Phil Meloy

Here's another UK based jazz CD retail site called JazzStore Online at www.jazzstoreonline.com It's not got a large catalogue at the moment but I know that they are interested in hearing from any jazz musicians or independent jazz labels who wish to sell their CDs through the site.

Thanks Deus - funny thing is guys that I went home last night and played two CDs on the machine. Both played perfectly - one of the CDs was one that was previously skipping. A couple of days ago everything I tried to play would skip. I didn't have time to play any more last night but I'll be able to check it out more over the weekend. This all started last Saturday when I tried to play two brand new CDs that had come in the post that morning. I'd never had the slightest problem before that.

Definitely no moisture Brad. Does get a bit of sun on it sometimes though but that's not the case at the moment. It's pretty cold in London at the moment but not indoors where the CD player is. I'm beginning to think that the tracking mechanism has gone or that a deposit has gradually built up on the lens and it's simply time to replace the unit. Thanks.

Thanks for your reply Eric. I'll investigate the lens cleaning suggestion. I take your point about not spending too much on a CD player. I'm certainly no expert but I've always tended to feel that any extra investment in the system would reap more dividends if directed towards the speakers or the amp.

I suspect you may be right John - if this turns out to be the case I'll probably get back to you to pick your brain as to a possible replacement. Thanks.

My CD player has all of a sudden started to skip. The problem is with the player not the CDs - its doing it on a range of CDs all of which are normal pre-recorded commercially manufactured CDs which are clean and in good condition. It doesn't do it on every CD but on quite a few and I think the problem is increasing. The player is a fairly good quality Technics which I suppose is about five or six years old. I've never had any kind of trouble with it previously. It may just need some kind of cleaning disc played through it but I don't know much about them. Any suggestions?

For anyone who will be in London in April the Jazzhearts will be appearing for six performances at Ronnie Scott’s from Monday 19th to Saturday 24th April 2004 supporting Carmen Lundy. The line-up will be Louise Elliott ( tenor sax & flute), Mervyn Africa (piano), Chris Thorn (guitar), Mark Bassey (trombone), Claude Deppa (trumpet), Richard Ajileye (percussion), Steve Lamb (bass) and Greg Leppard (drums).

Sales soared at CD Baby over the Xmas period. They have just announced that they have now hit the US $6 million mark in payments paid out to independent musicians. Sales have doubled each year they have been in operation.

I've just received this email from Scott Fugate who is the the Station Manager/Program Director of WBCX 89.1 FM in Gainesville Georgia. Their programming ranges from classic & traditional jazz, contemporary jazz, smooth jazz, world influenced jazz and acid jazz. Please read on.... Interested in being a radio DJ? WBCX, 89.1 FM is holding auditions / training sessions for new on-air talent. These sessions will take place once each month, typically on the second Saturday. The next session will be held on Saturday, Jan. 17 from noon to 3:00 PM. This session is open to anyone interested in being a volunteer DJ on WBCX – a non-commercial radio station broadcasting from the campus of Brenau University in Gainesville GA. No radio experience is necessary . . . but each applicant must fit the following requirements: Must be between the ages of 18 and 85; possess creativity, passion, musical knowledge, vocal enthusiasm, a sense of humor, a fairly large collection of CD's and albums, a willingness to learn, and a strong sense of commitment. The broadcast range of WBCX covers NE Atlanta (from I-20 on the east to I-75 on the west – and most areas north of 285) and much of North Georgia . . . even up into the Carolina's and into Downtown Atlanta (on a good evening). The WBCX format is eclectic, alternative, and non-commercial – including music and programming from throughout the jazz and classical continuum. (i.e., rag, blues, gospel, Dixieland, swing, big band, be-bop, cool, hard & post bop, free, fusion, funk, Latin, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Asian, Indian, Indigenous, Celtic, African, European, world grooves, ambient, acoustic, a cappella, new age, chill out, down tempo, contemporary jazz, modern jazz, smooth jazz, traditional jazz, straight ahead jazz, acid jazz, nu-jazz, classical, orchestral, chamber music, opera, sacred, choral, Broadway, film scores, jam bands, rare grooves, trip hop, drum n'bass, deep house, soul, R&B, neo-soul, trance, techno, electro, etc. . .to name a few) The audition / training session will include an interactive presentation on radio broadcasting, as well as the specifics of our format, mission, and focus at 89.1 WBCX. There will also be some interactive vocal, physical, improvisational and communicative exercises. If selected, further training will be required and provided prior to hosting your own show -- including opportunities to Co-host different programs, and produce at least one demo in your chosen format. Training opportunities are open to a maximum of 6 people per month. First come, first serve. If interested, please call and reserve your appointment today! Call Scott at 770-538-4708 for appointments, details, or more information. J. Scott Fugate Station Manager / Program Director WBCX 89.1 FM Brenau University One Centennial Circle Gainesville GA 30501 Phone: (770) 538-4708 sfugate@lib.brenau.edu http://www.brenau.edu/about/wbcx/ Jazz is Alive -- Spread the word.

I have been told that independent artists can also sell their CDs on Amazon.com through their Amazon/Advantage program. There is a $29.95 US annual membership fee for this. Just type Amazon Advantage into Google if you're interested.

I've contacted the Jazz Nation as regards selling our CD on their site and they've now sent back the folllowing reply outlining the procedure and conditions involved in doing so..... The Jazz Nation Store CD Sales In a continuing effort to find new ways to promote independent jazz artists, The Jazz Nation is opening an online store at www.thejazznation.com. We would like to extend an invitation to you to sell your CDs on consignment through us. Here is how the process would work: • Contact us (eware@thejazznation.com) and let us know you wish to sell your CDs through The Jazz Nation Store. • We will send you an agreement to sign and return to us. Signing the agreement acknowledges that you agree to the terms below, and will allow you to specify how long The Jazz Nation will keep unsold CDs before returning them to you. • Send The Jazz Nation the signed agreement and the CDs you wish to place in our store to: The Jazz Nation C/O Albert Khalis Pride P.O. Box 550309 Birmingham, Alabama 35255 • Send a .jpg file of the CD cover along with any description of the CD you might wish to include on the website to The Jazz Nation’s webmaster at eware@thejazznation.com • The CD(s) will be added to our store. • When an order is received, The Jazz Nation will process and fulfill the order. • The Jazz Nation will send your portion of the sales to you monthly. Terms: • The Jazz Nation will list each CD at $15.00 plus $2.00 for shipping and handling. • The Jazz Nation will collect payment from the buyer thru PayPal. • The Jazz Nation will retain a $2.50 service fee per CD • The Jazz Nation will return $12.50 per CD sold to you by check to be mailed to you monthly. We will operate on a shipment to shipment basis. You are under no obligation to continue using The Jazz Nation Store. You may request any unsold CDs to be shipped back to you at anytime. If you have any ideas and suggestions as to how The Jazz Nation can better assist independent artists please contact us! We’d love to hear your ideas! Thanks, A. Khalis Pride Elizabeth Ware

Just come across another US site selling jazz CDs online who will deal directly with musicians: www.thejazznation.com Does anyone know anything about them? I think a lot of stuff they're currently stocking is smooth jazz but the way the site appears gives the impression that they're not completely restricted to this.

Hi Johnny - Our CD is released on Ronnie Scott's Jazz House record label (the label is a subsidary of the jazz club in London) and is distributed by New Note who are the largest distributors of indepedent jazz here in the UK but is not available outside the UK other than on some of the Amazon sites (who New Note do supply) - apart from this, New Note's disribution is limited to the UK. As such we have come to an arrangement with the record label to purchase CDs from them ourselves at the same price they sell to New Note and in turn sell these at gigs and through internet sites such as CD Baby. This is a different situation to the majority of the CDs you will find in the CD Baby catalogue. Most will have been released by the musicians themselves without label support and will usually have neither national or international distribution. We use sites such as CD Baby to expand our existing limited distribution - others may use them as their only means of distribution. Hope this answers your question.

It's actually not that much of a hassle either Johnny. Initially all you really have to do is send $35 to set up the listing on the site, send 5 copies of your CD and select which tracks you wish to use as music samples. You will then be able to set up a password which permits you to access your account details in order to edit bio details and place payment instructions. All you have to after that is log on to the Members section of the CD Baby web site every so often in order to monitor your account, send replacement CDs when stocks get a bit low and bank the cheques when they arrive. All your sales, stock, hits and customer details are available online. The more you promote your CD the more you will sell. At least you know that if you happen to get some air play on the other side of the country if anybody likes your CD they can actually buy it if they want.

Yes they definitely do that - they've now paid out over $4 million to independent musicians for their CD sales. How can they still be in business after seven years of this lunacy? It's capitalism Jim but not as we know it!

Another cool thing about CD Baby is they let you know who actually bought your CDs and provide you with their addresses and email addresses so that you can add them to any mailing list you might have in order to send out information about future gigs or projects.

If anybody is involved in a big band Phil Kelly over on AAJ was kind enough to suggest these specialist big band CD sites: http://www.bigbandjazz.net/ ..this is Mike Vax website, but they sell CDs of other big bands as well (USA based site) http://www.mainlybigbands.com/ ..this is a similar site in the UK

I can understand your reticence Moose when it comes to dealing with online retail outlets but we can also vouch for CD Baby. The Jazzhearts CD is available on the site and we've never had a problem - in fact I've never heard of any musicians having anything but praise and appreciation for Derek and the team at CD Baby. It might be worth mentioning that CD Baby will send you a payment as often as once a week for your sales if you wish. In our case as we're UK based, we tend to allow the amount owing to us to build up to a certain level before claiming payment to minimise the impact of bank charges for the currency conversion. It's entirely up to the individual musician to decide. Also CD Baby are currently in the process of introducing a direct payment to your bank account system. This will initially only be for US bank accounts but will be expanded to include foreign banks as well. This will minimise any problems that may have been caused in the past by cheques getting lost in the post. As far as the other sites go the Jazzhearts CD is also available on Jazzcds. Its only been there a few weeks so its a bit early for us to evaluate their service but there's a lot of other British jazz musicians already on the site whom I'm in fairly regular contact with and I'm yet to hear of a problem. As for Jazz Loft, Smart Arts and Atanata Records we don't have any personal experience of them but will be placing our CD with all three over the next few weeks. I have been moniitoring them for a while now and they all seem reasonably well establised - once again I've not heard of any problems experienced by musicians. Also you can tell from various postings on the JC, AAJ and Organissimo bulletin boards that people are increasingly turning to these online outlets for their jazz purchases - especially with regard to less well known artists. After years of seeing the racking space allocated to jazz in high street stores whittled away and a number of specialist jazz shops actually completely disappear, jazz musicians now have an alternative way (apart from selling at gigs) to make their recorded product available to the jazz public. I really think its worth the risk of placing a few CDs on consignment with these online outlets. All five of these sites each only require an initial consignment of about half a dozen CDs. Their future will be made all the more secure if musicians and independent labels support them in expanding their catalogues so that they may become an increasingly more viable option to traditional outlets for the jazz purchasing public.

The following five sites all deal directly with musicians and are good outlets for jazz musicians to sell their CDs. Check them out if your looking for other ways to make your CDs available to the public apart from just selling them at your gigs. I'm sure that many musicians will already be aware of these sites but for those of you who are not.... www.jazzcds.co.uk mainly stocks UK independent contemporary jazz releases both by the artists themselves and independent jazz labels. I'm sure they would consider stocking titles by overseas artists and labels also. www.smart-arts.co.uk is another UK based specialist jazz site which currently stocks mainly British independent jazz releases. www.cdbaby.com (all genres of music) which is US based is probably the best site in the world for CDs released by the musicians themselves. Up to now they have only dealt directly with musicians rather than with labels or distributors but I think they are now also considering stocking releases from independent labels in the future. They will also sell your MP3's for you. Additionally they have just entered into an arrangement with Tower Records so that the entire CD Baby catalogue of releases by independent artists will now be available through Tower Records also. www.atanata.com (all genres of music) is a fairly new site modelled on CD Baby but based in France. It doesn't have a huge catalogue yet but has only been going a few months. A good site to sell your CD in Euros. The site is in both French and English. You can access infomation about joining at www.atanata.net www.jazzloft.com is a specialist jazz site based in the USA and again stocks a lot of releases by less well known jazz artists. Some of these sites such as CD Baby have a small one-off set up fee for adding a CD release to the site. On others, adding a new CD is free. Also the artists name the price at wish they want to sell their CDs. Let me know of any similiar sites you may know of that are prepared to deal directly with the artists themselves rather than only with established distributors or record labels.

Thanks for the welcome Con. That's a noble policy which I tend to agree with - hopefully all other board users will as well and respect the views of others even if they happen to disagree with them. Argument is fine but I don't think gratuitous abuse is in anyway necessary and should not be tolerated in any situation.

Has it not crossed anyone's mind that they might already be here?