BAF gone?

[Rob Strictly-Rockers]

Dr Superlove,

In your rush for the moral high ground I think you've missed my point. All I was saying was that, if they had closed, it is more likely to have been because the Fopp CD chain had closed and maybe they were owed money by Fopp which sold a lot of their CDs.

I don't know any business which wants to survive that would not change its business plan/model to take account of a changing world. Horizon scanning is essential and those businesses that fail to do it get hit by events unexpectedly. My implied point is that, I am sure the B&F people are astute enough to have realised the impact of the fact of life which is pirating and taken it into account. Lets face it, reggae operated on almost nil copyright for years and the only person to cop it legally was Joe Gibbs who was bankrupted by an American label for copying a tune.

Regards

Rob

[See Why Audio]

Well well welllll...

That was a pleasant surprise given what I was told last week. Seems I jumped the gun. Sorry.

I reckon somebody got their knickers in a twist somewhere in the food chain at BAF, and made very LOUD noises but maybe has now had second thoughts! We shall only know when we are told...

VERY nice to have the site back. Totally agree with the folks that say there is too much knowledge tucked away in this forum's archives and to let it go would be a travesty.

Anyway. Interesting that speculation over the reasons for BAF's alleged demise were descending to the old argument about downloads.

Perspective! Folks, BAF are still having troubles - exactly what they are is nobody's business but theirs. But did they almost go under because of downloading? You gotta be kidding. Absolutely no way. It was politics. Nuff said.

Anyway, as far as I can figure, checking something out before buying the 'real deal' is second to none in terms of free publicity. However it does mean that total shit music will not sell... and that is something that the record companies don't like because they like to sell shit. If we can all test music beforehand, or chamion out own local bands, etc, then we can make our own decisions and to hell with Boyzone.
Pity that too many people forgot that the MP3 was a 'sample' of the real deal and are now happy with that as the final product. Not me.
I always wondered why the stoopid dum fucque record majors never saw how USEFUL Napster was. And it was fREE. Individual artists and labels ands producers can whine as much as they like about 'the destruction of music' but they are wrong. Igor Stravinsky said the same thing about the vinyl LP. They are wrong, music has a life-force all of its own and no amount of bankruptcy among record companies will change that. And to get an idea of that you only need to look at the reggae output of the majors. Not very good is it? BAF? PS? Hearbeat? Stalwarts all but they are hardly taking money from the majors.

OK, so given that the 'Majors' and the 'minnows' alike are bound by more-or-less the same rules and conditions of the retail trade, I have the following summation - discuss -perhaps on a new off-topic?

For me downloaders are doing two kinds of damage:

1) Moral. People who download illegal stuff are committing an offence in MOST peoples eyes. Not all but still most. It is wrong in a number of ways to steal stuff and that is what such downloaders are mostly doing, and are SEEN to be doing. Therefore their actions lower the general tone of society a little bit more and make everybody nervous. Not like we need that, is it?
2) The sound quality of downloads is and will remain shit for the foreseeable future (when compared to CD or vinyl), legally downloaded or otherwise. In this, the suppliers are just as guilty as the downloaders. The 'gene pool' of recorded music is being down-sized. Not good.

The benefits?

1) Musical awareness is at an all-time premium and true music lovers are constantly fighting the relentless media machine telling us what to like, so the downloaders make it easier to 'test' stuff that you could never ask a dipstick in Tower to play for you or even hope to hear on the radio. Folks in the UK will know just how bad this gets. That is reason enough to like it. (as long as people remember that MP3 and WMA and Itunes stuff is POOR quality sound when compared to the humble CD and even the vinyl LP.

2) err... uhhh... hang on it'll come to me....

[DrSuperlove]

"@DrSuperlove : I bought some B&F releases after having downloaded it and i surely won't have if i hadn't known what was on the CD before and i'm pretty sure i'm not the only one."

and how many cd's did you choose not to buy after the download (maybe keeping the download)?

if downloading illegally is so harmless (even good!) the universal decline in sales and money made in the music business reversedly proportional to the illegal downloads count needs some sort of magical alternative explanation

and sorry for sounding like an uptight git but nothing makes my piss boil like defending piracy, even if indirectly, it brings specialist record stores and small labels to their knees, unless you hate this sort of music it's not something to champion

[ton1]

How many CDs did i choose not to buy after the download and keeping the download : a lot, way more than the number of CDs and LPs i own. But one way or another, I couldn't afford it, i spend what i can on music and i try to have my money's worth, that's the best I can do.

What will it change if I threw away not bought downloads ? Nothing or just one thing : I won't be able to share this music with someone who could have bought it after listening.

If they was no illegal copy, independent music would be dead or at least underdevelopped. B&F would be unknow but by specialists like you and me and majors would more powerful than ever. Illegal copy is unfortunately the only way to bring independent music to non specialist listeners 'cause they don't make the effort to dig like we do, that was with cassette and CDs yesterday, that is with downloads today.

[DrSuperlove]

"If they was no illegal copy, independent music would be dead or at least underdevelopped."

highly unlikely!

[ton1]

How was independent and underground music before the invention of audio cassette : nothing but live music and artists were way less numerous and poorer than today (careful, i don't say they're wealthy today but that was worse before).

It's weird that since the invention of the cassette in the early 60s, underground music has been brought to the public (60s garage, soul, punk and then hip-hop and electronic music...), like if home taping had allowed those music to be known. It's not a chance if lots of underground punk encouraged home taping and are today encouraging downloads, they know it's the only way to make them breakthrough.

[Donovan]

I think B&F's main problem was their choice of releases. They constricted themselves too tightly. Way too much dub and Deejay. Witness the ongoing health of PS - they mix it up between dub, singers, deejays, instrumentals, even mento for pete's sake! If I list my top 5 B&F releases they'd all be singers (though "If DJ Were Your Trade" would be #6). B&F never seemed to grasp the concept of the "complilation" concept like PS, Heartbeat, Soul Jazz, and (yes, i know your gonna hate to hear it) Trojan.

[staas]

too much dj? that's just impossible