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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Isle music business OK
despite bankruptcy,
illegal freeloadingDESPITE doom-and-gloom national news stories about Tower Records filing for bankruptcy and news that freeloading downloaders are killing the record business, music sales are up.
"All stores have been up for awhile now over here," said Matthew Koenig, retail director for Tower Records in Hawaii.
"We've been really shining over here, doing really well."
Year over year, sales have been up for months, spurred partly by the November release of the new "Ke'alaokamaile" CD by Keali'i Reichel, but "Hawaiian music was up more than 34 percent," Koenig said.
Sales of music by the late Israel Kamakawiwoole are also getting a boost from the song's inclusion in the new hit movie "50 First Dates." His now world-famous medley, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World," is not included on the movie soundtrack, which is boosting sales of the 1993 recording "Facing Future" that first featured the cut.
A new CD from a national artist also has cash registers smoking.
The new CD "Feels Like Home" by Grammy winner Norah Jones hit the one-million-copies-sold mark its first week in stores. "That brought in a lot of people," Koenig said.
DVD releases also play a large role in Tower's increasing sales volume, he said.
The Recording Industry Association of America recently announced another round of lawsuits, targeting people who download music for free from the Internet.
That may be sending some people back into brick-and-mortar retailers like Tower, or online sites such as Hilo-based BuyHawaiianMusic.com .
Vice President Chris Leonard sees the increased sales resulting from new releases, such as Reichel's, and the Braddah Iz factor.
"Every time there's an appearance of one of his songs we'll see a flurry of activity far ahead of everything else that we sell. For a 1993 release -- for a 12-year-old release -- it is by far our best seller."
"Any time you have a strong lead, retailers will tell you, it will bring people into the store. I don't think it's any different for us online," said Leonard. Other artists' sales go up too, he said.
Leonard does not see much impact from freeloaders.
"I think a lot of our customers are buying from the mainland and they don't have access to our music. It has not been available on the peer-to-peer sharing services," he said.
Revenue for The Mountain Apple Company is growing, despite concerns over downloading and CD burning, and even though the firm's wholesale prices have not increased in five years, according to President Leah Bernstein.
"It was the best holiday season since 2001, no kidding," she said.
"Our revenues have grown because we're putting out good music and people like it and want to take it home."
She is a frequent flyer at Apple's iTunes music-selling site. For a dollar a holler -- well, actually 99-cents per song -- music may be legally downloaded. It is one of many such legal Web sites. "Everything we produce and distribute is on iTunes," she said.
Critics of the record industry have taken large national labels to task for high prices and some have slightly whittled prices, but such criticism causes Bernstein to bristle.
"CDs are the cheapest form of entertainment you can buy," she said.
"People need to understand that it's a great value. A CD that is recorded and manufactured and delivered to a store is not the same CD that they can buy for 85 cents or a dollar or burn (for free)," Bernstein said.
Bootlegging is of great concern to Mountain Apple. "We found kids at Punahou literally selling CDs for $5 that they were burning. It's pathetic. The state rents space at the swap meet for fans that burn CDs," she said.
A highly publicized federal raid made a one-time dent, but sales of bootlegged, copyright-infringed music still goes on.
"Would you tell your child it's okay to steal a CD out of an unlocked car because they want that CD? You wouldn't, would you?"
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com
