January 23, 1998
By JASON CHERVOKAS & TOM WATSON
Together with Hollywood movies and rock-and-roll, jazz music may well be America's great cultural contribution to the 20th century. But while the rock music and movie business have become one of the nation's great economic engines, jazz has slogged along as a virtual commercial non-entity, a music made by musicians for reasons of love and passion and bought by consumers who approach the music with the same fervor. The Niche Business of Jazz Finds Room to Grow on Net
As the culture industry in this country has increasingly chased big ticket, big margin payoffs — Seinfeld! Titanic! Thriller! — entertainment genres like jazz music have struggled to compete for record company PR dollars, for shelf space at retail outlets, for radio station ratings, for consumer attention. And musicians, fans and record company executives who remain committed to jazz as an art form have had an increasingly difficult time finding new music and gaining access to one another.
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But the Internet is breathing new life into the jazz marketplace. Thanks to the Net, a grassroots community of jazz musicians, jazz educators, record company executives and fans has begun to find one another. And for jazz as a business, the result is new opportunities and outlets for musicians and new money.
Sound excerpt on Eskelin's Web site from his latest album, "ONE GREAT DAY..." (.aiff file, 1:56). The New York Times has no control over the excerpt's content or availability.
Ellery Eskelin's publishes his own page which contain booking information, a discography, sound clips, and quotes.
Net entrepreneurs have long imagined using the Net to open up new opportunities for niche products like jazz, which have geographically disparate audiences that are increasingly harder to market to. So far, the experience with jazz is proving instructive.
Jazz Central Station is a destination Web site run by N2K, a New York-based online music marketing and retailing company. Jazz Central Station serves as a feeder service for N2K's Music Boulevard online CD store. According to the site director, Joe Pignato, jazz music accounts for 17 percent of sales at Music Boulevard. In a conventional, real world record store, jazz typically accounts for 3 to 5 percent of retail sales.
"It's still a niche market but it's a bigger niche," Pignato said. "It illustrates that there is a much larger jazz fan base out there than people once thought."
And it's a niche that is no longer being served by traditional media and marketing channels, Pignato said. Jazz fans are typically older than pop music fans, and they buy more "back catalogue," older classic titles. But those older fans aren't typically drawn into stores and stores are loathe to devote lots of retail space to back catalogue. That kind of depth is not a problem for the online platform, Pignato said, and the older, well-educated demographic profile of the jazz fan crosses over tightly with the Net demographic, he said.
Jazz musicians, like authors, have had to develop their own selling and promotional platforms. It's something for which the Net is perfect.
Many jazz artists also record for European and Japanese record companies that don't have wide distribution and have almost no marketing presence in the United States. In that environment, jazz musicians, like authors, have had to develop their own selling and promotional platforms. It's something for which the Net is perfect. Take the case of tenor sax player Ellery Eskelin. Eskelin's work has been well received among jazz critics. But his recordings, cut principally for European labels with limited domestic distribution, can be hard to come by for would-be buyers.
A few years ago, the saxophonist bought his first computer, just to replace a broken down typewriter, and began exploring the Net. Today he publishes his own Web page with information about gigs and releases; he corresponds with fans and especially with younger musicians via e-mail; and he contributes to the high level discourse on rec.music.bluenote, a Usenet discussion group devoted to jazz.
Last year, a musician from Switzerland found Eskelin's Web page, began an e-mail correspondence and wound up booking a double-bill show for his band with Eskelin's in Switzerland.
The pianist D.D. Jackson, who like Eskelin plays music that blends avant-garde and mainstream jazz and records for a Canadian label, has had similar experiences through a self-published Web site and his active participation in online discussion groups.
"There have been many situations where the first tip on the 'places to play' in a particular town or area have come from fans who have a firsthand connection with the music scenes of their areas," Jackson said. "They e-mail me the info, and I follow up or pass the info on to my agent. And now increasingly, business has been conducted directly over the Net, since more and more people have e-mail addresses. My agent recently put together a little tour for me in France, for example, that was conducted largely on the Internet — a fast, efficient, and cheap method of doing business."
D.D. Jackson says many of his bookings occur through e-mail, where fans send him information about available venues.
Although there are hundreds of Web sites devoted to jazz, and several musicians besides Eskelin and Jackson who maintain their own Web sites, the core of the jazz community online is rec.music.bluenote. The group gets a few hundred posts a day and draws an audience that includes educators, musicians, fans, journalists and record company executives. Sure, musicians and executives use it for promotion and market research, but they also become engaged in a fairly high level discussion about jazz polemics.
"On a certain level, it doesn't really affect me artistically, because I suppose 'idealistically' I am sort of obligated to follow my inner voice on the matter, regardless of feedback from either critics or fans," Jackson said. "But on a 'moral support' level, it's actually very heartening to have gotten so much direct feedback from fans from all over the world who have either heard my CD's or heard me perform live, and who have taken the time to let me know how my concerts might have moved them in a particular way. And being able to immediately respond to people's comments or queries, as well, is a wonderful tool."
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Jason Chervokas & Tom Watson at nation@nytimes.com welcome your comments and suggestions.
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