Re: Jewish Music and EMusic.com

[R.A.S. <richards...>]

[Please note - problems with ISP's mail server atm. Lots of mail bouncing,
arriving late, etc.]

Dear Simon,

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 09/01/2003 at 16:04 Klezcorner (at) aol(dot)com wrote:

>In a message dated 1/9/3 4:27:07 AM, richards (at) 
>rainlore(dot)demon(dot)co(dot)uk writes:
>
><<
>Something has been bugging me for a long while. EMusic.com (
>http://www.emusic.com ) has a small but nonetheless quite impressive
>selection of albums of Jewish music of various kinds, including a number
of
>releases by a number of members of this list. However, these can be
>extremely hard to actually get to, and unless you have at least a fair
idea
>of what you're looking for, they are easily missed.
> >>
>
>Hey Richard,
>Ever thought of going to a Judaica Store and possibly patronizing them for

>Jewish Music?????

Yes, the thought has occurred. Although until fairly recently, I wasn't
able to locate any here in the UK. And when possible (speak when finances
permit), I have bought and do buy CDs, most usually through Amazon.com in
the US as, for one thing, titles are either not obtainable from UK outlets
or have very long delivery times, and for another, like most consumers
certainly here in the UK, I most strongly resent UK price levels of CDs
(which typically are about the same _figure_ as the most expensive US
prices but with the $ sign replaced by a £ one, and often more still.
Amazon tends to work out the cheapest (standard international shipping is
cheap enough, far cheaper than UK postage charges actually) and is ussually
quicker by far (typically 5-7 days with standard shipping). So far, I've
never had to pay import duty (only 4% anyway) or VAT (17.5%), but even if
these were added it would still be cheaper than buying in the UK. But
outlets like Amazon don't always carry everything I might be looking for.
So, e.g., some Israeli recordings I would have to get directly from Israel
(where again CD prices tend to be lower than in the UK). Some more esoteric
recordings that I have been looking for for some time I was only able to
find on your own site and thus have them ear-marked for ordering as and
when I can afford them.

But, and this is a very big but, electronic music distribution, in the form
of MP3s (or possibly some future improved format), are here and are not
only here to stay but are most likely _the_ means of future music
distribution, period. EMusic is a somewhat half-baked effort (ever more
half-baked since its take-over by V-U it would seem) and whether they'll
remain a part of this is debatable (and of course remains to be seen). I
even doubt that direct distribution to the consumer a la EMusic will be the
major mode of distribution and think it far more likely that this will be
through something like retail franchises that'll download an album on
demand and burn it to CD/DVD or whatever medium and print out the covers;
another strong contender might be digital TV and integrated hardware
that'll download albums to order and burn a copy and print covers. One way
or another, it is almost guaranteed to happen. The consumer certainly will
benefit from lower prices, and artists will benefit from easier, wider and
very much cheaper distribution and very much easier and cheaper
self-publishing, and in the end, a far better share of the profits. The
only real losers might be the dinosaur major record companies, unless they
suddenly see the light and manage to change and adapt. I'm pretty sure
almost nobody's going to spill any tears, crocodile or otherwise, over
their demise.

And if artists and their labels make their albums available for online
_purchase_ in the form of MP3s, who am I to argue with that?! I happen to
get an annual gift subscription to EMusic from a friend, but even if I had
to pay for it myself, it would represent a reasonable and affordable way
for me to acquire some of the music I enjoy, listen to albums that I might
otherwise never consider buying (and then decide whether to a) wipe it, b)
keep it, or c) get the regular CD of), and, personally speaking, even
acquire a few albums that I would never ordinarily buy simply because of
their huge and for me utterly unaffordable price tags. The quality's
usually more than adequate (apart from some clipping sometimes, which is
restored easily enough), and for me the music's the thing - sure, liner
notes can sometimes be very informative and occasionally there are even
booklets that would be worth buying in their own right, but ultimately, the
music stands or falls on its own and is what really matters to me.
Covers/liner notes are a bonus and can add a very nice touch indeed, but
I'd never buy an album purely on the strength of a great cover, any more
than I buy any other product for its packaging (although I'm bucking the
general consumerist fashion there). If the music's great, I'd still buy it
if it only came in a plain brown paper wrapper.

So, I repeat, while artists and their labels make their albums avilable for
online _purchase_, I shall continue supporting them and _purchasing_ their
albums in this form.

As is said, who indeed am I to argue with artists and labels for making
their products available to me in this way?! And likewise, who exactly are
you (no personal "attack" intended, Simon) to argue with this either? Ah
yes, as a retailer, you have a vested interest in not being bypassed as the
"middleman". And as a specialist retailer, yes, I can even appreciate your
point and I certainly also appreciate that you provide a valuable service.
However, if you were to take a longer term view of these things (and again,
I appreciate that this may not be easy when you're running a relatively
marginal business) you'd see that this very technology and paradigm shift
in marketing could actually benefit your type of business hugely. OK, you'd
need to invest in a bit of hardware and a leased line (T1 or better), but
imagine, you'd no longer have to tie up capital or expensive credit in
expensive stock, often perhaps for many months if not longer, and instead
you'd be billed once a month for what you actually sold. You could even
become something like a distribution "hub" for recordings not available
from major distribution outfits and even carry artists that, under the
present system can't even afford to produce and market a CD. (Or for that
matter things like field recordings and rare transcriptions that under the
present system only very rarely see the light of day in the form of a CD.)

Also, electronic music distribution, even in its present forms, at the very
least has a huge potential for reaching a far greater audience than
hitherto conventional forms of distribution are able to. Even within the
confines of EMusic, I personally for instance have been able to discover a
substantial number of recordings (of all sorts of genres) that I would
otherwise certainly never even have known about let alone ever heard or
been able to purchase. Granted, a lot of my discoveries on EMusic were the
result of persistent "digging", sometimes quite random, and many if indeed
not most subscribers or potential subscribers would not be inclined to just
"dig" around like that. This is precisely why I wrote the post that you
took issue with, i.e., in order to help, if possible, make (in this case)
Jewish music that is available on EMusic more easily accessible and
hopefully expose more people to it that perhaps otherwise might never
bother (and might never buy a CD) and also might never even be aware of
Jewish music or what's available. I'm sorry if this point wasn't obvious, I
just thought it self-evident.

>You are located in the UK, why not contact Noa at Jewish Music
Distribution,
>e-mail address: jmduk (at) hotmail(dot)com

Unfortunately, no online catalogue, and not local to me. However, I shall
contact Noa as and when the occasion arises and find out if prices and
supply times compare favourably.

>If you believe in the music, support it, and the people who produce it.

That I do, whichever way I can, my way.


Richard


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