JazzLoft Going Out Of Business

[seeline]

I wonder how much is price competition, how much download sales, how much illegal copying. And how much just declining interest in piling up recordings of stuff in favor of live performance? Or just - music is a bit boring, period - ?

I notice he doesn't mention euro-pd labels or streaming as factors.

Amazon.com sells a lot of items below cost, and that's definitely a factor, along with their Cloud service for music purchases + their new CD + Cloud offers. (Get the CD and have a digital copy of the album available on their Cloud player, too.)

I do think that streaming services have undercut sales for many "niche" albums and genres tremendously, although for me, being able to listen to something and then deciding on purchases has led to more CD buying, not less.

[sidewinder]

I've almost stopped buying anything from the US because of the cost of shipping. Sad news.

Other than Mosaic, I have to agree. And even for those, the last couple of orders have been from the Boys in Barcelona.

[ejp626]

I agree, but clearly Jazzloft wasn't in a position. DId they do their research? Did they have the options that DG has?

I checked out DG to see what the shipping costs for a single cd is to the UK. Five bucks. A four cd box set? $30, international economy shipping. Brutal.

That's very strange. I put a few box sets in the cart and normally it came out to $15 to Canada (or the UK). 2 single CDs was usually $6 to Canada, which is 50% less than international shipping rates from Amazon (or really 75% less if each is charged a separate shipping rate, which is pretty typical nowadays). It's still far from ideal, but they seem to be trying to wrestle shipping charges down.

I don't know the scoop about JazzLoft, but it's hard for me to imagine these options weren't also available to him.

[alanl]

Hey, guys. This is Alan from Jazz Loft. I appreciate all your kind emails. I don't think many folks realize that Jazz Loft was actually run out of my home with only me and Hiromi helping 2 days a week. All the inventory has been kept in a spare bedroom in my house. The shipping options available as mentioned above were not available to someone working out of their home. Also, my shipping system was not the best (though the best I could afford) and only worked with USPS and FedEx. Believe me, if there was anything I could do, I would have. I started Jazz Loft as a business of passion and it was always a part of me because of my love of the music. Thanks again for all your support. Alan

[Hoppy T. Frog]

I think Cadence (now Klompfoot) supplies a lot of product to the wholesale community.

Yes, through their distribution arm, Northcountry Distribution (lot's of CDs I own have that little sticker), but they are winding down their business too, or at least the mail order.

[Dick Bowman]

I can't help feeling that a way ahead is to get away from shipping physical products around, Certainly internationally the cost of the wanted item (CD, vinyl) is swamped by the etceteras (post, packaging, tax, customs, customs inspection fees).

For the most part jazz is a small-volume business and it's getting near-impossible to find stuff you really want in stores.

Bits-and-pieces marketing (buy CDs at gigs, direct ordering from labels/musicians and so forth) is such a mess.

Is there a business model that would work offering quality paid-for downloads at reasonable prices (music, artwork, information, notes) which could act as a clearing house for all the self-producing musicians and little labels out there? Something to bypass the corporates of Amazon/Apple etc?

Or have past practices given "business" such a well-deserved bad name among musicians that it would never attract a catalogue?

[xybert]

For some reason artists and labels continue to produce CDs, and i continue to buy them.

Some times i feel like all this frankly amazing music that i get to enjoy is too much trouble for all involved, like i'm the kid on christmas morning enjoying his presents while in the background i can hear the parents fighting in the other room.

[David Ayers]

@xybert - nice analogy!

It is weird that while all the background noise goes on the consumer appears never to have had it so good. Yes the delivery structures change, and sure we don't get re-re-masters of some of the older stuff that (whisper it quietly) isn't that good. But there is still a sea of new releases and - more to the point - there are great musicians on the scene who keep popping up in gigs everywhere you turn your head.

So two cheers for the music industry!

@Dick Bowman - I wonder if you remember in pre-internet times how much harder it was to even know about material, let alone find it! Times are guuud for the consumer...

[GregK]

Really sad. JL was my source for Hat discs.

[Dick Bowman]

[... deleted ...]

@Dick Bowman - I wonder if you remember in pre-internet times how much harder it was to even know about material, let alone find it! Times are guuud for the consumer...

I well remember that - and I also remember that if I went to Rays, Dobells or Mole in London I would be very unlikely to walk out without parting with some cash. There were some very good distribution channels in those days.

[David Ayers]

[... deleted ...]

@Dick Bowman - I wonder if you remember in pre-internet times how much harder it was to even know about material, let alone find it! Times are guuud for the consumer...

I well remember that - and I also remember that if I went to Rays, Dobells or Mole in London I would be very unlikely to walk out without parting with some cash. There were some very good distribution channels in those days.

Well yes you say that and I used those stores myself (Rays still do) but finding the information was really much more difficult. These days I can get detailed discography online and my friend the internet does the rest. Complete and current information on Japanese releases, instant updates on label sites in the US, Poland, you name it. And on the back of the internet more contemporary releases than ever - haven't you noticed that the likes of Brotzmann, Parker (both of them), Prevost etc. etc. are doing more now than ever before and bringing back much of the back catalog with them? Sure this is falling off but we have not gone off the cliff yet and I still say there is more about and more readily findable than ever before.

[A Lark Ascending]

I agree with David.

Apart from certain patches where music is OOP for contractual reasons or of so limited an interest as to have failed to generate enough enthusiasm for anyone to reissue, I've never known the back catalogue to be so available in some format.

In the late-70s you couldn't get the Miles or Coltrane records, outside of the really famous ones, in a record shop in Britain; you might be lucky with an import if you made the trek to Mole.

Today, not only can you get virtually any Miles album within minutes on your PC but no end of live recordings that were not even thought of 20 years+ ago.

I just hope the capability to store this music indefinitely and allow access to it digitally on demand is fully utilised. The release/withdraw dynamic might have had some rationale from a record-company-realising-its-assets point of view. But from the listener's point of view it's a pain in the little toe.

[Van Basten II]

I've almost stopped buying anything from the US because of the cost of shipping. Sad news.

That's the main reason I stopped buying from them, when they had the deal 50 cds for 50 $, the shipping doubled the amount , thought it was ridiculous, of course it's not his fault , in my case the big sellers never were his competition as what I bought from him was stuff I couldn't get anywhere else.

[zebehn]

problem solved

Edited January 14, 2014 by zebehn

[Leeway]

Hi.

I ordered 6CDs from Jazz Loft last week. I received my package today but 2 CDs are missing because they were out of stock. But I paid for the 6CDs with Paypal and it seems I cannot get a refund for the 2 CDs I don't have, I sent an email to Lawrence who says he didn't wharge me for the 2 CDs that are missing.

Check your Pay Pal account to see what was charged and what wasn't. If all 6 were charged to your account, go back to JL with the documentation or work with PayPal on a refund.

[duaneiac]

The Jazz Loft is now closed. They closed down while I was shopping on the website. I found a few last minute items there, but I wasn't fast enough. They emptied my shopping cart before I could check out and the website is now gone.

[kh1958]

The Jazz Loft is now closed. They closed down while I was shopping on the website. I found a few last minute items there, but I wasn't fast enough. They emptied my shopping cart before I could check out and the website is now gone.

They probably didn't have them anyway. That was my experience with their closing sale.

[Chuck Nessa]

I guess he served a purpose for some folks but I have negative vibes and experiences from a few years ago. I am sure he meant well when he started but.................