Kaleidoscope - Record Industry

Simply as far as I'm concerned, not enough. It would be a very small percent — it would rate at around, one, perhaps two percent. 

– EMI Retail Manager Graham Wong on the amount of Kiwi-made records selling in the early 1980s

Yes, I think that they're looking to exploit the talent and the abilities from people from this part of the world. They're desperately in need of it — in fact they've possibly gone a little bit overboard on it, and there is the danger that the talent here may not be polished enough to be ready for that exploitation...

– Victor Stent from Festival Records on the American music market looking for new talent from Australia and New Zealand

Finacially, I mean a company like us has got very, very little income. There's no light at the end of the tunnel in terms of overseas releases and things — to keep ends together we've got to be able to sell records internationally I think...

– Simon Grigg from independent Propeller Records feels the pinch

They're not on anyone's side really. They don't play any local material at all, bar a few exceptions, which is a real shame because it just enables so many more groups to be heard...

– Jordan Luck from Dance Exponents on the radio industry's attitude to Kiwi acts in the early 1980s

You don't send Howard Morrison overseas to sell our lamb, you know...

– Victor Stent is sceptical about Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council funding a music recording commission

There's no doubt about it — the recording industry is at a crossroads and no one knows which way it will go. It could be that this is the thing of the future for the industry, this indestructible 70-minute laser disc. Maybe it is the biggest invention since Edison, as the manufacturers claim...

– Reporter Heath Lees on the promise of the compact disc player

The cost of The Screaming Meemees and Blam Blam Blam LPs hadn’t been cleared by sales and despite the community rallying with benefit shows in August 1983, Propeller’s days were numbered. Having bought out partner Paul Rose and selling a small share to Marcus Wells (to administer the label), Simon Grigg joined the post-punk diaspora to Australia and England, and the label quickly faded from view. Promised live and studio discs from The Newmatics and a live Meemees EP didn’t appear and other projects were picked up elsewhere.

– Excerpt from history of Propeller Records regarding hard times in the early 1980s, AudioCulture website, 23 October 2013