Live albums saturate the market
This has been the year of live albums for the local music industry, and the development has not been coincidental. Numerous top-selling artists have all headed the same way by releasing «live» recordings of recent club shows, supposedly capturing the atmosphere of live entertainment that is generated by the link between performer and the crowd. It is a quality that goes missing in the studio, the pundits behind these initiatives argue. But all the converging efforts do raise suspicions about the real motives behind the current deluge of live-album releases. No doubt, the crisis that has struck the local music industry has been the underlying reason behind the proliferation of live album releases over the past year or so. The warning bells had sounded in 2001. Several months ago the local branch of IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, told Kathimerini that the music sector’s year-to-year sales decline in 2001 was the steepest ever experienced by the Greek market. Rampant piracy Rampant CD piracy has been the biggest problem, both locally and internationally. Greece is ranked first in Europe and tenth worldwide. According to official European Commission figures, CD piracy represents between 5 and 7 percent of world trade, or a staggering amount that lies somewhere between 200 and 300 billion euros annually. Where’s the connection between all this illicit trade and the live album releases? In a market vulnerable to piracy – which in practical terms means that pirate versions of albums, especially those of top-selling artists, are available to buyers on the day of their official release, and, subsequently, suppress sales – it makes business sense to market a product that probably costs less to make. Moreover, on the creative side, fresh ideas are not coming through. For years, long before the current crisis, music industry officials had equated live albums with security. Releasing a live album certainly seems like the safest choice for any vocalist who does not wish to be associated with the musical stagnancy characterizing the current era, or wants to avoid the risk of putting out new material. The live albums released in recent months share common features. Most are double CDs. Dimitra Galani and Tania Tsanaklidou recorded a joint live album at the Zygos Club; Giorgos Dalaras also recorded at the same venue; Haris Alexiou documented her live show at the Cine Kerameikos; Yiannis Kotsiras also released a live album last winter; and, most recently, Eleftheria Arvanitaki came up with her live album based on shows at the Gyalino Club. But hers is not a double CD. It contains eleven tracks whose material – like the majority of songs featured in the recent onslaught of live albums – deviates from the laika (popular Greek) category. Kotsiras’s effort, too, deviates from the laika label without getting detached from it completely. His double-CD release contains one disc of widely-sung laika, while the other contains songs culled from his own repertoire. Recycling the past Some of these live album releases, however, do place their emphasis on laika songs, resulting in good selections of splendid old Greek tracks reinterpreted by newer vocalists. These live albums do not come across as a means to take the easy way out, but rather as worthwhile albums aiming to recycle older material that is being given a more contemporary spin. Overall, this rehashing of the old gives the impression that contemporary acts are treading on the solid legacy of the past, or fiddling their way through a transition phase, until new ways are discovered and brought to light. Golden oldies This artistic stagnancy, then, until new ways are found, is also providing radio stations with an opportunity to remind listeners of the golden oldies that had been stored away. Their reinterpretations by popular younger artists has put the old material back on the airwaves. This period, then, can provide an opportunity for listening to reworked old laika songs featuring new voices and arrangements. As for the record companies, they have nothing to lose because a decent live album rarely sells badly. Nor are the artists involved in this trend in an unfavorable position either, as they enjoy the comparative advantage of continual presence as opposed to their colleagues who have opted to forsake this particular approach.
