Trena Jordanoska

 

The Supply of Music CDs in the Retail Stores

of the Capital of Republic of Macedonia – Skopje

 

This paper is a pilot survey of the supply and demand of music CDs in the retail stores of the capital of the Repubilc of Macedonia – Skopje. This subject can be approached from different aspects, although the purpose of our paper is to examine the supply of music CDs mainly from repertoire point of view. The research will cover the distribution of music CDs throught the following points:

-       different genres

-       artists and ensebles

-       labels

-       best sold CDs

Main purpose of the survey is proceeding the production and supply of the original CDs, but the pirat CD production still imposes like an indisputable fact, which is in direct relation with the economic and social aspects of the country. Macedonia still pledges to find a solution to this problem. Therefore we also covered the retail prices per regular and pirated music CD and the problem of infringing of the mechanical rights.

The research was conducted during October 2005, but the presented results can be considered as valid indicators of the situation in the last several months – January – September 2005. The data is collected throught personal visits of and contacts with the retail stores, Macedonian music labels and Macedonian copyright society for mechanical rights. Catalogs with the offer of music CDs and web sites of the music stores in Skopje were also used during the research.

 

Retail music stores

The elaboration of our problem is based upon the data collected in the most popular music stores in Skopje:

 

There is a large number of music stores in Skopje which sell only pirated CDs, with the same CD distribution and the same retail CD prices. Due to the restraints in our research, these retail stores have not been taken into consideration. Also the paper does not include the numerous unregistered salesmen on street locations, squares or bridges.

 

The Music store Jugoton

1. Genre structure   

The supply of music CDs in the retail stores in the city was first viewed upon geografic location of the music. Than we devided Macedonian music, Yu music and world music in all offered genres. This selection has been made on the basis of the level of supply and purchasing of CDs. In this part we also included the most purchased artists and ensembles.

 

1.1  Macedonian music

The Macedonian music CDs, with no regard to the genre, in most stores are sold in regular edition – original copies. The biggest part of Macedonian native music is in the folk and popular genres. There is also Macedonian classical music production mostly from the Music and Cassette Production of MRTV, but these CDs are not purchased so they are recessed from trade.

 

1.1.1 Macedonian folk music     

-       Traditional folk music: Nikola Badev, Aleksandar Sarievski, Vaska Ilieva, Jonche Hristovski etc.

-       Ethno pop: Blaga Petreska, Atina Apostolova, Petranka Kostadinova,Vancho Tarabunov, Blagica Pavlovska, Petar Nechovski, Naum Petreski, Suzana Spasovska, Zuica Lazova etc.

-       Folk dances: Milan Zavkov, Maleshevski melos etc.

-       Antology of Macedonian music, patriotic songs, chalgia

The stores are also supplied with folk festival CDs: Ohrid folk fest, Tetovski folk fest, Rosa folk fest etc.

 

1.1.2 Macedonian popular music

-       Pop music: Toshe Proeski, Kaliopi, Rebeka, Karolina, Area, M2, Bojana, Tamara, Aleksandra Pileva etc.

-       Rock, alternative, electro scene: Vlatko Stefanovski, Arhangel, Mizar, Superhiks, D.N.O., Verka, Zlatko Origjanski, Maja Maus etc.

-       Etno: Dragan Dautovski kvartet, Sintezis, Bodan Arsovski

There are festival CDs, also with the popular Macedonian music: Ohrid fest, Makfest etc.

 

 

 

1.2  Yu music

The demand of Yu music in Macedonia is very big, so in nearly every store great part of CD offer is music from ex-Yu region. Although Yu music has a great production of genres only folk Yu music genres and popular Yu music genres are purchaised on our market.

1.2.1 Yu folk music

-       Antology of traditional folk songs

-       Turbo folk: Ceca, Dragana Mirkovich, Toma Zdravkovich etc.

 

 

 

1.2.2 Yu popular music

-       Pop and rock from legend artists and bends: Bijelo Dugme, Azra, Partibrejkers, Film, Crvena Jabuka, Bajaga, Djordje Balashevich, Parni Valjak, Riblja Chorba, Elektrichni orgazam, Idoli, Prljavo Kazalishte, Hari Mata Hari, Josipa Lisac, Oliver Dragojevich, Doris Dragovich, Zdravko Čholich, Magazin, Oliver Mandich, compilations: Yugo Nostalgia, Yu pop vremeplov etc.

 

 

 

1.3 World music

World music is mainly sold on pirated CDs, expept for the stores Yugoton and Mister company. There is wide range of world music genres in Skopje`s music stores:

1.3.1 Popular music: Robbie Williams, Anastasia, Tony Braxton, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, ColdPlay, Eros Ramazzoti etc.

Techno, progresive and alternative: Prodigy, Faithless, Morcheeba, Massive Attack etc.

Blues, jazz, soul: Nat King Cole, Sidney Bechet, Duke Ellington, The Mills Brothers, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong etc.

Reggae: Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Whailers

Rock: Pink Floyd, Joe Cocker, Queen, Deep Purple, Bon Jovi etc.

 

1.3.2 New age & ambient, relaxation: Moods, Chakra, Tao, Tibetian Meditation, The Water Cycle, The sound of Waterfall, Bird Song, Wolves in the Wilderness, Rhythms of the Deep, Predgnancy, Insomnia, Digestion, Tension

Music of the World: Cafe Latino, Cafe Havana, Cafe Paris, Cafe Indiana, The world of Greek Music, The World of Hungarian Gypsies, The World of Tango, The World of Flamenco, Turkey, Tibet, India, Israel etc.

Libra music: Michalis Nikoloudis, Nor Dar, Arto Tuncboyaciyan, Giorgos Maglaras, Vangelis Catsoulis

Dance & lounge: Oriental lounge, Asian Lounge Explosion, Disco Trance Power, Uraban Street Collective etc.

1.3.3 Musical & movie: soundtracks from the movies Hours, Clockwork Orange, Mambo Kings; Monti Python: The Holy gray, The meaning of life; John Williams: Harry Potter, Star Wars; John Cander and Fred Ebb: New York, New York; Yien Tiersen: Le Fabuleux Destin d`Amelie Poulain; Ennio Moricone: Once upon a time in a West, Malèna; etc.

 

 

1.3.4 Classical music

            There is still a scarce supply of classical music CDs supply in the music stores in Skopje. However, opposite from the last years, when it was limited on small number of pirated CD copies, among other the famous Three Tenors, Waltzes by Johann Strauss and The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, the situation marks significant change. Several music stores in the city have exclusive agreements with famous world classical music labels like Joan Records, Mazur Media, Brilliant Classic... For istance, the music store Jugoton offers over 3000 classical music CDs, and there is a large offer also in the music store Mister Company.

 

 

2. Labels

2.1. Macedonian labels

Best known music CD labels in Macedonia which distribute popular Macedonian music CDs in the music stores in Skopje are Millenium records, Litium records, Grand production, City records, Third Ear etc. Official labels for folk Macedonian music CDs are Mister Company (founded in 1991 in Gostivar) and Senator Records. Mister Company has sold approximately 1000 CDs this year (part of the CDs are printed in Austria). Senator Records has sold 200 CDs this year.

 

2.2 World labels

Among world music labels which are present in the music stores in Skopje are Joan records, Mazur media, Brilliant Classic, Sony, Universal, Warner, BMG etc.

Jugoton and Mister Company are top music stores in Skopje which are supplied with original Macedonian and imported CDs. The other visited stores sell pirated CDs beside original CDs.

 

            3. Best sold CDs

            We couldn`t make complete analyses of the best sold CDs problem in these research. The main problems we encountered were the incomplete information and the time limits. The information about the distribution of the CDs and the marketing costs is lacking and this results in encroaching on mechanical rights. Therefore we leaned on and processed the information from the reports and interview with the Macedonian music production Millenium records. The collected data refers to the period January-August 2005 and it reflects approximately the situation.

           

Artists and ensembles	Album	Genre	Price in denars	Number of sold CDs
Children`s song festival Super star	Super star 2005	Children`s music	150	1000
Children`s song festival Golden nightingale	Golden nightingale 2004	Children`s music	250	260
Toshe Proeski	Den za nas	Pop	600	200
Vlatko Stefanovski	Treta majka	Rock	200	162
D.N.O.	Tishina	Rock	350	155
K-15	O, prosti I, zvini	TV show music	200	150
Tamara	Sino	Pop	490	145
Gjorgji Krstevski	Zasekogash	Pop	400	140
Kaldrma	Kaldrma	Chalgia	300	130
Sintesis	Let bot Smite Him	Etno	820	112
Toshe Proeski	Po tebe	Pop	300	111
Kaliopi	Ne mi go zemaj vremeto	Pop	650	100
Pece Atanasovski	Pece Atanasovski Orchestra	Folk music	500	100
Anastasija	Pred dozhdot	Soundtrack	899	80
Aleksandra Pileva	Sonce i mesechina	Pop	350	60
Esma	Pomegju dva zhivota	Gipsy folk music	1250	60
Petar Rengjov	Bride`s Dream	Etno	500	60
Bojana	Celosno ti pripagjam	Pop	350	60
Garabet Tavitijan	The Best of Garabet Tavitijan	Etnojazz	470	40
Bodan Arsovski	Endless view	Etno pop	800	25

 

Best sold CDs for October 2005 in the music store are:

 

Artists and ensembles	Album	Genre	Price in denars
Aleksandar Sarievski	Macedonian Foklore Classic	Macedonian traditional folk music	900
Toshe Proeski	Po tebe Den za nas	Macedonian popular music	300 600
Toma Zdravkovich	Antology (2CDs)	Yu folk music	300
Natasha Bekvalac	Stereo ljubav	Yu turbo folk music	300
Petar Grasho	Uvertira	Yu popular music	300
ColdPlay	X&Y	world popular music	1020
Ludvig van Beethoven	The Ninth Symphonie	classical music	200
Dmitrij Shostakovich	Jazz suites (3CDs)	classical music	600
Eric Satie	Piano music (2CDs)	classical music	400

 

Prices

The original Macedonian music CD retail prices have been given in tables above. The regular imported CDs price are ranged from 200 denars to 1160 denars per CD (Ice Cube – Amerikka`s Most Wanted). The most expensive double (2 CDs) album is Made in Japan by Deep Purple. It costs 1990 denars. The actual price of the pirated CD copies is 100 denars.

In the last few years for a bigger accessibility to the consumer and as a way for finding solution to the pirating problem, Macedonian artists practise to sell their new album with surcharge in the daily newspapers or magazines. For istance, the album Po tebe by Toshe Proeski had been sold with the daily newspaper Vreme (The Time) with surcharge of 150 denars. There had been 30000 CD for sale, out of which 16000 were sold. The same example is with the album Vozovi (Trains) by Kristina Arnaudova which was sold with the magazine Tin shema (Teen scheme), than the albums by the band Superhiks, Beni Shakjiri etc. It is interesting to mention the campaign of the magazine Tea moderna (Tea modern) where in the last two years, it were published CD collections of classical music, Macedonian traditional folk music Kon tradicijata (Toward tradition), Nikola Badev`s CD, jazz collections etc. CDs also are given free of charge with a certain purchaised product.

 

Conclusion:

In the begining of our paper we have already pointed that this is a pilot study doing initial research on the supply and demand of music CDs in the music stores in Skopje. Our basic purpose was fulfilled. We got impression about the repertoire and the genre structure of the music CDs purchaised in the music stores. We only obtained some general information and we can conclude that there is wide range of genres in the music stores. However, it should be mentioned that the data we collected it only reflects approximately the real state, especially regarding the CD prices and the best sold CDs. This empiric data will be used for future analysis of this subject.

           

Translation: Trena Jordanoska