STOP PRESS - BEST SELLERS - NUMBER ONE!
We have had a GREAT result in our February sales! "Lady Madonna" (vocal by Carsten Nielsen) has achieved the number one spot in the Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service Best Seller listing. listing and "Engine Of Love" (vocal by Uli Schingen) has come-in at number three! Check out the audio clips of our new releases on the web-site (just "click" on the music symbol).

March is the month of "winds" (in the meteorological sense); great gusts of air that can reek havoc on fences, rooftops and trees etc. I am not sure if that is at all relevant to anything but I recall an old saying that "it is an ill wind that brings no luck…". Okay this is a tenuous link to the fact that on the first of March Sting and Snow have appeared in the BEST SELLERS listing at Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service Best Seller listing. (which is nothing new) but this month we have "earned" the number one spot. There's another old saying which says "every cloud has a silver lining", well after this news, I am on "cloud nine"!

In last month's News-Letter I was talking about the longevity of Square Dance recordings. I talked about the problems facing each new release and finished up by asking two questions, these were:

1) If, after twelve months, a record has "had it's day" - what do we do with all the unsold stock?

2) Where do newer callers go to obtain copies of older releases and why are these, occasionally, not available?

The answer to the first question is that we have to store the unsold stock somewhere and hope that, each year, there will be enough new callers who might want to build there own repertoire of the great music that is available and also hope that these new callers will include our older titles amongst their lists! Periodically, you may see some "clearout" sales of older titles. From time to time these appear on the Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service web-site and tape service release sheets, as well as on other retailers catalogues. Most recently, I have seen one retailer selling "batches" of older titles on e-bay!

Storage of old stock is not without it's problems. I can tell you that somewhere in the world today, there are 10,000 unsold Sting and Snow records - waiting for an "owner"! However, that works out to an average of 50 copies of each tune that we have released, to date - so it really doesn't represent an unrealistic "stock-level" but someone has to store all these pieces of vinyl. If you then multiply that number by the number of producers, you can begin to appreciate how much storage space alone a good Wholesale Distributor will require!

Eventually, there has to be a limit. There have been - to date - around 10,000 different titles released, which means that you could be looking at 500,000 records. Half-a-million of anything is a lot and eventually, steps have to be taken to reduce that number. If you can't sell them and you can't store them, there's only one option left… Conversely, a good selling tune will eventually "sell-out" and thus require re-pressing, however this is not always an option.

Moving on to the second question, stated above and continuing from the last paragraph; if the original stock is all gone then the record will need to be re-pressed. To understand the factors affecting "re-pressing" it is necessary for me to explain a little about "pressing", so here goes...

When records are first "created", there are several stages of the process. First, the master tape, which is sent to the Pressing Plant has to be "Re-Mastered" so that it will work as a vinyl pressing. Once this has been done, a set of "Pressing Plates" and "Stampers" are created (big metal components that contain the "grooves" for the record in "negative" fashion); these are quite expensive components to produce and represent a significant part of the initial pressing cost. After these have been meticulously checked and "Test Pressings" have been made and "accepted" by the producer, the main production run can begin. For more information about this process, you can check out the United Record Pressings web-site , which takes you through each stage.

As you may recall from earlier News-Letters, United Record Pressings, in Nashville, Tennessee carry out the pressing for many Square Dance Labels. After which they store - very carefully - the "Pressing Plates" and "Stampers", to allow for re-pressing. Of course they press a LOT of records, not only for us but also for companies from all around the world; make a list of ten top songs from the last 60 years (i.e. since vinyl has been around) and - chances are - that United Record Pressings has pressed most of them! If you think about the mathematics, you will realise that United need a LOT of storage space for all the "Pressing Plates" and "Stampers" to be able to continue to supply these records; there are - obviously - limits to what they can store.

We are very fortunate that - although our pressing numbers are fairly small - United afford us the same treatment as they do the "big name labels" and - to a degree - a little better! Technically United will store our "Pressing Plates" and "Stampers" as long as they can but - on a regular basis - they check to see if there are any that can be "scrapped" - any "Stampers" and "Pressing Plates" unused for twelve months, could be considered for clearance. Fortunately, United's experience with Square Dance labels has allowed them to understand that we need a little longer storage than the average "Pop" record and they give us an "extension" whenever possible; this has to depend upon "available space".

Each time a record is re-pressed, it gets a new job number, which resets the "to-be-scrapped" clock back to zero. So a top-seller, with a regular demand, could continue to be available almost indefinitely; unfortunately Square Dance records don't - as a rule - fit this description. Even the most successful releases tend to slow down to (in virtual terms) "zero" - i.e. the point at which available shelf stock is sufficient to meet all new demand for several years. The effect of this is that the "Pressing Plates" and "Stampers" sit, unused, for several years and - eventually - are scrapped. Consequently a re-press becomes impossible.

The fact is that the market for Square Dance records is far too small. A repress, which would re-start the "to-be-scrapped" clock only needs to be for 100 units, which means that any record that sells 30 - 40 units per year should be permanently available; actual repeat sales of - even the most popular titles - are well below this number.

NEW RELEASES - MARCH
Our new vinyl releases for March are: - "Can't Stop Loving You" (vocal by Robert Björk), which is a version of the Phil Collins song! Also featured is "Georgy Girl" (vocal by Paul Bristow); this tune is from the Australian group - The Seekers, who found fame in the 1960s, with this and several other tunes.

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
The histories contain details about each original song, including it's production and provide the extra lyrics - as featured on the called side. You can access these by "clicking on the open-book picture, on the catalogue, Latest Releases and Future Releases pages.

The fourth batch - featured this month - are:

• If The Juke-Box Took Teardrops
• Someone Is Looking For Someone Like You
• Have I Told You Lately..
• I Can't Stop Lovin' You
• Georgy Girl
• Mama Mia, I Love You
• You're So Warm And Tender
• Young and Beautiful
• I Wanna Be Like You
• I'm Walkin'

For details of the titles featured in the previous three months, check out the News-Letter and - if there are any that you would particularly like to see added just let us know.

Okay, my fences seem okay - there's not much "wind" about but there is a fair bit of snow - perhaps this portends some good news for the Snow side of things...? I can always hope. Have a great month, talk to you again on the March News-Letter.

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