CD parallel imports are good for Australian artists
Warhead
Hello to all those who believe in Australian music,
My name is Bradley Sims, I am the owner of Warhead records, we work with
only 100% Australian bands and we export them to over 30 countries and self
distribute our products to retailers all over Australia, we also have a mail
order service. I am the owner of The Hammer House music retail store. I am
the publisher of In Your Face magazine and have written for many other music
publications. I have promoted over 1000 live performances. I have put on
live music in 6 states. I teach music and have played in over 30 bands. I
am a sound engineer, graphic designer and producer. I am the secretary of
AIR (Association of independent record labels). From my experience I
believe that relaxing the laws on parallel importing will be of great
benefit to the Australian music industry. In my opinion it is a fact that
the vast majority of the AUSTRALIAN music industry also support this change
to the laws regarding parallel importation. On my behalf and all of those
who are too scared to go on the record in this extremely corrupted music
industry I put forward the following arguments, please take the time to read
them and ask me any questions you may have on this issue.
15 MAJOR POINTS PERTAINING TO PARALLEL IMPORTING OF MUSIC
1. The argument the major record labels are using is that they need to spend
95% of their investment on overseas music so they can spend 5% on Australian
music. They’re saying that you can’t survive as an Australian record
company unless you spend money on overseas music. I never believed the
Australian music industry would become so corrupted by the 100% foreign
owned record companies that such a statement could be taken seriously.
2. What about record labels like mine who spend 100% of their investment on
Australian bands, what do we have to say? Well I support parallel imports
and believe that it will be of immeasurable benefit to the Australian music
industry as do many others. I know a great deal of musicians who would also
sign petitions, I wish I had the time and the advertising budget to inform
everyone and end the perpetuated ignorance.
3. Who’s vested interests are the majors fighting for? The argument is being
put
forward by those who replicate and not those who create, relaxing the laws
on parallel importing will only hurt those that only replicate.
4. Changing the law on parallel imports affects just that – IMPORTS. No
wonder the major record companies are so upset. They weren’t concerned about
the scrapping of quota’s for Australian content on radio, they weren’t
concerned about the scrapping of the independent charts that featured all
the new Australian bands on Australian labels, but they are very concerned
when it comes to selling overseas music into Australia because that’s all
they really care about. It has never been so obvious as it is now.
5. They’re saying it’s bad for the artist, replicators have very little to
do with developing an artist. You need a well established infrastructure of
skilled engineers, managers, producers and so on, this infrastructure can
only be generated from a creative environment, not one that just reproduces
overseas music handed to them on a plate. Relax the laws on parallel
importing and all record companies would have to earn a living from creating
not just replicating, the replicators are not developing the Australian
music industry, they are just here to onsell overseas product not to develop
a skilled music industry infrastructure. Because of this lack of investment
into creation we have only one international hit every 11 years.
6. Why are there laws in place protecting the import of foreign music into
Australia when 4 out of the 5 major record labels have as a policy that they
refuse to do any Australian classical music? It is also this way with all
niche styles of music in Australia, how is Australia ever going to develop
music of it’s own culture if we are not given the opportunity to do so? Why
are we protecting those who show no support for the cultural development of
Australian music based upon our own national tastes?
7. It costs me only $1 or $2 to make a CD, but I also have to pay for
recording, design and artist development. The majors pay even less to make
CD’s and have to pay none of the other costs when dealing in overseas music,
why then are my CD’s retailing for only $25 and theirs for $32?
8. Wholesale prices of $8 US / $11.70 AUS (+ tax = $14.35 / RRP = $21.50)
are available to me directly from international record labels, due to
parallel import restrictions I have to pay an average of $14.60 US / $21.50
AUS. I am not allowed to bypass the Australian distributor and buy CD’s
directly from the international record label and therefore pass those
savings on to my customers.
9. If Jimmy Barnes gets over-hyped to compete with Bruce Springsteen in the
USA and the stock floods back into Australia, the creation industry should
not suffer due to those mismanaged marketing enterprises. There’s no
protection for an artist for mismanagement, over-hyping and flooding foreign
markets, there’s a price to pay for incompetency. It’s a learning curve
that sorts out the good managers from bad managers. Are they saying bad
managers need protection? The majors are using artists as a shield to cover
their incompetence and their vested interests. Their ability to compete is
done by protectionism instead of developing skills. CD deletions coming
back into Australia is simply due to mis-management for overstocking the
market in the first place. How many Clouds, Cruel Sea and Regurgitator are
going to come back? None, these artists are well managed. We wouldn’t want
France or England being used as a dumping place for Australian artists due
to mismanagement either. How many Mental as anything or Midnight Oil
records have come back into the country already seeing as so many retailers
already parallel import?
10. Relaxing the laws on parallel importing will open up more choice to the
consumer and broader influence to our local artists, it will also develop a
more skilled industry to rely on.
11. It’s the perfect climate for pirates with CD’s at $32 right now!
12. The laws are so good that piracy is not a threat I’ve never found one.
13. Asians will be licensing Celine Dion and Mariah Carey not Monique
Brumby!
14. Why do we have an Australian recording industry association where 5 of
their 8 member committee are 100% foreign owned record companies? Why are
they spending their Australian member’s fee’s to fight a campaign to protect
imports?
15. As the trend to mailorder and to buy products directly from the
internet will only increase, if retailers are not allowed to compete and buy
products from the same international sources they will inevitably lose a
great deal of business. Enforcing laws against parallel importation will
definitely close many Australian retailers, it will only serve to keep the
100% foreign owned record companies in business - the majors.
There is no such thing as an Australian major.
"All of the profits made from the great Australian music industry and
consumer rip off has been going in only 2 places - out of the country and up
MIchael Gudinski's nose"! (a popular quote on the street)
Hoping to hear your questions and responses,
Brad Sims
jim mueller
Warhead wrote in message <3527a...@blue.hermes.net.au>...
yeah!
I totally agree!
it's about time we brought down the prices of CD's in this country!
Isn't it ludicrous how we pay more for CD's from local artists than in
places like the states and Asia...? I think that last ditch effort by the
bureaucrats from ARIA to stop parallel importing's gone in vain.... I
totally endorse mail ordering of CD's because that's the only way to hit
back at the mainlining profiteers in the local industry. I urge all who have
a credit card to buy over the internet if they have interests in CD's. Don't
support the so-called local industry by paying inflated prices for your
musical merchandise. Go look abroad and teach the parasites a lesson.
go ahead , make my day!
-Harry Callohan
Phil Tripp
> yeah!
>
> I totally agree!
>
> it's about time we brought down the prices of CD's in this country!
SNIP
Response to Brad
In article <35289...@blue.hermes.net.au>, "Pinhead"
<war...@hermes.net.au> wrote:
> Deletions of Australian music flooding back into Australia is the price you
> pay for bad management, we wouldn't want Australian deletions flooding back
> anywhere.
Your reference to bad management is spurious at best.
> The fact is that if an artist is overhyped
It's not called overhyping. The record company has to produce a certain
amount of product and if it is returned for whatever reason, you can't say
it was overhyped. Certainly undersold, but who are you to lump all
Australia artist releases overseas into all being overhyped. Stupid at
best.
and they end up in the
> dumping bin then that's just bad management of the artist by the record
> company.
So I guess Brad that you have never made too many records on an artist and
have perfect judgement? When you are servicing a nation of 250 million
people and the hit ratio is 10%, what choice do you make--use the economy
of scale for production or just wait until you get an order to make one.
> Are we really saying that we should protect bad managers?
No Brad, what we're saying is why induce cancer as the cure for a cold?
Why gut the copyright laws for the sake of an economic experiment that has
never worked or been proven anywhere else?
What
> about developing some skills?
What about it? What skills? Who should do this? What should the program
be? You spout this like you are some learned educator who has the key to
enlightenment? Please expand on this?? You must have some ideas beyond
this one sentence. And by the way... who pays? Or do you expect this to
be some gift from somewhere?
The fact is parallel imports is just that -
> imports, it has little or nothing to do with Australian product.
True, but you don't kill a law that covers so many other things just to
ease imports.
The reason
> there is so much fuss being made is because the elite of the music industry
> have finally been hit where it hurts - their precious imports!
I wouldn't call myself elite nor the thousands of voices and hundreds of
submissions the government received in objection to this. Brad, there are
a LOT of people who think this campaign is smoke and mirrors. I'm sorry
that you seem to have put on your puppet strings for this and are spouting
the party line with little sense or reason behind it. It's sounds more
like someone who is bitter at being a failure and wants to blame and then
hurt the multinationals that you seem to believe cause all the problems in
the industry.
They don't
> give a damn about the Australian artsists at all and are just using them as
> shields to cover their incompetency and vested interests because all they
> know how to do is manufacture Garth Brooks until we puke,
Well, I'm not a Garth Brooks fan but should they be shot because he sells?
By the way, Garth is the talent who drives the record company and not the
other way around. If you take the time to actually look into what Brooks
has done to EMI and Capitol, you might get some inspiration from his
business nouse rather than just condemning his music because about 10
million people buy it regularly.
>they know nothing
> about skill and talent and believe they can just buy everything.
It is fitting that you end this diatribe with the sort of senseless
statement that shows your ignorance and desperation as well as your
vitriol. I suggest you rename your label Pinhead rather than Warhead. In
the case of the latter, it would be deemed 'assault with a dead weapon'.
Cheerfully
PHIL TRIPP
--
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