By IPS Correspondents
KINGSTON, Jul 2 1996 (IPS)

Reggae artistes dreaming of the big times — a recording and marketing deal with a big U.S. record company and a six-figure advance — are thinking again as some find out that big is not necessarily better.

It’s a dilemma some have had to face over the last two years. As demand slackened for works performed by artistes based in the home of reggae, big labels have been dropping those unable to meet minimum sales targets, forcing them to turn to small independent record companies.

“There’s not a lot of money, but you get more personal attention,” says Ibo Cooper of Third World band. This veteran band has been making hit records since the 1970s. It has had deals in the past with two major labels, including Columbia, but its works are now distributed by independent Solar records of Los Angeles.

“When you are a small act signed to the majors, you get lost in the shuffle,” says Cooper.

Big companies say reggae artistes are failing to match the sales of other musical forms like rock and roll and rhythm and blues — hence the reluctance to keep some names on the roster.

The lure is strong: attractive advances are given to artistes on signing, and big comapnies offer extensive marketing and distribution the smaller labels cannot match. However if the labels are unable to make a profit off their investment, they cancel.

With the independent companies, it is a different story. While budgets do not allow for mass promotion of reggae, their willingness to market the music in its original form has enabled some artistes to keep a grassroots following in the United States and Europe.

Usually, an independent label is a springboard for a contract with a major label, and many of these have sprung up in the United States over the last five years, promoting the underground sounds of rap, jazz and reggae.

Despite their limited financial resources, they have a hands-on approach some artistes find appealing. Big labels tend to be less personal, and more strictly business in style. Indpendents pay more attention to groups or performers selling big numbers. A jazz or reggae act with less impressive sales figures is usually given minimum support.

A reggae group like Steel Pulse, which has established loyal audiences in Europe, has failed to find similar reception in the United States. It has lost contracts with major labels like Elektra and, more recently, MCA Records.

For a reggae act to maintain its association with a major label, the minimum of 250,000 units sold is required for a CD. With the independents, a big seller ranges between 15,000 and 50,000.

The problem arises when a record produced on an independent label becomes a big seller. Then the small company is not in a position to promote the product, which is where a Warner Brothers or Atlantic steps in.

“The distribution is important,” says Lancelot Hall of veteran reggae group Inner Circle. “If you are not out there, no one will know you.”

Inner Circle knows that situation all too well. Its albums were distributed by Washington-based independent RAS Record when the song “Bad Boys” became a hit. RAS was unable to find enough money to promote the song. They had to shift to Atlantic records. Under the umbrella of that bigger company, the album “Bad Boys” sold gold — 500,000 units — in the United States and won the group a Grammy award in 1994.

Other companies have joined RAS in distributing an all-reggae catalogue in the United States, including Heartbeat in Massachusetts which specialises in the vintage sounds of the ’60s and ’70s, and to a lesser extent Shanachie, which is based in New Jersey.

Heartbeat is presently celebrating 15 years of promoting reggae in the United States. It has marked the occasion with a month-long tour with several of their acts which include singer Michael Rose, former vocalist of Black Uhuru, the group that won the first reggae Grammy in 1985.

Few major record companies would be prepared to spend that much time on promoting reggae, says Heartbeat’s manager, Garret Vandermolen. He says the independents are committed to the sound. “With the majors slowing down (with reggae) it’s the independents who will have to carry the music,” he says.

Still, it is not all roses with the independents. Once the chance presents itself, many are willing to sell out to larger counterparts, something that has not gone unnoticed by people like Ibo Cooper. “When we (reggae performers) die, they make a lot of money off us by selling a big cataloguem,” he declares.

As useful as the independents have been, Cooper thinks it is time for Jamaicans themselves to market their own music and stop depending on foreigners.

“We understand what we sell. We need to take it and set up outlets like we do with Jamaican restaurants abroad,” he says.

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