CONDENSED HISTORY OF SQUARE DANCE MUSIC DISTRIBUTION (Callerlink CL213 - September 2013)

 

Twenty thirteen might turn out to be a watershed year in the history of square dance music distribution. Not just because of one particular incident, (which will go down in our history as a very sad, tragic and personal incident), but because it was also the year that an accumulation of previous trends converged. These trends include (1) The gradual disappearance of vinyl, (2) The rise of digital music media, (3) The battle against piracy and (4) The rise of labels selling direct to customers,

 

THE RISE OF RECORD DISTRIBUTORS

 

If you look back at old square dance magazines from the 1950s, you can see that record companies sold records directly. Vinyl ruled the music world, (making a transition from 78s to 45s), and the square dance music industry was affluent enough for most producers to arrange their own record pressings. The producers probably didn’t actually have their own record pressing equipment, but there were enough record pressing companies around who would do it economically. Also the legalities of being a record distributor probably did not enforce the need for “mechanical licenses” so strictly.

 

Eventually record distributors such as “Robertson Dance Supplies”, “Master Record Distributors”, “Merbach Record Services”, “Hanhursts” and a few others came into being. These were companies that had negotiated pricing which allowed them to sell records direct to callers. Distributors started releasing new release samples on “tape services”.  It became easier for customers to purchase from distributors. It also became good business for producers to work with distributors to sell their music.

 

By the 1980s vinyl pressing companies started disappearing due to lower demand. Lower demand led to less competition which in turn led to higher pressing costs. Two of the Square Dance Suppliers, (Hanhursts and Palomino), made investment in vinyl pressing facilities for square dancing music. This allowed them to specialise in record pressing for the specialised market of square dancing. This also meant that they were able to corner the market for vinyl pressing for one market. By the mid 1990s they both started offering to release music as compact disks.

 

By this time the legality of recordings was important, “mechanical licences” were enforced for anyone producing records, it was easier to let the distributors obtain the licences for the producers.

 

Both Hanhursts and Palomino became the dominant record distributors. The others slowly disappeared. Eventually Palomino brought out Hanhursts, leaving us with only one major record distributor.

 

I think most of us were worried about the dangers of having only one company releasing the bulk of new square dance music. Our fears don’t appear to have crystallised. Is it possible that a monopoly can work in a small industry?

 

DIGITAL MUSIC FACTOR

 

Vinyl music was the dominant music media for many years. Of course we had tapes available in either reel to reel format or cassette format, but they didn’t make a big impact on club night equipment.

In the early 1990s minidiscs became available and they were seen as the caller’s best friend. However copying music onto the media was mostly done in real time, which was frustrating. In the 1980s compact discs came. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that recordable CDs became reasonably priced enough for the average consumer. If recordable CDs had been available from the 1980s minidiscs might never had existed.

 

By 2000 digital music in many formats was available for us to use. Formats included CDs capable of storing MP3 files, iPods, USB memory sticks and of course computers. It was now possible to store many music tracks on compact devices. And they could be transferred very fast.

 

THE RISE OF MUSIC PIRACY

 

In the old days - Pirating square dance music was always possible, but not very practical.

 

It was not practical because vinyl records could only be copied to either:

(1) Another vinyl record, or

(2) Cassette or Reel to Reel tape recorder.

 

In the case of (1) you required a vinyl record cutting machine, (very expensive).

In the case of (2) you would need to bring a tape player to the dance.

For both methods the copy had to be done in real time. It is likely that very little pirating of square dance music happened because it was too time consuming, too expensive and required extra equipment.

 

Nowadays –The technology and equipment for making a pristine copy of original music is cheap and easy to use. It is easy to copy vinyl records into the digital. Many new tunes are being released direct to digital, not vinyl. Pirating music is easy in the digital domain. It has become a problem that really affects all of us.

 

THE RISE OF ALTERNATIVE PRODUCERS

 

We have always had the option to purchase music direct from the music producers. In fact this how things started in the 1950s. The change now is that we have music producers who don’t use the services of Hanhursts to distribute their records. These are the “new kids in town”. But remember many of our current established producers were also the “new kids in town” at one time. They did not threaten or cause the established producers to fade away, they added to the diversity of music which leads to better choices all around.

 

The only real difference between the established labels and the new labels is that the new labels are (generally) not using Hanhursts for distribution of their music.

 

THE FUTURE?

 

The future remains in subspace and is therefore unwritten. Further evolution is going to happen. I suspect that labels will get innovative with their marketing and distribution. Maybe some labels will find it more economical to release new music in album format rather than single format. They could be a bit like a “baby boomers” pop music album – half the tunes will stand out and be regularly used – but you need to buy the whole album and take the remaining tunes as well. Labels could use this strategy to feature well known callers, (to sell the album), and include tracks from newer callers, (to break them in).

 

The fight against pirating music will remain a challenge. One way could be to have a database which has a cross-reference of callers who own legitimate copies of music. It should be easy for anyone hearing a caller using a tune to check the database, (over the internet), to ensure that caller has a right to use it. But this has at least two problems:

(1) It would be too hard to implement for music sold before a specified data, it would only be useful for new music. (2) Who would manage the database?

 

The trend of alternative producers might continue to change the way marketing and distribution works. Now that the digital domain exists, producers no longer need vinyl pressing plants to release their music. Some of the traditional labels might put more energy into marketing and distribution by themselves.