These labels foster the music that fuels the playlists of Melbourne’s prized community radio stations, RRR and PBS and CR. Sadly, one of the biggest creditors is Inpress, whose banner we used to share at Rhythms – Shock was our mainstay, too, and it will be missed.
As books seem to be trailing music in the small presses that are only just now proliferating – and it was almost a decade ago now that many of our most respected musos went indie – I wonder how long it’ll be before a largish publisher bites the dust? While the biggies print ever-larger print runs to remain buoyant, the digital age is making it more and more viable to self-publish. With digital downloads to blame for the woes of Shock and fellow sufferer Stomp, it’s only logical that the rise and rise of e-publishing is bound to asphyxiate profit margins for book publishers. Yet more and more bookshops appear on the streets – interesting times ahead.
