Area Records and Music in Geneva to close after 40 years: An independent music store in the Finger Lakes region is closing its doors for good after 40 years in business. Mikel George, the owner of Area Records and Music in Geneva, says he decided to retire on the same date as the shop’s 40th anniversary. He opened the store back in 1977 as a small record shop. The shop was featured in a VH1 Behind the Music episode in 2012 that profiled Gym Class Heroes, a band started in Geneva. George says the shop became a frequent stop for music legends performing in the Finger Lakes. To give back to customers and say goodbye, he’ll start a liquidation sale on September 15. The store will remain open until most merchandise is sold.
Do bootlegs matter? What Discogs’ new crackdown means for the site’s future: Though the site has always taken down records which violated its selling terms, over the past month Discogs has adopted an increasingly hard stance on bootlegs: hip-hop records, edits, live concert recordings, even unofficial releases from artists themselves (e.g. Moodymann) have fallen to its chopping block…As vinyl sales continue to grow, with over 4.5 million albums already sold on Discogs in 2017, and record pressing plants opening across the globe everywhere from a tiny Canadian island to South Korea to fill demand, what does this new enforcement mean for the future of the site and vinyl culture as a whole, and should Discogs be responsible for policing its site at all? We spoke to Discogs themselves, as well as the largest seller of records on site, a producer whose music was sold illegally, and a collector of hundreds of unofficial releases to find out.
Rock Records, Asia Music Industry Survivor, Sees China Helping Rebound: Stars like Wakin Chau, Jackie Chan and Anita Mui helped Taiwan entrepreneur Sam Duann ride a wave of spending on music in Asia in the 1990s, turning his Rock Records into one of region’s most successful independent record labels with revenue that reached $160 million in 1999. Consumers in those days often snapped up their favorite tunes in record store chains, carrying away CDs or the occasional legacy cassette. Then, “a tsunami hit,” Duann grimaced in a recent interview at the company’s headquarters in Taipei. Piracy and free online music crushed the music industry worldwide. Rock Records’ revenue was only $40 million last year, a quarter of its peak. The new century hit the company with a double-whammy: falling sales at a time of heavy debt.
Turning the dead into vinyl records: John Hobson is listening to a recording of conversations with his late mother, mostly small talk about family. The words are on a vinyl record, although this is more than a recording of memories. The ashes of Madge Hobson are combined with the vinyl, with a photograph and details of her life printed on the labels. “It makes the perfect family record, which can be passed down the generations,” says Jason Leach, 46, the founder of And Vinyly, which produced the disc. The firm is part of a fast-growing sector of the end-of-life industry. No longer need ashes be stored in an urn or scattered to the wind. Now you can wear, drink from, or display a little part of what is left of your loved one.
Surprise! Spotify Says They Don’t Owe Anything for Mechanicals: Looks like Spotify has a totally different game plan for dealing with pesky publishers and songwriters. So you can take your ‘mechanical’ license and… If you’re just tuning into this imbroglio, then welcome to the juiciest part. Just this morning, Spotify’s lawyers decided that the ‘mechanical’ publishing license doesn’t pertain to them. Which means that all of these lawsuits related to mechanical licenses are basically BS (at least from their perspective). That’s right: Spotify is turning the car around. That is, despite settling previous mechanical licensing lawsuits for nearly $75 million. Guess that was Spotify’s tipping point: now, the company is battling back and calling the whole exercise a scam.
