - complete with it's own TV repair shop, New York traffic lights and wall-mounted air conditioner spewing fug. So it was fitting that following a minor roadblock, Bonde do Role rocked the crowd with one of the better sets of the day (PUT YOUR HANDS UP IN THE AIR!!). The sweaty atmosphere worked well for the Brazilian musical magpies, who whipped the crowd into a frenzy with their mixture of original material and distinctive rap over dismembered pop classics such as Summer Lovin', Tone Loc and Doo Waa Diddy among others. Their energetic stage presence, ability to make you feel that it's all about to go off, together with their ordering you to "make some XXXXing noise", gave the crowd no option but to dutifully oblige.
Elsewhere Tuung put in a breathy, sometime beaty and enchanting performance on the Time Out stage, with classics like 'Bodies' rousing the audience, and closed with the newish 'Bullets' that went down well. It didn't have quite the atmosphere of their Glastonbury gig however - a shortened set and hazy sunshine apparently making for a more rarified ambience than a packed tent in the pouring rain.
We only caught the back end of Hot Chip, who we were informed also played a shortish set, but a lot of the timings had to be reworked following problems earlier in the day, and they must've been shattered following their showstopping performance at Somerset House (and after party) the night before.
The Trojan stage meanwhile brought continuous sunsplash vibes, with both Andy Smith and Brother Culture, The Trojan Soundsystem itself and Massive Attack's Daddy G playing great festive sets covering roots and dub to D'n'B.
So by the time it came for Groove Armada to come on and 'By The River' wafted through the air, the audience was a sea of happy faces. Tracks like 'Easy' summed up the day nicely, but it was the 5 minute build up to 'Superstylin'' during the encore that seemed to catch the audience off their guard and resulted in a brilliant finale with everyone jumping around.
Aside from a lot of excellent music, the event was also child friendly, with both free entry to under 12s and caring security. All told a great party and family day out. Let's hope that keeps the gleeful punter happy.
SS
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| WOULD YOU ADAM & EVE IT? - Website Of The Month |
bandtoband.com
Bands have a tendency to share band members and as a result it's not difficult to construct a simple 'family tree' based upon the interrelationship of band members.
BandToBand.com has taken this one step further, to find out how large this extended tree is. Every band in its list is connected to every other band based upon this family tree principle.
Simply selecting a band, artist, album cover or album title results in linking to realtionship information sourced from entries in the site comprising 10'147 bands, 2'506 albums and some 27'655 artists.
A simple concept, well-executed.
http://www.bandtoband.com
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| That's
all for this issue - Till next time... |
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