![]() "Many selectors tried to take the music online to do sound clashing and keep the culture alive yet now JACAP wants to step in and regulate and dampen hope. Thomas said he was upset that, in a time of crisis, the 'bean-counters' from Jamaica Association of Composers Authors and Publishers (JACAP) have warned selectors that online parties and events are still required to pay over royalty fees, as they are still utilising the work of others. Dubplates have been cut to half price, all sorts of gigging musicians and dancehall selectors are feeling squeezed, but we have to weather the storm," producer and industry insider Vivian Thomas told Loop News. They are staring at a situation where they simply don’t have a place to play, and I really feel it for the younger artistes who are just coming up the established artistes at least have savings. "Artistes and selectors depend on payouts from gigs for the majority of their income so they're wondering what’s next for them. Many are committed to "weathering this storm” and have expressed confidence that the local and regional music industries will survive the shutdowns. ![]() Only thunderclouds - financial and otherwise - lie on the horizon. The new normal equates into cancelled shows, returned deposits and there are no upcoming gigs in the pipeline, not even Jamaica's annual Reggae Sumfest.įor those in Jamaica, the upcoming summer will be a wasteland of lost income for several reggae artistes who look forward annually to fat cheques as they tour the season's show circuit in Europe. Me will do it to win ah clash or dance and then me just ask God fi forgiveness after," he said.Most artistes and musicians have found that their livelihoods have come to a screaming halt, their high-flying careers grounded as closed borders and spooked populations triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic have reshaped the world. Me nah seh me do it or don't do it but if me need a dubplate and can't afford it, me haffi splice ah artiste. "The biggest business ah road right now is splicing song. He says he can get an 'imitation' Koffee for J$10,000, far less than what the real artiste is charging per dubplate, and also revealed that there are vocalists who can cover songs where people can't pinpoint the difference in sound. Over the years, there were a lot of artistes I wanted a dub from that I could not even afford I had to work roun' dem by using a no name artiste to make a bad counteraction to them song," he said. "I played on Killamanjaro sound for 10 years without a Bounty Killer (dubplate) and dem time deh him hot. He said that a reasonable price or the normal price range for dubplates depend on the artiste's popularity. is either take it or leave it," Ricky Trooper said. "Him never seh nutn wrong, but if ah artiste charge US$1,000 fi a dub because he or she have the hot song a road, me can't fight it. Meanwhile, Ricky Trooper, a seasoned sound clash selector, said the issue is deeper than the unreasonable costs. "When those avenues disappeared, Jamaican sounds were struggling to get dubplates while those in Japan and Europe could afford it and soon became number one in sound clashes," he said. He said the only sound systems that could afford the dubplates from the top artistes at the time had money coming from different avenues. And the high cost did (and still does) crash the dubplate industry." Renaissance Disco's CEO, Delano Thomas, aka DJ Delano, told THE STAR: "When we realised the remixes were working, we used them to our advantage by putting them on dubplates because it was always a taxing expense. We can't afford for that to happen save the music, save the industry by saving sound clash ting." OUR ADVANTAGE But we have to preserve the culture for the future weh a come, because if the artiste continue off their own personal interest, we may not be able to revive it again. Even Japanese sounds ah refuse to cut dubplate now because the high price force the sound man to play splice song or find a man weh sound like the artiste. When THE STAR reached out to Mr Lexx, he explained that he brought up the topic because: "I have been in the business long enough to see what is going to happen it is troubling. "Then the rest of sound system just follow a Irish and Chin me see work hard fi bring it back to a level," he said. He claims the dubplate business was derailed previously when Renaissance Disco started using remixes instead of dubs. In a video post, a displeased Mr Lexx stated among other things that "Nuff ah unuh artistes ah overdo it with the dubplate price and ah charge sound man dis one bagga money an' unuh nah kill nuh sound." Dancehall entertainer Mr Lexx took to social media on the weekend to address the issue of dubplate prices being too high, leading to a decline in the communication between artistes and selectors and the sound clash culture.
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