|
|
 |
Murphy Aims To Rid World Music Of Stigma In U.S.
|
| Click Here to go back. |
Billboard, Murphy Aims To Rid World Music Of Stigma In U.S. >>
BY CHRISTIE ELIEZER
Chris Murphy, managing director of Australia's Petrol Records, is steeling himself to face inevitable clichEs about world music as he prepares to enter the U.S. and European markets.
Chris Murphy, managing director of Australia's Petrol Records, is steeling himself to face inevitable cliches about world music as he prepares to enter the U.S. and European markets.
He has heard them all-most notably that world-music records do not sell, and that they are not glamorous enough to market. But Murphy-who entered the U.S. market in 1981 as manager of INXS and earned attention in 2000 as managing director of Internet radio network Digital One-is convinced that world music is a largely undiscovered genre, particularly for indie labels. Petrol's The Greatest Songs Ever compilation series is setting new sales records for world music in Australia. He intends to do the same in the U.S.
"Our first compilation was Cuban music," Murphy recalls. "Every Australian distributor and retailer told me there was no market for it. Yet it sold 25,000 units here, and we released a sequel."
Murphy's strategy is that those 25,000 buyers will be equally interested in music from Brazil, Jamaica, or India. Each CD comes with a 40-page catalog of the series, which has triggered import orders from Korean publishing houses to French boutiques to HMV Middle East.
"Record companies think they have a problem selling world music to the consumer," he says. "Actually, it is the consumer who has the problem having the music sold to them. It's been a long time since the music industry did what other industries do; go find the customer and put product that would appeal to them directly in front of them. The people most likely to be interested in hearing this music are ages 25 to 45, and they have probably traveled a lot. They are over being told what is the new pop sensation. They want to discover."
Petrol forecasts it could sell between 500,000 and 1 million units in the U.S. within the next 12 months -and that the States could be its biggest market within three years. Murphy believes that this is because the U.S. majors ignore world music; most compilations available in the U.S. are cheaply produced, and their packaging is not consumer-friendly.
Petrol's compilations sidestep the issue of little-known artists, hence the title The Greatest Songs Ever. Its tracks are researched to reach as wide a demographic as possible: Petrol's compiler, Jean-Francois Ponthieux, went through 342 tracks to choose the final 18 on the first Cuba CD.
The covers are white with an insignia of a fruit or vegetable, giving the series continuity. During the series' first 12 months, CDs have covered Jamaica, Argentina, Brazil, Ireland, France, Italy, Africa, Mexico, Greece, and Spain.
"The product moves quickly," reports Laurence Beibby, owner of Sydney indie store Spot Music. "When I play any of their CDs in-store, they have enough hooks for impulse buyers to come in and ask. They invariably buy two or three others of the series, because the packaging is very impressive." 02/15/03
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
