OFF: Future of music

[SHLL (Scott Heller)]

Hej,

I think this is a very relevant and interesting discussion. As many of you
know, I am part of a small record label called Burnt Hippie Recordings. We
have released 7 releases since our start a few years back. It is becoming
increasingly difficult to continue in this business. CDs are not selling
despite having a low cost to the distributors. This is common with all small
labels we talk with. The only thing that seems to work these days is vinyl.
All of our vinyl releases are sold out. In the future we will probably only
do small run (300-500) vinyl prints and no CDs. Even though the vinyl costs
5 times as much as the CD to make, there is at least a small market for this
and we can probably make enough money back to put out one more release. It
is a real stuggle though with the copyright peolpe, the tax people, making
it almost impossible to continue.

Hawkwind must feel in the same position, that it is difficult to sell large
amounts of anything.

As Andy said...everyone in this business is stuggling. In Copenhagen, at
least 5 record shops have closed down, and close to 20 in the whole country
in the last year. Route 66, a vinyl only shop is doing ok though but again
it is a small collectors and true music fans that keep this allive. The
young generation know nothing about this at all. They don't collect
anything, they only consume. The mass media has created this monster and has
no idea what to do about it.

In the end, I think most bands, who want to make any money on their studio
outputs, will need to sell download songs directly from their web site so
that they can control the material. Print some CDs and maybe vinyl
records... who knows...

The only money to be made will be playing live and selling merchandise.

We will see....

sorry for the long rant..

scott

ObCD- Pothead- Tu'f Luv (Germany 2003)