The "rush" of Christmas is over and the revelations of the New Year have begun; 2007 - I wonder what will happen? Let me take this opportunity to wish you the best of everything, for the next twelve months and be assured that we will do all that we can to ensure that - in terms of the new music we will be producing - that objective will be achieved!

Just a "plea", this month, to all of you to please buy more new music; there are approximately 3400 callers out there, record sales are at an all time low (less than 150 units for a number one top-seller, rising - over time - to 300, in only a few cases) many producers are talking about "closing down". Keep in mind that these figures represent the total numbers sold by the principal distributor (in many cases the sole distributor) of new music.

Very soon there will be little or no new music available, unless you want to pay a large part of the production costs yourself, or make it on your own computer; maybe that will be the future for Square Dance music. Be careful, though - you cannot use this music or share it with others - unless you obtain the necessary licenses.

The other alternative is to find a way to sell more. If every caller purchased 12 new records, per year, this would increase the value of the Top-Ten sellers; in theory - even allowing for personal taste - a "number one" would sell 2000 to 3000 units, which would have a pro-rata effect on the other Top-Ten sales and would provide a much better basis for production.

Of course I cannot just ask callers to buy records, if they don't want to - they won't do it. However, unless we (the producers) sell more, as a consequence of the 3400 callers (the purchasers) buying more, there will soon be no alternative than to shut down distribution of music, which will end the majority of new music production.

My greatest "fear" is that - before very much longer the production/distribution network will be gone and with it the majority of new music production - and the first that people will know about it will be after it happens, whereupon callers will start to say "gosh - if only I had known how bad the situation was, I would have bought a few more new records…"; if you want to prevent this happening, the time to act is now…

Now for the other news:

BEST SELLER LISTING (positions on the November 2006 listing)

No.1 - Strangers In The Night - SIR 1004
No.3 - All I Want For Christmas - Is You! - SIR 349

NEW RELEASES - NONE FOR JANUARY!

In order to alleviate a production and distribution "back-log", Hanhurst's have decided not to issue a new releases Tape/CD service in January. Tom Dillander has taken the time to explain to all the producers, why this has become necessary and his reasons are very sincere.

A return to "normal" can be expected in February and we have shifted our release schedule forward on month to accommodate this situation - so nothing "new" for January…

SPECIAL NOTE - NEW CD RELEASES

Following February's two releases on MP3, we will have released ALL of our library on MP3. However, there are still 149 tracks that have not yet been released on CD and from March 2007 we will be releasing these at the rate of 3-per-month. These CDs will be made from the original studio masters (where they are available) or the best available "restored" source and - as with all of our other releases on CD - these will include Higher and Lower Key variations (on singing calls)!

Go Squareful! - Paul Bristow (Owner and Producer Sting and Snow Records)