Jewish Music Available on the Web

[Mayer Pasternak <mayer...>]

Hi all,
        I have been listening in on the discussion on this list for a few 
years. My personal feeling has been to stay out of most of the conversations 
about specific products since - I actively market and represent many of them. I 
have believed the marketplace should determine its verdict on products by 
themselves. However, since there has been a discussion of what is available on 
my site and what is missing - I would like to add my 2 cents.

        In the past the philosophy of our company has been to provide the broad 
based Jewish music consumer audience with access to products that were viable 
on a national and international level. We have boxes of demo CDs that were 
submitted to us, that were unmarketable in Judaica shops or via conventional 
catalog methods and as thus they were relegated to obscurity (circular file). 
What artists fail to realize is the cost of printing catalogs and the mailing 
costs vs. the kind of response their products can elicit on a mass level. (Our 
cost of placing an item in our print catalog is about $400 - our last print 
catalog was mailed to over 150,000 people and there are products that sold less 
40 copies) We were therefore very selective as to which products we placed in 
print and that we carried. We had to select the products for the masses and are 
"marketable" and function as a recommender. 

        There are literally hundreds of titles that end up in judaica stores 
that just sit there because the customers walking in have never heard of the 
group or artist. The customers have no way of making an intelligent decision 
about the products except based on the artist's recognition, title and cover 
art. Except for a handful of stores around the country the sales staff has 
equally little knowledge about the albums.  We have tried to change that by 
installing listening stations in the top 65 Judaica shops in the country. It 
has allowed customers to preview albums and make their decisions based on sound 
bytes.  None-the-less there are still albums that don't sell that way either.

        The Internet has changed all of that! The cost of adding a product to 
our website is a fraction of the above costs. Online catalogs can be updated 
relatively quickly. Products can have lengthy descriptions, song lists, reviews 
and real audio - which all help market the products. So, over the last three 
years we have been slowly expanding or product offering. We are currently at 
3,700 products with over 5,000 pages to maintain. The response is fascinating 
to say the least - obscure products have been ordered within an hour of being 
added to our site. The range and diversity of products that the same people 
order is also quite amazing. However, many products sell only one or two copies 
even after being on the site for several months. 

        We are none-the-less committed to making as much Jewish music as 
possible available to the public. So over the last 5 months we have opened up 
the doors to artists that have products that they would like to make available 
through our company and our site. There may be some of you that have albums or 
know of artists that have albums that we do not currently carry. To that ends I 
share the following information. We will add "Jewish" music products to our 
database and online catalog for a nominal fee for setting it up - which 
includes, scanning the covers, adding the table of contents and adding a 
description provided by the artist or record label. We will also add up to ten 
minutes of real audio - for a nominal fee for sampling and transmission. We 
will only do this for products that are in print, readily available and meet 
the basic market standards of quality. This service is provided only when we 
are provided with a nominal amount of product on consignment a consignment 
basis. This product will be available if and when someone orders it. If and 
when the products sell they will be paid for. This program is similar to others 
that are being provided by other non-jewish distributors and retailers. If you 
would like more information you can email me.

        There are several individuals that have posted to this list recently 
that have taken us up on this offer. Their products have sold, because they 
made them available and made them accessible through our services. It is a 
nominal investment on the part of the artists and labels and it allows people 
to get access to hearing and buying their products. 


        I am posting this message to this list as a service message not as a 
sales vehicle. If you say that our offering is "Incomplete" you now have the 
chance to remedy it!

Mayer Pasternak
Tara Publications
Jewishmusic.com

P.S Many of the albums that have been discussed recently you can find on our 
site at http://jewishmusic.com . Including some adult Chanukah offerings 
including Jon Simon, Festival of Lights, Voice of the Turtle, Zamir Choral - 
Klezmer Conservatory - Oy Chanukah, a new A Cappela album by Listen Up!  - to 
name a few. For those of those that like shmaltz Kenny Karen has a song on his 
album called "Festival of Lights" which is great!  I had suggested to Six 
Degree that that put that on the Festival of Lights album but they vetoed - 
their loss.