Esperanto Language Blog

Ĉi tiu intervjuo aperos en sia originala Esperanto en la revuo Kontakto (majo 2011), do abonu tuj, por certiĝi, ke vi ricevos ĝin ĝustatempe.

Vinilkosmo mp3 logo

In the first part of our interview with Vinilkosmo’s Floréal Martorell, he explains why there are three separate sites to buy their music. Now learn why our favorite Esperanto music company doesn’t appear in that behemoth online store, iTunes.

Why isn’t your music on iTunes?

I first researched already existing download stores like iTunes and others, but the problem became evidently difficult, because it’s not possible to enter such download services with a complete catalog without going through an aggregator. So, we definitely tried to find an aggregator and made requests. I tried many, but only one replied: Idol. They asked for statistics of our CD sales and our catalog. Then, they answered that our catalog didn’t interest them, because it was too niche. It didn’t interest enough people, and we practically didn’t even have one well-known artist, etc.

Because of that refusal… according to your advice, we contacted Bernard Stollman of ESP-Disk’. He made a request to a pretty famous aggregator in the USA and worldwide, but time passed and they never answered. I understood that our Esperanto music catalog is indeed too niche to interest the mainstream market. Our label and our catalog are closer to independent labels than that of the corporate music industry. Our sales are too small for them to feel it was worth spending time and money to work with us.

Then, I researched how to make my own download system independently of Mark’s CD service. I found a company which taught me how to make websites powered by osCommerce. I started the work, first making an Esperanto interface and then uploaded all our music materials to our server. Seven months later, I was able to launch the website. That was a monumental task, because I had to learn a lot and and even then I still find it complicated. I often had to ask for assistance to solve problems or make improvements.

I’m content though, since the download system supports 4 languages. You can download in different formats: mp3 and ogg for sold out CDs and the high-quality FLAC and also videos. You can even preview the albums on our site! We put all our published albums there, except for our compilations, but it’s all long and difficult work for me. At least I can keep administrating everything myself as my time and energy allows. It’s all legal and respects artist rights and we pay for that to the author rights society, so that artists receive their royalties.

However, since the launch of the download system, sales have been low and not many people come to download. We have many visits, but few result in sales. It seems to me that people are looking for free downloads and are not ready to pay, even a few clearly told me that! Starting in June 2010, the costs for the download service became higher than its income. We covered November, but December was a catastrophe, but also for the CDs. So, finally we can confirm that downloading cannot compensate for the fall of CD sales. This could also never cover the production costs for new albums, even if we produced them on CD, at least in its current state. That really discouraged me, even though I worked really hard to read such unsatisfactory results.

Then as fate would have it, I discovered the Federation of Independent Publishers in France (cd1d). I was in many meetings and there I met other publishers facing the same situation and similar problems. Those publishers united to meet the crisis and find solutions and resources, making tools available to all the members of their federation. Vinilkosmo joined and the federation gave us space in their download system. There we put a selection of our latest albums and some older ones. Since we’ve joined, we’ve also added some new releases. Their download system complemented ours, because there we can also advertise our FLAC versions, even though mp3 is also available.

The interface is in French and English, but there is also a Esperanto presentation under the presentations of artists and albums in French and English. In fact, I was able to reuse the same material which I published on our own website and that saved a lot of work. I think it’s a very good alternative for Vinilkosmo. It also secures our future. In case there is ever a problem with Vinilkosmo’s websites, I can always put all the CDs and downloads on cd1d. That’s what other indie publishers are doing which don’t have a download service like us. In principle, I direct people to download FLAC at cd1d, but mp3 and ogg at our own. Here is our space at cd1d. You can also read more about cd1d in English.

In the next part of this series, you’ll read about the new, innovative Vinilkosmo radio and how it came to be.

Ĉi tiu intervjuo aperos en sia originala Esperanto en la revuo Kontakto (majo 2011), do abonu tuj, por certiĝi, ke vi ricevos ĝin ĝustatempe.

Since July 2009, the Esperanto music label, Vinilkosmo has offered a service to buy and download music, but sales have not been as good as originally hoped. A lot of effort has gone into the system, but it can be a bit confusing to buy music, since you buy CDs at vinilkosmo.com, mp3 and ogg files at vinilkosmo-mp3.com and lossless FLAC files at cd1d.com. A bit complicated to say the least. Floréal Martorell will explain how these complications came to be and help you understand how things evolved the way they did. Learn how to navigate this cybermaze to enjoy Vinilkosmo’s music the way you want it.

Why aren’t there links from vinilkosmo.com to vinilkosmo-mp3.com?

I’ve been working with Mark Eaton since 1994. He created the graphics for the CDs and Rok-gazet’. Later, he put the collection online at www.vinilkosmo.com. He continues to administate it and it seems to me that only he can do that, because the system is complicated and needs to be renovated. Unfortunately, there’s neither time nor money for that now.

In the meantime, technology evolved and people asked for the possibility to download music from our website, and at the same time the CD crisis began along with the fall of CD sales. I asked Mark to add a download service to the website. He immediately opposed the idea and refused. For him, creating a download area for Vinilkosmo would be speeding up the death of the CD, effectively drowning the publishing company and collapsing production. He absolutely refused to participate in that and announced that he would not make downloading easier. That’s why there are no links between Vinilkosmo.com and the two download sites.

Even though Mark was right, we couldn’t go against the rapid flow of evolving Internet technology and customer requests becoming more and more insistent from people to make our music downloadable. I then needed to research possibilities alone and find a way, because I couldn’t wait without doing anything since I saw the fall of CD sales. I needed to find a solution to at least try if digital download sales would compensate for CD sales falling… and also to continue production for new artists and albums… and try to keep the balance that way.

In our next part, Flo will answer why you can’t buy Vinilkosmo’s music on iTunes!

Today I have Dave Rutan with me, one of the Esperanto translators and voice actors of the movie Attack of the Moon Zombies!

How did you first discover this project?

Christopher Mihm, the writer/director contacted me along with probably every American Esperantist he could find on the internet through email. He requested a translation into Esperanto of a slogan for the mission patch which appears on the characters’ uniforms. Apparently Esperanto was suggested to him by one of his associate producers.

Why is this particular film being translated and dubbed into Esperanto? Was it an initiative of the director or from the Esperanto community?

In his original email, Mr. Mihm asked if it would be possible to translate the entire script dialog into Esperanto to be added to the film as subtitle text. He wanted to add something unique to this film since it portrayed a future in the 1970′s from a 1950′s perspective.

How was your experience translating such a long work? Would you recommend it to others if they are offered a similar project?

It wasn’t bad at all. Mar Cardenas commanded the translation team and parceled out the dialog 50 lines at a time. As we finished we were given another 50 lines. I enjoyed translating this movie, although it’s loaded with English idioms which I find difficult to render into Esperanto. You have to boil down what the phrase really means and then try to express it cleverly. I’m glad I wasn’t alone on the project. Given something similar, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone qualified. Translating something like this into Esperanto can help sharpen your skills in the language.

Who are some of the other voice actors in the film? Are they well-known Esperanto speakers or were non-Esperanto speakers chosen to do the voices?

Not sure I can accurately answer that question. I’m hardly at the core of activity of American Esperantists. In any case, George Baker organized the voice actors. Two of the major roles are being voiced by what might be called major players, since they previously acted in the video course Pasporto al la Tuta Mondo. Miko Sloper is voicing Dr. Collins and Jennifer Bondelid is voicing Dr. Hackett. My small part is Robert Ripley.

At least four of the other names I recognize from hanging around Esperanto sites on the web. They’re all Esperanto speakers. One of the reasons we got drafted is that Mr. Mihm fully understood it would take too much time to bring his actors up to speed on pronouncing the language correctly.

Any idea when the Esperanto version of the film will be released?

The Esperanto track will be a part of the initial release on the DVD. The film is debuting before Memorial Day (May 30, 2011). The DVD will likely be available soon after or perhaps at the same time.

Thank you very much for everything and I think we can all look forward to watching zombies speak Esperanto!

Update: If you enjoyed this interview, also be sure to check out my interview with the director!