Virgin: worlds and worlds of music

Latin Beat Magazine, August, 1997 by Rebecca Burken

The Latin music genre is expanding and gaining more interest now than ever before. With acts hitting the mainstream radio stations and familiar Salsa beats being played on numerous commercials and movie soundtracks, the American public is finally waking up to the attraction and importance of Latin rhythms. When at one time it may have been difficult to find a particular CD at a record store, now there is one chain that boasts specialized music departments and a variety like no other. The Virgin Megastores, created by Richard Branson as an offshoot of his over 100 other Virgin-labeled companies operating in 15 countries, first opened in 1988 in France and have since taken over Europe, the U.S., Canada, Asia, and soon South Africa. A company which prides itself on its youthful image and innovative retailing, is one that also focuses on quality and meeting consumers' needs. The goal of Virgin Megastores is to be the ultimate outlet for retail music. If you have ever visited one of the stores, you know that they are accomplishing that goal. The reason these megastores run so smoothly and provide such excellent service is mainly due to the layout and the immense range of quality products. The stores have distinct music sections with knowledgeable employees who specialize in each section. One specialist based out of Los Angeles, Nili Belkind, gave Latin Beat an inside look at what it takes to make this store the Mega-hit that it is.

Wili Belkind is the World, Reggae and Latin music product manager for Virgin in the United States and Canada. She sets up terms with all of the new World vendors, buys opening orders for all of the new stores and sets up the range. She also helps plan the budget and size of a music section; how many bins should be allotted to it, what the range would be and how the music should be displayed. With the World section being so vast and diverse, the layout is very important. Belkind has created a design in the stores which allows customers to find what they are looking for quickly and easily. To further assist both the Virgin employees and the customers, there are two directories outlining all of the artists within the World section. There is the A-Z directory by which one may look up the name of an artist and find out exactly where they are located. Then there is the directory which is organized by regions with all of the artists and types of music which fit under that particular country. These directories are updated weekly with any new additions, and once monthly the entire directories are reprinted. The layout and the directories are unique to Virgin Megastores in their everevolving efforts to make their stores appealing to everyone.

What constitutes World music then? From the retailers' point of view, World music is anything which is not recorded in English, or that which is recorded in English but is not considered English rock. This interpretation of World music is therefore not very accurate considering that in America French music is considered World, when that same music in France is simply considered pop or rock. In reality, Italian music is World music, Portuguese music is World music, Filipino music is World music, Israeli music is World music, and on and on. So placing the specifics of the definition of World music aside, what is more important is what the Virgen stores provide in their World sections. As the main product manager for the World section, Belkind makes sure the music is representative of as many countries as possible with special emphasis on the communities in which the Virgin stores are located. You can expect to find everything from African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, European, Chinese, Filipino and even Greek and of course various genres of Latin music in the World music section. Virgin goes out of its way, being the international company that it is, to work with specialized distributors and small vendors to make their products available in the U.S. Belkind has added music-such as Indian and Armenian-that is not available from domestic distributors. To make this possible, some vendors have had to translate their CD titles into English and some uncomputerized Latin vendors fill out forms provided by Virgin that facilitate data entry.

Just as Reggae has a distinct identity, Latin music has grown and evolved into its own section in the music stores. As Nili explained, "The Latin market is very important to Virgin. From what I see with the sales histories and everything else, Latin music is about fifty percent of my job." The Latin section, which is within the World music layout, is arranged in the stores alphabetically by country and then by specific genres that are not specific to a country in Latin America, such as Salsa, Pop, Nataio and so on.

With such diversity in World music, the buyer's role is very important. Buyers need to know what kind of music the people in a community listen to and what they want to buy. Although the Virgin Megastores are strategically located within tourist-friendly areas, Virgin still focuses on the people that live and work in the community and identifies with the ethnic and cultural diversity in each city. The product manager works hand in hand with the import companies by informing them on what is available abroad that should be brought into the United States. These music specialists don't necessarily major in music and anthropology as Nili Belkind did, but she tells us that there are two ways one gains the knowledge and experience: "You have to be a music fanatic and you have to learn on the job by working with a buyer who is already knowledgeable and knows the system and understands the music business." She added, "It's difficult. The more specialized the music area, the more challenging it becomes; especially with World music since there are so many specialties within it. It helps if you can get around language barriers easily. It also helps if you have traveled and have had a chance to experience people and their cultures and therefore have developed an interest in their music."