France: Abeille Musique (an independent)
Naxos does not have its own distribution company in France and has relied on a series of local distributors. It is true to say that France has consistently proven one of the most challenging countries in Europe for the label, ever since its dramatic start.
Hypermarket chains in France sparked the very beginning of Naxos in 1987, with the opening spectacular order from a Hong Kong purchasing company, Fargo, of up to 5,000 units per title of the initial thirty-CD catalogue. They sold by the box-load. It was a dream start for Heymann. But the long-term future of Naxos in France was more of a nightmare. Yves Riesel, founder of Abeille Musique, a leading independent distributor which now represents Naxos in France, remembers that the concept of a budget classical label with serious ambitions was a contradiction in terms for French classical record buyers. He was a classical collector at the time, and knew and admired Marco Polo for its adventurous repertoire. In 1989 he began to work with Media 7, a distributor of pop music that was keen to get into classical, and he started to bring foreign independent classical labels to Media 7, such as Testament and Chandos. Marco Polo was already on the distributor’s list, but he was more nervous about Naxos. ‘The cultural set in France love to be pretentious and they understood full-price labels. But Naxos is completely unpretentious and I knew it would be a real battle to wipe out the early reputation in France of Naxos as a cheap, worthless, budget label only fit for supermarket shelves. However, it is my pleasure to fight with people who are pretentious.’
In the autumn of 1990 Media 7 agreed to take on Naxos. Virgin had just launched its first French store in the Champs-Élysées and wanted to stock Naxos exclusively. Riesel felt that this would be too restrictive and he persuaded the company to take 3,000 units of fifty selected titles to be repackaged on a label that would be exclusive to it, Espoir Classique. The name was chosen because the Berlin Wall had recently fallen, along with the Iron Curtain, and there was a new hope in the air (and Naxos had many Eastern European orchestras!). After Riesel reached a complicated but very quick agreement with Hong Kong, Espoir Classique was born and had French liner notes. The Virgin promotion went very well and was extended to other French stores that opened shortly afterwards.
Riesel’s main task, however, was to establish the Naxos brand, and the task was difficult because of the label’s history in France. He felt unable to go straight into the classical departments of record shops, to say simply that he was representing the label and here was the catalogue, because most of them would immediately reject any proposition that involved ‘the supermarket label’. So he used a sleight of hand, offering a selected list of recordings that involved players who were already known and respected for a few recordings on Hungaroton or Sony (including the Kodály Quartet and the pianist Stefan Vladar). Riesel simply listed them on the new-release information without mentioning the record label. He used other similar devices to push recordings without revealing their provenance, and it worked. Dealers were interested in them and placed orders. When the CDs were delivered to their shops and they saw the Naxos name, they rang Riesel and claimed they had never ordered them. He told them they had: they could return the CDs, of course, but now that they had them, why didn’t they give them a chance? Most dealers did, the CDs sold, and Naxos began a new life.
With bold, deft campaigns of this kind, Naxos began to find a foothold in France. French repertoire also helped. Releases such as the CD of violin sonatas by Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc played by Dong-Suk Kang and Pascal Devoyon began to make Naxos more acceptable to French collectors and the general public. A giant stride was made when, to the surprise of everyone, the boxed set of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1–5, played by Kun Woo Paik with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antoni Wit, won a Diapason d’Or. That was in the spring of 1992, and in the winter of the same year it was named Diapason’s Record of the Year. From now on, Naxos could no longer be dismissed as purely a budget label that sold for under fifty francs. Heymann came to France to give interviews and promote the label, and Riesel’s efforts to make Naxos respectable were gaining ground.
Riesel started a special French Naxos label. It was called Naxos Patrimoine. He knew that on Marco Polo there were many attractive but rare recordings of French music, by composers such as André Caplet, Félicien David, Maurice Emmanuel, Benjamin Godard, Henri Sauguet and Charles Koechlin. ‘Marco Polo was a dream label for so many collectors,’ declared Riesel. ‘I don’t think Naxos would have been as strong as it became had it not been for Marco Polo, because music collectors with specialist knowledge and interests were in touch with Klaus in those early Marco Polo days and continued to suggest ideas to him for Naxos. Equally significant was the attitude of Klaus, who built the label with the enthusiasm of a real music lover – and not just pursuing opportunism as so many major labels were doing at the time.’ Riesel had the idea of putting these French Marco Polo composers on a label just for France, and at Naxos price. Approval for Naxos grew.
By the mid-1990s Naxos was selling highly respectable quantities in France: one year, Riesel says, it sold 750,000 units. More French artists came onto the label. The French pianist François-Joël Thiollier recorded the complete piano works of Debussy and Ravel. Hervé Niquet and his outstanding choral group Le Concert Spirituel began a series of Charpentier discs that were unimpeachable in their scholarly and musical execution: French early music was now established in the Naxos catalogue.
Riesel then suggested something even more outrageous. He had heard Idil Biret playing the Second Piano Sonata by Boulez in the ’70s and suggested to Heymann that they should ask her to record all three for Naxos. Heymann, always willing to take a risk and help a distributor, was slightly more cautious but ultimately agreed. They were recorded at Studio 106 in Radio France in January and February 1995. The disc went on to sell exceptionally well, and extended yet further the reputation in France (and elsewhere) of Naxos as a serious classical label. Riesel created and printed an amusing advertising campaign in all specialist classical magazines with the slogan: ‘If you think that you don’t like this music, now you will know why!’
It was a time of growth and excitement. In 1995 Riesel and Heymann set up a joint venture: Naxos and Marco Polo France. The purpose was for Riesel to concentrate on marketing and promotion for the two labels (with Media 7 he had other independent foreign labels in his portfolio as well) and for Media 7 to do the sales and distribution. Riesel also had a brief to develop more French recordings and other specifically French cultural products. The complete chamber music of Poulenc emerged from this period, as did the association between Naxos and the Orchestre National de Lille, which produced the widely praised recording of Debussy’s Pélleas et Mélisande conducted by Jean-Claude Casadesus.
In 1997 Naxos’s tenth anniversary was celebrated in France with a grand concert at Notre Dame de Paris; the ‘Organ’ Symphony by Saint-Saëns and the Organ Concerto by Poulenc were on the programme. The Archbishop stood up and praised Naxos for putting on such a concert and contributing to French culture. It was un moment incroyable for the label. The live recording that was made of the Organ Concerto is still available on Naxos.
However, Media 7 was moving in a different direction and Heymann felt a complete change was needed in France. Naxos and Marco Polo France was closed and the marketing and distribution was moved to Naïve, a French label that also had a distribution network. After a few years it was switched again, this time to Intégral Distribution.
Meanwhile, Riesel had founded his own distribution company, Abeille Musique, which was looking after an increasing number of foreign, independent, full-price labels. In 2006 he and Heymann signed a sales-and-distribution contract for Naxos and Marco Polo. In 2009 this was modified to enable the current strategy, whereby Abeille Musique is responsible for sales and promotion, and the shipments for France are sent directly from the Naxos Global Logistics warehouse near Munich.
The
retail presence for music recordings in France has contracted, as in most countries. It is dominated by one chain, Fnac, with a few independents that are under increasing pressure to survive. Mail order has become more important, it being for many the only way of getting specialist classical CDs; online, amazon.fr dominates the scene, though abeillemusique.com also provides the service. Revenue from downloads and streaming (from ClassicsOnline and the Naxos Music Library) is still relatively small. Riesel estimates that classical music sales in France divide into three equal parts between Fnac, Amazon and other retailers.
Eighteen
Naxos: The Future
The general view of classical recording is that it is a pretty steady sector of the entertainment industry. Out comes a new recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5; a dynamic young violinist, perhaps from China, plays Tchaikovsky; or an attractive blonde singer presents a volume of sparkling arias. Actually, this is only one small part of it. The truth is that the classical recording business, like the pop business, is fast-changing, driven partly by technology but just as much by the fashions, politics and economics of music. What is certain is that classical recording does not exist in the kind of protected bubble that it enjoyed for most of the second half of the twentieth century.
This is particularly true of a company such as Naxos, which for a quarter of a century has led the way in so many areas, and which prides itself on taking risks, being at the cutting edge, and trying to maintain the ability to change fast when the circumstances demand it. Naxos in 2012 is totally different from Naxos two decades ago: what began as a budget label focused on recording popular works has become a serious repertoire label offering the widest choice, the deepest catalogue, of any classical label in the world. It has had its crises of identity along the way, and Klaus Heymann has had many tough times in being assailed by differing opinions: ‘More new recordings of well-known music played by a saleable performer,’ insists a distributor; ‘What about this set of seventeenth-century Bohemian sinfonias I discovered in a library in Slovakia,’ cries a conductor. ‘We can do this massive symphony for Blu-ray Audio as well as ordinary CD,’ suggests a keen engineer; ‘We will never get our money back if we press this recording on CD: just release it digitally and limit our losses,’ says an accountant.
The pressures, the dilemmas and the complexities now facing a classical record company are greater than they have ever been, not least because so many musicians, of a very high standard, are prepared to fund their own recordings for labels to then release. The musicians view it as a promotional expense, but while labels are glad to have free masters they are also concerned that all these new titles are clogging up the market.
Where is Naxos – that is to say, Naxos the label and Naxos the distributor, Naxos online and Naxos the service provider – heading as the second decade of the twenty-first century unfolds? Heymann is often approached for his general view of classical music, whether it is by The New York Times or the Financial Times or Gramophone. His comments about where we are now, or predictions for the future, may be related to his own company, but at the same time he takes a world view. And people listen, because one of his great strengths is that he is forthright when he speaks. He says what he thinks, regardless of whether colleagues in Naxos feel he is being a bit indiscreet or giving away trade secrets; what’s more, he is never afraid to say that his view has changed or that he was wrong, or that circumstances now dictate a different approach.
Take the fundamental Naxos ethos of regarding repertoire as more important than artists, and not featuring artists on the covers in a bigger typeface than that of composers: this principle built the character of the label for the first fifteen years, but gradually it became clear that, on Naxos as on full-price labels, a few artists had strong selling power and it was sensible that they should appear prominently on the covers. Heymann now acknowledges that there will be more of these ‘artist-led’ recordings, with the company developing an increasing number of relationships with outstanding musicians who become identified with the Naxos label. However, he is keen to see them record a balance of standard and rare repertoire. He chooses artists who display a natural interest in this direction, who can bring to the label some interesting works as well as their own musical insights and personality.
Heymann wants Naxos to continue being an adventurous label. He likes looking through the box of new CDs that arrives on his desk every month and seeing the mixture of extremely rare works sitting cheek by jowl with a couple of lifestyle compilations (‘providing they are in good taste’ is his only caveat).
With its distribution network and digital platforms Naxos is much more than a record label, but ironically this came close to not happening at all. It is not widely known but some eight years ago, feeling momentarily burdened by the responsibility of running the distribution network as well as the label, Heymann offered the main Naxos distribution companies to their respective CEOs. He proposed to guarantee that the Naxos label would remain with them for a specified period so that they would not lose the jewel in the crown. Interestingly, not one CEO picked up the offer. In a way, it was understandable: the growth of the digital medium was evident, so where, they asked, was the future? So the distribution remained with Heymann and he set about developing the network into even more of a powerhouse than it already was, and giving it a clear role in a digital world.
The distribution companies are now stronger than ever and are continuing to grow, fuelled by ideas from Heymann. This is partly because so many other independent labels have come to them for distribution. The CD may be said to be dying (though it seems to be healthier than everyone, including Heymann, predicted); but additional factors have seen the disappearance of many other classical distributors, so that the Naxos network could become the last one standing. Heymann’s distributors have also been encouraged to reinvent themselves as service providers within the traditional classical music industry.
Heymann can see how online resources such as Wikipedia have brought information, education and entertainment together, with easy, instant access for the individual. He already has advanced plans for a comprehensive online encyclopedia of classical music and other online music appreciation programmes. Naxos is ideally placed to serve the subject in a remarkably comprehensive way. The distributors no longer focus only on promoting and selling CDs, but also on promoting and selling online services and resources that can enrich those who are interested in classical music. The future indicates a balance between physical and digital activities.
At the heart of all this are Naxos, Marco Polo and the other labels owned by the company. This is why, when the distinguished German classical label Capriccio ran into financial difficulties and needed financing, Heymann bought only the digital rights and not the CD rights. He noted that the Capriccio label filled many gaps that existed within the Naxos labels, such as music by C.P.E. Bach and Kurt Weill, and this was important for the streaming and downloading services such as the Naxos Music Library and ClassicsOnline.
He doesn’t over-emphasise the current financial role that these online services, into which he has invested huge amounts, play within the company. While they pay their way, they do not yet match the income from the original business of CD sales – though they are expected to in the future. ‘Naxos and other owned labels will continue to be the main revenue earners, if not through physical sales then through downloads, streaming and licensing,’ he affirms. ‘In my opinion, the industry will look like this within five years: 25 per cent physical products, 25 per cent downloads and 50 per cent streaming on demand, including all-you-can-eat subscriptions. Downloads may actually account for a slightly higher percentage if we are successful with our various new digital products, texts with music, and texts with spoken word and music. Educational and other applications may also have a substantial impact on the download-to-own business model.’
At the height of CD sales, in the late 1990s, the Naxos group sold some ten million albums a year. Some of those were quite l
arge boxed sets, which meant it was pressing more than twelve million CDs a year. Physical sales have declined, and although downloads and streaming have not yet caught up they are growing all the time. CD album sales seem to have settled at around three million, and many millions of tracks have been streamed or downloaded (the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of albums). There is no doubt that the business of selling classical CDs – those of Naxos and of its other labels – has declined along with the music CD business globally; but the worth of the company as a whole is still increasing, fuelled by the distribution network and other services.
It has been a long journey from the casual request of a Korean door-to-door sales company for thirty cheap, digital CD titles to the transformation of the international classical record industry. And the story continues. There is no sign that Klaus Heymann, at the age of seventy-five, is considering retirement: he still enjoys the cut and thrust of it all too much and is full of ideas that he wants to develop – that he believes will expand the audience of classical music.
In August 2010 Gramophone published an interview given by Klaus Heymann to Martin Cullingford in which he considered the future of the industry. It is fitting to conclude with that interview because, although in places it may have been coloured by time, it shows his bold attitude and clear views about the classical record industry on which he has had such an effect over the past twenty-five years. It is vintage Heymann.
Gramophone: Describe the challenges the rapid growth of online music has posed you.
Klaus Heymann: We have to be quite clear about the fact that there will be the CD – or a physical carrier – for many more years to come. The classical CD is not declining at the same rate as pop or rock. This year, if we look at various territories for the first four or five months, it’s actually pretty stable – some are down, some are up, but on average I think CDs this year will be the same as in 2009. We don’t have that rapid decline.
The Story of Naxos Page 42