I had the opportunity to interview Stephen from Amplifier, who were selling classic Flying Nun records online – classic and archetypal albums – but had their catalogue pulled, much to the dismay of some NZ music fans, for whom the ongoing availability of FN records is part of the culture of NZ music.
1) A lot of people seemed alarmed when some Flying Nun catalogue disappeared from your site. What happened?
Warner Music (WM) has taken the decision to not repress the Flying Nun catalogue on CD. As they run out of stock of a given title then that title will cease to exist physically. We were given a list of FN titles and their current stock levels. Several were already out of print and a dozen had such small stock levels that we couldn’t be guaranteed supply. To the dismay of the office we were left with no option but to remove those titles from sale. Many more will also be removed over the coming weeks/months as stock levels fall.
WM are making these titles available digitally through iTunes, however we have no digital agreement in place with WM so we’re left with no way to retail Flying Nun.
The explanation that we were given by WM was that the titles were commercially unviable and that a re-run of 500 CDs would take years to sell. From a business perspective I can’t fault this however when you’re dealing with art, and music is art, I feel there should be some level of custodianship taken into account. Also I know that for the majority of NZ CDs are still the primary media for accessing purchased music.
2) What’s the commercial imperative for a New Zealand only music website?
There is no commercial imperative for only selling NZ music. If it was only about making money I’d be selling the latest Eminem album or Ronan Keating’s Songs For My Mother. Amplifier exists because a handful of people are willing to make survival money to do something that we believe in. And that belief is in the ability and talent of local musicians.
3) I found it impossible to buy the incredibly successful Smashproof single online from the UK. Why do some record labels want to prevent audiences from purchasing music?
Territories. Universal probably only have the right to sell Smashproof’s single in NZ/Aus. And that’s fair enough as they most likely wouldn’t be able to muster the promotion for Smashproof outside NZ/Aus to warrant them signing over the rights. Unfortunately it probably also means that some kid sat in their bedroom in Herne Bay has already loaded the song up to a torrent and everyone in the Northern Hemisphere will currently be getting it that way.
We’ve been able to fill the gap for many bands in this respect. If you buy Scribe or P-Money from iTunes in the UK/US/EU/JP/CA then you’re buying it via our aggregation company DRM NZ, if you buy it on iTunes in NZ/AUS then you’re getting it from Warners. Same with Goodnight Nurse’s cover of Kelis’s Milkshake.
4) How does kiwi music connect to New Zealand identity, do you think?
Probably more so than any other country that I’ve lived in. And it’s a hard thing to define why. I guess if you ever saw a crowd react to TrinityRoots then it would be apparent.
5) What proportion of Amplifier’s sales are to ex-pats like me who want to connect to the sound of home?
A good number go overseas, though the majority are still to New Zealand. It’s getting harder to find places to buy CDs over here and online services are becoming more important.
Of those going overseas we know that a lot of them are to ex-pats though there are also a lot of people, especially in Europe, who are really into the whole roots scene down this way. We also have a large market in Queensland, Hawaii and the West Coast of America with the Samoan diaspora. The second biggest selling artist on Amplifier is the Laughing Samoans.