INTERVIEW : FANNY / BLUE MOON
Interview by : François-Xavier Rougeot
on Monday, January 22nd 2007 - 18 442 views
The news saddened many. Last 18 November, Blue Moon, the first shop in France devoted entirely to Jamaican music, pulled down the shutters at 84 rue Quincampoix. Fanny Feeny, who opened the shop in 1982, recalls the moments that marked those 25 years and the reasons that led her to suspend her activities. All while clear-sightedly analysing the difficult situation in which record shops now find themselves.
Reggaefrance / How did you get to this point?
Fanny / Blue moon / In 2002, my turnover was 613,000 euros, half of which came from retail. It suddenly plunged. By 2005, I was already down to 233,000 euros. In four years, I was forced to lay off three of my four employees. Every year, one of them disappeared. Then it's the snowball effect. With fewer staff, you have less time to devote to putting the stock out, to orders, to accounting.
How do you explain this fatal outcome?
Until 3 or 4 years ago, everything was going really well, it was fun. At the time, people were still in the habit of buying records. My experience tells me that record buyers are aged between 15 and 25. 40% of those people have passed 25, settled down with a family, and their spending priorities have changed. At the same time, the kids who were 11 back then came along, but they are kids who are used to downloading, and I lost 50% of my turnover. I also think that purchasing power has fallen since the arrival of the euro.
If half of your turnover came from retail, where did the other half come from?
In 1995, I created the Bakchich label alongside Blue Moon. It accounted for half of my turnover, which allowed me to have four employees. It has disappeared. I had a dispute with a distributor (Virgin-EMI), which produced a record ("Bakchich Bashment") listed under French pop. It was likely not to sell and that is what happened: we sold 2,000 copies. I'm still in litigation. The production turnover disappeared. So half of my overall turnover was gone. I had to live on the shop alone, but retail had fallen too and was clearly insufficient. To avoid closing, I would have had to sell double. I could have broadened out by treading on other people's turf, doing oldies like Patate, but that wasn't possible because the cash was no longer there.
Is reggae losing momentum?
Reggae is doing very well; it's habits that have changed. We need to allow a little while for things to stabilise.
Is that a paradox?
No, it goes with the times. The way the public consumes has changed enormously over the past 10 years. People are used to having music for free. They say they buy records after downloading them, but that's not what I've seen.
Do you download from the internet?
No. Downloading doesn't kill music, but it kills the business. Artists can earn money by playing live, but for studio recording to continue and to be of good quality, the market, which is hardly expanding, needs to stabilise. People need to get back into the habit of paying for music, even a little.
Does the price of a 45 seem high to you?
In my view, 3.82 euros for a 45 isn't expensive; it's been the same price for 25 years. It's a price that lets everybody get by.
What about CD sales?
At one point, CDs sold very well. Little by little, mixtapes took the place of CDs. In the end, they accounted for 90% of our sales. At Blue Moon, a CD cost 19 euros. I never thought of lowering that price, because I could see that the "CD" clientele was coming less and less anyway.
Can you make a living from a specialist shop?
It's not possible, even when things are going well. All record shop owners say it's a struggle. I think they're going to have to reinvent themselves. We're heading towards buying intangible music, and I find it hard to see the role of a record shop in that. I believe Dubwize is still doing its parties, and Patate has his productions. All the same, it's better to stay specialised. The more you spread yourself, the less sharp you are. Since people who love reggae are fully into their thing, it wouldn't work. Those with deep pockets can perhaps wait for things to stabilise.
Did you think online selling would give you a boost?
I thought it was a solution, but we had a problem. The website should have been set up two years earlier to do online sales. A few years ago, banks were less cautious than today. I was doing mail order. I had no access to secure payment and quite a few orders never went through.
Do sites dedicated exclusively to online selling stand a chance of thriving?
They can hold on. I'm thinking of people like Soundquake in Germany, where purchasing power is stronger than in France and where the market seems to be flourishing.
Why didn't you keep the online shop?
It's still possible, but you'd need to have the desire, given the competition already well established in Germany... And I'm not very sure about the future of the physical record.
Did you consider any miracle solutions during this period of crisis?
I had ideas, but I didn't even imagine carrying them out, because I could see the end coming. If I had won my case six months ago, perhaps I would have got back on my feet. But would I have wanted to carry on...
What feelings do you have today?
Of course, my heart aches a little. But I feel relieved after three years of nightmare. I tried to stay kind and calm, but they wore me down. On a personal level, all this is throwing me into a difficult period. I have no job and no money, but I no longer have to pretend, or lie to the bank.
|
|
© 1999-2026
RSS
