COMPANY PROFILE WORLD RHYTHM
percussion. Not only does percussion sell to existing musicians but it also has a growing market among ordinary members of the public. Increasingly, percussion is showing it has the power to draw people in to start playing by proving that you don’t need to be a musical genius, it’s inexpensive and can be a lot of fun. Many distributors specialise in this field and among them is one of the most go- ahead small distributors in the MI sector – World Rhythm Percussion. This is a company that prides itself on the ethical sourcing of its products and while that does mean sourcing materials from sustainable resources, it goes a great deal further, involving WRP directly in the communities which make the instruments. Which brings us to World Rhythm
Percussion’s latest addition – a line of cajons not drawn from ‘the usual sources’ but actually made in Spain, where the instrument has a long association with Flamenco, much as it has right across the world, where it has found its way into ethnic music styles on several continents. In case you’re thinking ‘another cajon –
so what?’ WRP’s Chris Bromwich explains there is a difference. “The ethical sourcing is very important. All the wood used
36 miPRO OCTOBER 2010
Cajon spice O
ne of the few bright stars in the MI industry in recent years has been the growing interest in
comes from FSC sources and then there is the constructional quality. If you put them next to other visually similar cajons, you can see that these are built to a very high specification. The company that is building them have over 20 years collective experience building cajons so a lot of forethought, experience and attention to detail has gone into them. Every one is hand-built from start to finish.”
What we’ve seen with the djembe in the UK over the past five years is going to be superseded by the cajon.
“ Chris Bromwich
World Rhythm Percussion Despite being high quality and made in
Europe, the new cajons are not expensive, Bromwich says. “They’re certainly well priced compared to others. There are cheaper products, but they are much more inferior. There are also products on the market that are a lot more expensive and are no better. There are three ranges priced from £120 to £230.”
Fortunately, a growing number of
retailers have begun to realise this and have started to expand into this area. Understandably, World Rhythm Percussion is keen to encourage them, Bromwich says. “At a time when there aren’t many growth areas in music, percussion is one and now could well be the time to invest in it.”
Percussion is one of the very few MI sectors that is really hotting up at the moment and a lot of dealers are taking advantage of the surprisingly small number of brands there are out there. One of these, World Rhythm Percussion, has adopted a fresh, new approach with the business and wastes no time beating out the message to Gary Cooper…
It can’t be stressed enough how fast
percussion is growing in the UK. For many years it was the poor relation of the MI family and though having undergone this tremendous surge in popularity, it is still often overlooked by stores. This means if a member of the public is enjoying playing percussion at home and is buying products from a teacher or website, they might not even think to visit their local music shop.
Bromwich points to an interesting potential market, too. “Most people who are interested in making, playing or producing music are interested in new sounds and my experience of selling these products to retailers and players is that while there’s a lot of synthetic software that has a variety of sounds, you never really get the true essence of the instrument. What I find is that a lot of general musicians are interested in purchasing percussion items. A lot of the products we sell on the hand-held side come in at under £20. People may not have been thinking of buying a percussion product but they see a shaker, pick it up, it’s earthy, organic, the sound is really interesting and it’s only £7, £12 or £15. So it’s inexpensive, appeals to most musicians and is fairly recession-proof. Everyone has got £15 to spend, even today.” And the new WRP cajons? “My
impression is that what we’ve seen with the djembe in the UK over the past five years is gong to be superseded by the cajon. Its already big in Spain, Germany, Europe and the USA. Effectively, it’s a portable drum kit without the cymbal and most musicians are very excited when they see it. We think this is going to become a very big market and now is a good time for retailers to get involved.” WORLD RHYTHM: 01242 282191
WW.MI-PRO.CO.UK
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