sobe2003 Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 Reprinted from "The Observer"Dance bubble bursts as rock hits power chord Labels need new ways to reach buyers, write Faisal Islam and Anushka Asthana Sunday August 3, 2003The Observer When the high temple of Britain's dance music craze shows signs of a slump in visitors, it's clear the industry is still in the mire. This year the recession has spread to the Spanish party island of Ibiza. Fantasy Island, as it is known, has seen visitor numbers fall by at least 20 per cent. Worried local politicians have had to scrap a €1 per night tourist tax. Top British clubs such as Birmingham-based God's Kitchen have left. Ministry of Sound's opening night, relegated to a Thursday, was not exactly overflowing. Corporate sponsorships from mobile phone and games companies have dried up. The quartet of free weekly listings' glossies that littered the island's clubs and bars has withered down to a single monthly magazine. Even last year bars in the lager lout town of San Antonio reported a sales slump of 30 per cent. On the face of it, the island is suffering from a cascade of bursting bubbles. The stock market crash withdrew millions of pounds of sponsorship, the consumer slowdown in the UK has diverted young holidaymakers from expensive Ibiza to cheap and cheerful Faliraki in Greece. Now there is a fear that the general popularity of dance music could be hit. Indeed Ibiza itself was an intrinsic part of the success of the whole dance music industry. In the boom of just two years ago, compilation albums with Ibiza in the title regularly sold by the half million. 'Compilations are a disposable item. Who cares about Ministry in Ibiza 2001 - it's got a limited shelf life. The bubble's burst and it's going to be a long time before people will be suckered into buying these again. Avoiding these things has been one of the secrets of our success,' says Andy McKay, the business brain behind Manumission, Ibiza's most successful club night. Ibiza's woes are no surprise to those in the record industry. Dance music faces stiff competition from other types of music, such as nu-rock. More than 13 per cent of all albums sold in 2000 were dance music compared with 9.5 per cent last year - the lowest proportion since 1993. By contrast, rock music captured 31 per cent of the album sales last year, the highest since 1993, and up from just 22.4 per cent in 1999, say British Phonographic Industry figures. 'Certain elements on the dance music scene remain tired and boring. This is simply a shake-out, where customers are more discerning and will choose the best,' says Neil Moffitt of God's Kitchen. But Moffitt says the success of his club and 19 sell-out arena tours that have attracted in excess of 10,000 clubbers shows that there is plenty more juice left in the dance music industry. His club has just signed a record sponsorship deal with a soft drinks company for God's Kitchen's US tour. 'The superclubs thought they could produce the same thing and sit still for 10 to 15 years. We are now learning, like rock music, about constant reinvention,' says Moffitt. Positiva, EMI's hugely successful dance music label, currently celebrating its tenth anniversary, has also had to be more innovative. Two of its biggest hits this year were launched on the back of TV adverts for Lynx deodorant and Peugeot cars. The Lynx ad hit was number one for four weeks, partly thanks to the efforts of EMI. 'It's harder than ever to break new music through the clubs, so we're pursuing different methods,' says Positiva director Jason Ellis. In the past, club labels simply put on a night at a superclub, paid a few thousand pounds for a 'super DJ' and the music flowed from there. The superstar DJ was the marketing man's dream. He - and occasionally she - enabled obscure and diffuse singles to be cobbled together cheaply under the superbrand of the person who put the records together. Oddly for musicians, it was the people who played the records rather than the ones who made them that became famous and rich. Then the bubble burst. Liverpool superclub Cream closed last year. The Ministry of Sound's joint venture record label Relentless, which had a number of number one singles from Daniel Bedingfield and So Solid Crew, went bust. Universal closed its record label. Two dance music magazines, Ministry and Muzik, have also folded. 'There's a generational shift. If your dad went to Ibiza in his Ministry bomber jacket, then you are hardly likely to want to do the same thing,' says Malik Meer, Muzik's former editor. All this means the industry needs new ways to get music to the masses. Leading trance DJ Paul van Dyk has just signed a deal giving him millions of pounds of exposure on Motorola mobile phone ads. However, dance music is particularly sensitive to the explosion in illegal digital downloading. Fans tend to be more technologically sophisticated and less loyal than rockers, according to industry insiders. 'Dance is singles-driven and because the artists are rather faceless, people buy into the song and not the act. We've had a tougher time than, say, rock music, where fan loyalty is stronger,' says Positiva's Ellis. The slump in sales of compilation albums has come out because people are simply burning their own CDs of their favourite illegally-downloaded MP3s. The dance music industry may have already gone a bit Pete Tong over the past couple of years. But there is now a more pervasive menace rocking the DJs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheekeetika Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 Not to mention that downloading off the internet is hurting the industry...I think all those clubbers who used to go to Ibiza are staying closest to their back yard cuz they're not willing to spend huge amounts of money traveling and partying in Europe. My two cents and an extra one for good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mp3some Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 damb article is too long... reading between the lines, basically no breaking news...cant compare electronica to rock... just like the internet.. the bubble may have burst (which i still dont think is the case w electrnc mus), but even after it did, the internet is here to stay... we keep finding more and better uses for it, and everyday more and more ppl want it, others can no longer live w/o it...Same goes for Electronic Music. Peace!Mp3.- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macboy Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 There was a similar dropoff from '01 to '02. It must be really quiet on that island right now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest saleen351 Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 the whole island blew up since they don't bust people for drugs... thus all of electronic music is based on drugs.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mursa Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 Originally posted by cheekeetika Not to mention that downloading off the internet is hurting the industry...I think all those clubbers who used to go to Ibiza are staying closest to their back yard cuz they're not willing to spend huge amounts of money traveling and partying in Europe. My two cents and an extra one for good luck! Europe became "expensive" after they got the single currency (Euro) , and im speaking in behalf of one of the poorest countries in europe (portugal) , therefore i don't even want to imagine how Ibiza got . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mursa Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 Originally posted by saleen351 the whole island blew up since they don't bust people for drugs... thus all of electronic music is based on drugs.... Weed & Alcohol definetly destroyed the ibiza vibe , im with you on that one . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mp3some Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 Originally posted by mursa Weed & Alcohol definetly destroyed the ibiza vibe , im with you on that one . :confused: :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pod Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 I'll agree with the statement that consumers are more discerning over what dance music they will buy...economically, and taste-wise. Half of the dance craze was a drug fueled fad anyway...it'll continue to hold on in the major cities, but in the suburbs, forget it...I'm glad for it, this'll shake out a lot of the idiots in the scene.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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