September, summer is almost over… Well here, in the U.K., it hardly ever got started! I would guess that the number of dry/sunny days since May have been less than you could count on the fingers of both hands. Still, I shall be travelling to the U.S. in October (our annual "pilgrimage" to Nashville). I have been told that the U.S. has experienced unusually hot weather, with an excess of sunshine; I wonder if there might be any of that left by the time we get there… Probably not!

In the August edition of DIRECTIONS, the CALLERLAB publication, a letter of mine was published that spoke about the problems facing the record production industry. If you haven't had a chance to read it, I have reproduced it here as I would like everybody to be aware of the content. Please read it through and let me know if you have any responses / comments / ideas that might be of help - the situation really is desperate.

New Music Production; the problems and the facts (As published in the CALLERLAB direction - August 2007 edition) Hopefully, most of you will already know of me as the owner of Sting and Snow Records, a fact that I mention purely to qualify my understanding of the problems affecting the production of new square dance music. In case you are not familiar with our music, our releases are always in the top-ten (on the Hanhurst's Best Seller list) and often in the top-five, occasionally taking the No.1 spot. Whilst I am proud of our achievements, I do not mention this in order to "boast" but in order to underline that the problems we are facing must affect all producers. My main reason for writing this article is to put everyone in the picture and - hopefully - provide a clear statement of those problems.

What worries me most is the possibility that, in a very few years time, callers and dancers may be asking "why is there no new music, whatever happened to all the record labels?" and - when they discover that they all went bankrupt - these same people may then be asking "why didn't they say anything? If I had known things were that bad I would have bought more". Of course, by then, it will be too late! This is a drastic prediction, which needs to be explained and qualified and I will endeavour to do that to ensure that callers are aware of the full scale of the problem.

First let me provide a little "historic" information:

In the 1970s the major Record Producers pressed (and sold) from 6,000 to 8,000 copies of a new record; this was the "boom" time and those days are long gone. In 1986 (when Sting began producing) the number to press had fallen to 1,000 to 2,000 (Sting never had an initial press greater than 1,000). By 1999 - when I took over - Sting and Snow were pressing 600 to 800 copies; I cut this to 500 (in 2000), then to 400 (in 2003), to 300 (in 2004) and I now only press 200.

A few more facts: At present new music is available in three media types and sales by media type are: Vinyl - 85%, CDs 10% and MP3 (Internet downloads) 5%. Counting the total sales of all media types a "No. 1 record" (on the Hanhurst's Best Seller list) will only sell 150 units, this may rise to 250 units, over time. This is simply not enough to cover the costs of production. Unfortunately, most callers and perhaps even some producers do not realise the magnitude of this problem.

There could be many reasons for the recent decline in new music sales, in my opinion, the primary reasons comprise:

1) Fewer callers - as a consequence of the down-turn in Square Dancing there are less callers out there to buy the music.

2) Cost cutting by callers - callers are trying to cut their costs; one easy cost to cut is the cost of buying new records.

3) Fewer new callers - New callers buy a lot more records than the experienced caller does; I would suggest that up until about ten years ago, new callers (perhaps 10% of the total number of people calling) were buying 50% of the records sold.

4) Illegal copying. As you can see the decline started before the introduction of Digital Media, so - whilst illegal copying does happen and is a major problem (especially in today's much smaller market) it does not rate as the major factor.

How can we solve this problem? There is a potential solution and again it is probably best to quantify it. By simple analysis it can be shown that there are an estimated 3,400 active callers in the world. Sales of 150 - 250 units mean that only 4 to 7 percent of these callers are buying the most popular new music, we need to increase this purchase factor.

One simple solution would be, for all the callers in the world to commit to buy at least one new record per month; if this were to happen, sales would increase significantly, hopefully to the point where new production could be maintained. Obviously, callers would choose the new tunes that they like best and thus commercial forces would determine which producers benefited the most, on the basis of the quality of their music and the popularity of the tune chosen.

If callers would accept this commitment and - assuming that the pattern of the spread of purchases, by different title, remains the same - a Number one best seller, in a "slow" month, could sell 600 - 800 copies; this would cover costs. It would provide a real motivation for producers to continue!

Assuming that you perceive the present situation as a problem (and I hope that you do), my earnest hope is that you will wish to help "save" new music production and will make a commitment to buy, at least, "one-record-per-month". If you will do that, I - and probably all the other producers - will be able to stay in business and will be able to continue with the production of good quality, well recorded, new tunes - in the format that you are able to use.

Now for the other news:

NEW GUEST CALLER BIOGRAPHIES

This month we feature Al Green. Al appeared as a "Special Guest Caller" on Snow in 1989 - his recording of "Barnacle Bill" is still available as an MP3 download.

BEST SELLER LISTING (positions on the July 2007 listing)
No.3 - Fish 'N' Chips / Bangers 'N' Mash - SIR 521
No.4 - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - SNW 2006

NEW RELEASES (September 2007):
Wouldn't It Be Nice? - SNW 604 - vocal by: Thorsten Hubmann
I Want To Hold Your Hand - SIR 344 - vocal by: Paul Bristow

NEW CD RELEASES - also available on MP3 & Vinyl / (September 2007):
Christmas Day - SIR 310 - Vocal by 1986 Sting Staff
Yesterday - SIR 1201 - Vocal by Carsten Nielsen
Footloose / Fancy Free - SIR 517 - Double Instrumental Patter

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, this month's record histories features our newest singing call releases: Wouldn't It Be Nice and I Want To Hold Your Hand.

Have a great month of calling and/or dancing "speak" with you next month!

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