It's the first month of 2010 (as people are saying it: "twenty-ten") - I am not sure if that actually adds up to anything exceptional - but it does lend itself to many strange rhyming couplets ("on the road again - in twenty-ten" etc. etc.). So with a year that has a natural poetic element, let's hope that we can find a way to bring some poetic justice to our attempts to keep Square Dancing on top!

The New music business continues to stumble along the pathway of apathy (or is it ignorance); either there is virtually no interest in buying new music, in which case next-to-none will be made, or people's (possibly self-induced) ignorance of theft-by-copying has reached the point where nobody is prepared to pay the full price for the music they use - why should they when their good friend XXXXX will give them a copy free-of-charge?

I am still looking at ways to continue but the simple fact is that I need to find a way to produce new music for next-to-nothing, as that is the extent of production costs that the market will bear. If anybody knows of any top quality musicians (as good as the ones that we use in Nashville) who will work for free - please let me know!

Of course, there are some other alternatives that I might consider; here are a few that I have thought of, all of which are being used:

If producers sell direct to the callers - i.e. cut out the wholesalers and retailers (distributors) that would more than double the producers income. This option is really only viable for MP3 sales, over the Internet, as there are no manufacturing costs and payment can be handled by the bespoke secure payment systems that exist. The unfortunate consequence of this is that anyone with a "record player" or CD player" will be left behind.

Another alternative that is available is to persuade a sufficient number of callers to directly contribute towards the cost of new music production, perhaps in exchange for some form of "exclusivity" - either absolute or for a reasonable period. If the exclusivity is "absolute" then only the callers who paid for the music to be created will ever be able to use it, if the exclusivity is for a "reasonable period" then the callers who share the costs of production will have the music first and - for that "reasonable period" - will be the only ones with access to that new music.

It should be noted that these "direct-selling" options would reduce the cash-flow for the distributors who support the music industry, perhaps to the point where they could no longer stay in business.

The final alternative that seems to exist is for us to rely upon producers who are not worried about covering costs, individuals who are independently wealthy and who truly love Square Dancing; philanthropists who feel that, in general, the new music - being produced for use by other callers - should be paid for by themselves.

These philanthropists are not bad people, they are not even foolish people but it does seem ridiculous that Square Dancing might need to depend upon such a source of new music - i.e. "handouts" from wealthy good-hearted individuals. It is such a great shame that it is not possible for the production of new music to be supported by a sufficient level of purchases by the callers who use it.

As you can see the options that I have available to me are very complex and may prove impossible to realise. However, I will keep looking at these ideas - and any others that I can think of. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me about the suggestions shown above. Which do you think I should pursue? Which would you be prepared to support? Are there other ideas that you feel I should consider? Any help would be sincerely appreciated!

As always, I will let you know through this News-Letter of any developments.

Here is the "other news" for January:

BEST SELLER LISTING (positions on the November 2009 listing)
No.4 - Everything - SIR 610
No.10 - Hearing It in French - SNW 905

NEW RELEASES (January 2010):
As a direct consequence of the collapse of the Square Dance new music business, resulting from sales falling below the point where production costs can be recovered, we have nothing to release this month.

NEW CD RELEASES - also available on MP3 & Vinyl (in most cases) / (December 2009):
Young And Beautiful -SIR 338 - Vocal by Doug Bennett
This Is My Life's Work - SIR 605 -Vocal by Jack Borgström
It's Raining Men - SIR 704 - Vocal by Thorsten Geppert

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
To find these, just click on the book symbol next to the title on the Catalogue, Future Releases or Latest Releases pages.

If you want to hear how these top-selling recordings sound, just click on the musical note symbol.

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