Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Winston Blake of Merritone Disco. - Contributed

Before singer Busta One Foot performed as he launched his second CD, the eight-track Hardworking Man at 4 Fontenoy Road, Vineyard Town, on Thursday night, Merritone Music's Winston Blake outlined the rocky path ahead.

"This has become the easiest part of the industry, to make a record. But how to get airplay and consistent airplay so you can get a hit song off the CD, that is another thing," Blake said.

"You will have to figure out how to market your record," he said, noting "it would be hard for someone like Busta to make a record like this and not get any airplay."

Earlier in his address, in bringing greetings from the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA) at the album launch, Blake had made the connection between payment to radio announcers and airplay, referring to a previous statement about good music being made and bad music being played.

Pay the jocks

"To get a record consistently played I am reliably informed you have to pay the jocks in the major areas that carry major listenership," he said. "There are still some jocks who are excellent people who will play a record on its merit. Unfortunately, there are not that many of them."

Adding that it would appear there needs to be a radio station that plays music no one else plays, Blake said, "That is the unfortunate part of the industry that I am not sure how we are going to take care of that."

The pay for airplay situation is not new, as Blake said, "this has been happening in the industry for quite a few years. For that reason, the record business has got very hard for people trying to get a record out there - Thank God for the Internet".

There is also the generation gap factor.

"Most of the radio stations are now run by very young people who have certain views and like certain artistes and programme," Blake said.

In his collection Blake has over 20 cover versions of Many Rivers To Cross and more than 30 of No Woman No Cry, and 15 to 20 artistes who have done projects on only Bob Marley records. Blake pointed out that whether one likes Marley's music or not, "You can hear everything he says and it is done to a nice melodic structure."