Review Business Model

By Charles H. E. Campbell

Winston Blake of Merritone fame recently proffered the opinion that the year 2012 was the worst in recent memory for the Jamaican Music Industry. Furthermore, given the parlous state of the US economy, this dilemma is unlikely to ease anytime soon.

Winston Blake

  There is sufficient empirical evidence to bear this out. All genres of music have been adversely affected by this prolonged, intractable worldwide recession and by the ability of fans to download music free of cost. Plummeting Jamaican Reggae Music sales seem to indicate that it has relatively borne more of the brunt of their compounded impact.

 The recent revelation by VP Records executive Neil Robertson, on December 12^th, of very weak sales, during that week, of Reggae’s top 50 songs on the Billboard Reggae Charts, is a continuing trend, but just the tip of the iceberg. While the year commenced positively, with an upward blip on the radar, as the year progressed, except for a few of our premier artistes, the data on performance tours also reflected a downward spiral.

 Now is an opportune time for us to review our business model and seek ways of improving our performance in the international market-place.

  Native Wayne Jobson of Indie 103.1Radio, Los Angeles, has volunteered some favourable market indicators which may help in designing urgently needed corrective measures. To paraphrase him, “Jamaica has (seemingly) abandoned reggae and has let others claim its birthright.
The sales figures for Rebelution (50,000) and Soja (40,000) are quite strong in today’s market, and both these groups play "Roots" style reggae with more traditional song structures.
Meanwhile Rihanna (from the Caribbean), with the two best songs she has released to date, takes Reggae - ‘Man Down’, and Dancehall - ‘Pon De Reply’, and becomes the biggest star in the world. Rihanna is the biggest download artist of all time (more than Michael Jackson and the Beatles); also she has the most Facebook friends on earth.

 Close behind Rihanna in Facebook friends, is the other biggest star on earth, Bob Marley.

  Jimmy Cliff however, recently got a six page article in Rolling Stone magazine, and his latest album ‘Rebirth’ got a FOUR STAR review. Even Michael Jackson and the Beatles do not get six pages. That’s how much they respect Reggae when it’s good.

America and the world have fully embraced Reggae as a musical style just as Jamaicans (seem to) have forgotten how to make it. Good songs with good hooks will always win out over fad and bluster.”

In an attempt to promote the conversation, my initial thoughts are: Too many of our current releases contain weak tunes and lyrics; while not wishing to discourage experimentation or the infusion of other pop influences, as Marley and Third World successfully did, unlike early Dancehall music, which incorporated Mento rhythmic patterns with Reggae’s heavy drum and bass, today’s style has less musical distinction from and is too fused with its US progeny - Hip Hop;  with the absence of multinational record companies supporting our acts, Jamaican artistes lack marketing vehicles with a global reach, needed to sustain the penetration of international markets; the Reggae genre suffers from lack of adequate airplay in our domestic arena, which traditionally created the initial buzz/hype; we suffer from a negative market perception, caused by the anti-social behaviour of a few high profile acts, which has damaged the entire Jamaican brand. The solutions are implicit.

Email: che.campbell@gmail.com

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Review-business-model_13307819