It is a well know fact that most Jamaican do not buy CDs. So how do Jamaican Artistes earn their income? Well my research has indicated that they earn their income from several sources some of which are live performances in Jamaica and abroad, mainly the USA, Canada and Europe, and through the sale of CDs both physically and on line.
More recently it has been noticed that some of the entertainers have been signing advertisement contracts, with some of the more profitable companies in Jamaica. This is evidenced with Busy Signal working with Red Label wine and more recently Konshens becoming the new spokes person for Flow a communication company.
With Jamaicans buying a limited amount of CDs, there can be so much shows that those entertainers will be able to perform at in Jamaica. What makes it even worse, when they do perform in Jamaica; they are paid in Jamaican dollars, which has very little value. Entertainers therefore need and must go over seas to work!
However some have been denied visas to travel to these countries. At this point they have to depend heavily on selling their CDs on line. Vybes Kartel now has to depend on online sales of his music after he was denied a US and UK visa. I wonder how many units he has moved so far?
Last year Jamaican Entertainers saw a downward spiral in the demand for their music. According to SoundScan an electronic network that collects sales data from over 17,000 record stores in the United States, collectively all the Artiste who released albums for 2009 only sold 502,171 units. Sean Paul lead the way with his Imperial Blaze album sold only 70,917 units.
Of course there are a number of reasons that could have caused this type of results. For one there was and is a recession , second entertainers have seen an intense increase in pressure to change their hostile lyrics, in the form of cancellation of dates, and as mentioned before denial of work permits to perform in certain countries.
Regardless of what circumstances prevail I am quite sure that Artistes and their management have pulled up their sleeves and are coming up with new and innovative ideas to put those precious incomes in their pocket. Good Luck GUYS!!
