April 2011

Why not sell records? Whitley Bay Jazz Festival

Why not sell records? Laurent Chemla

Le Monde diplomatique

Translated by Juan Agulló

"The record industry is in crisis because people download songs illegally, the Internet." Ditty as a categorical, crushed years ago by the leaders of the music industry but also, by politicians, deserves to be examined carefully.

Opponents Hadopi Act [the French equivalent of the Law Sinde] to be heard during their investigation, they were forced to make proposals designed to "rescue" of artists who say they are being "pillaged by piracy and P2P ". The problem with such proposals is that they are an indirect way to accept the [premise] more: If you are looking for solutions to compensate the musicians, is that P2P really is hurting them ...

Brain Washing repressors (whatever his intentions) has worked so well that it has been inserted, in the collective imagination, the idea that the digital exchange would necessarily be a loss for artists, which would be replenished in one way or another.

Currently, however, truly independent studies carried out by individuals affected (Industry Canada, UFC-Que Choisir, the Dutch Government, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Adami, etc.) Arrive, all to the same conclusion : the impact of P2P on sales has been minimal if not, even slightly ... positive. In fact, no serious study has established a causal link between P2P and the crisis in the music industry.

Nadie está negando, para empezar, la crisis. Las ventas de CDs pasaron, de 150 millones de unidades en 2002 a 90, en 2006. Sin embargo, colegir a partir de estos datos –como suelen hacer los Gobiernos, el Sindicato Nacional de Edición Fonográfica [el equivalente francés a la SGAE] o la Federación Internacional de la Industria Fonográfica- que el desplome de las ventas es exclusivamente atribuible al intercambio de archivos por Internet constituye, como mínimo, una exageración; sí no, una mentira pura y dura.

De hecho, el mercado del DVD está en plena ebullición. Sus ventas aumentaron un 11% en los tres primeros trimestres de 2009; las de Blu-Ray, un 156% y las de videojuegos –también, piratable easy-to 22% in 2008, the year before that, in itself, was exceptional. The odd thing is that the DVD, in principle, subject to the same risks as the CD: it is digital-and thus, too, is easily pirates-the "supply" pirate is so dynamic that often even ahead of official releases and last but not least, the spread of ADSL enables any movie can be "shared" in less than an hour. According to the director [French] film, Luc Besson, everyday piratearían least half a million films in France. However, they have never sold so many DVDs. What's happening?

To answer to this question seriously, since the issue is complex, our leaders should consider ordering worthy of the name instead of listening exclusively to the artists manipulated by their producers. From here, the most we can do is point to some theories more plausible than the P2P.

To start and foremost, we must refer to evidence: the cultural budget of households can not increase exponentially. In a social context in which the game consoles have become fashionable, the DVDs are selling more and more, the MP3 is the order of the day, assistance to the Boards of film is reaching record levels, are buying more digital photo equipment than ever there are bargains everywhere plans for mobile and live connected to the Internet, it costs money, it is not surprising that the fiscal adjustment of families [in the field of culture and entertainment] is being done at the expense of a music industry simply is not being able to reinvent itself.

In fact, while the movie industry invented fertilizer, multiple rooms, home cinema, the pay per view and the third dimension, the disc fell back on an old CD, taxed more and more unjust and bid [content] degraded and limited ( impossible to buy in iTunes, for example, AC / DC or the Beatles). Okay, the invention of the CD itself a generation forced to renew their club vinyl, but once past that point should it surprise that sales decline when supply is also decreasing?

A report by the Ministry [French] of Culture 2008, which is extremely eloquent in this regard: in 2001, the four major French albums while 2,672 occurred in 2006, 1,245. Contracted supply, therefore, half in just five years. And is there who dares to explain something, solely and exclusively by P2P? Interesting ...

Very interesting, indeed, if one considers that in that same report shows that the proportion of people aged between 11 and 65 who bought at least one CD over the last year, is stable: it remains at 77 % [of people]. As if that were not enough, to concerts, attending more and more people. Apparently, therefore, the French are not allergic to the music of payment. The problem, rather, is to buy fewer CDs than before. What is that?

The average price of each CD in 2004 was 15 euros. Four years later, 14.40. What attracts attention is that the number of people involved in the production of a film usually, generally, much higher than needed to produce a CD. Do you earn any less, actors musicians? Hard to believe.

There is a simple way to prove it is typical that the soundtrack of a film is marketed as a CD and that, although there is also the film on DVD. Because he often tends to be an example, look at the case of Luc Besson (defender of the Law Hadopi). On Amazon, the DVD of his film The Big Blue costs EUR 13.99 and the CD original soundtrack, 6.68, which is a fairly moderate price, especially when compared to what it would take all the songs downloaded that compose the Internet: 9.99 euros!

This is a very eloquent example because the CDs are not usually sold so cheap. The key question in this case, however, is if the composer of the [original soundtrack] Eric Serra is half the price of the DVD "how much the fees amounted producers, directors, actors and technicians who made The Big Blue? Eric Serra, by itself, would have cost as much as all the others put together? Again, hard to believe. In fact the crux of the matter is that while the film industry has been able to adapt and diversify their rates, the record has been anchored in an age where practically had no competition. Should we be surprised, then, that DVD sales are maintained while the CD, drop precipitously?

fact what should be done to "save" the music and musicians? In fact, nothing, because that is another idea with which it is manufactured to finish, basically, because the crisis in the music business (whatever they may be the cause) is not threatening to the richness and musical diversity. Not only the music has always existed and always will be (whether or not a business riding around) but the strength of free music [rights] (as Dogmazic or Jamendo) shows that the problems affecting the industry publisher does not affect at all, creativity.

In fact, separate the crisis in the music industry, music creation. That the producers have decided to put the artists on his own audience does not mean that everyone may fall into this trap: the sole responsibility of the fault of the artists is their complicit silence towards an industry that simply has failed to adapt [to the new times]. In fact, they are as much victims as their own public.
('mannerism Voir', No 109, February-March 2010)

Source: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/mav/109/CHEMLA/19340

2010 JAZZ BAND THE REAR Aida Martinez

Highlights from the Whitley Bay Jazz Festival 2010.
From Chile La Retaguardia Jazz Band .
This is the first time a jazz band from Chile has appeared in the UK, and it's great that La Retaguardia should form the advance-guard in this respect, since their name translates as "the rear-guard": in their choice of the classic jazz of Morton, Ellington, Henderson, Oliver and Armstrong, they represent the very opposite of the "avant-garde" so beloved of Arts Councils the world over. Their stubborn resistance to the forces of modernism began way back in 1958, so this is a rearguard action on the epic scale of Dunkirk, or Napoleon's retreat from Moscow -- and the intensity with which they play is very indicative of Their deeply-held feelings on the subject. The eight-piece band is led by pianist and founder-member Antonio Campusano, based in Santiago They Are, Where They Appear Regularly Both live and on TV, and Have Performed at festivals in Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans and the South of France. Thanks

ccjazzmen

Members: Cristian Alvarez, tuba. Antonio Campbell, piano; Alfredo Espinoza, Saxo, Jorge Leon, banjo; Antonio Gaete, drums; Boris Ortiz, clarinet; Enrique Planas, trumpet Patricio Santibañez, trombone and founding member of the band.

The Home Front: From way back

After the Santiago Jazz Band came down the curtain the workshop that the tuba player Domingo Santa Cruz took the lead with young fans so that it became a group. It was 1958, and Miller headed the clarinetist and pianist Roberto Antonio Campusano, director of the Rear Jazz Band. More experienced and if band where playing, Santa Cruz then became the engine of the group emerging and consolidated as the staunchest defender of the jazz school in New Orleans.

The band was called this way because the music was the "rear chronological", ie the years 1920 and 1930. No further. Http://jazzxmusica.blogspot.com/