RS: Dance music always sets the cutting edge. Are you getting
statistics on which songs are being downloaded the most, and if so,
which ones?
Hosh Gureli: Certainly anything that's new goes really well, like the
remixes of Kelly Clarkson Walkaway, Heather Headley In My Mind,
and Angie Stone I Wasn't Kidding. They're selling in the thousands,
more than what twelve inches would have sold back in the day.
RS: Really?
Hosh Gureli: Its only 99 cents a pop, so it's not like, the $8 or $9
for a twelve inch record.
RS: Do you know about the whole short haullong haul theory ?
Basically most retail stores profit off of the twenty percent of their
product that sell to the majority, but the rest of the eighty percent
that isn't commercial crossover does sell in the long run. If you put
the rest online and give people access to it, you'll sell a small
amount each day, but over ten years that will accumulate.
Hosh Gureli: Well, I hope that's right. There's a huge expense that
I've been able to reduce with this third installment by gathering the
masters and getting them digitized.
For example, the Pointer Sisters – I've got short and long versions of
Automatic, Dare Me, Jump, I'm So Excited, and Neutron Dance all
together in one bundle. There's only so much space online for bundles
and I'm trying to get as much up there as possible. We're uploading
twenty bundles per month which could equal over a hundred tracks.
RS: . After the thirty-day exclusive of Dance Vault, do they
stay on iTunes or do they disappear?
Hosh Gureli: They stay on iTunes, We are building the vault, which
is very exciting, and getting a wide variety of music – 70s, 80s, 90s
and 00s – for people to discover. After the first month, the music is
available on RealNetwork's Rhapsody, Sony Connect, and all the others.
I'm really excited about the deal we are doing with Sprint for
digital downloads – you will be able to download the songs from the
Dance Vault right onto your phone.
RS: Why was iTunes chosen for the exclusive?
Hosh Gureli: Because it's eighty-five percent of the digital market.
It used to be seventy and it's growing. I tried to use Beat Port
years and years ago but they don't have DRM (Digital Rights
Management) which is why you won't see any major label stuff on there.
They would be my first choice though.
RS: Anything you want to say to all the people out there who are
going to read this interview?
Hosh Gureli: Just that I want to thank for the support that
everybody's given to me and to the RCA Music Group – J, Arista, and
RCA. I have to give props to DJ Skribble, Fat Boy Slim, Joe
Bermudez, and every person I've asked to put the link to the iTunes
site on their Myspace or website and agreed to do it. We've got to
get people to the site and make it a word-of-mouth buzz thing.
Eventually, I want the common customer to want to be able to get in
there.
I've done compilations and worked with many remix producers, but this, to me personally, is really nerve-racking. It's got me frazzled to be quite honest because I've taken on a very big project here. With the major label situation, if the Dance Vault doesn't survive, it's going to be a black mark for dance music. We really need the support of the entire industry to make this work. If this succeeds, then other labels will follow and we will have the history of dance music online.. I have to make this work – I feel like I've been in the business for a long time and this is something that's bringing dance music to the next level and the next generation. If this project succeeds, it will be like a nice gold star for dance music at a major label. When have we seen that last?
