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“A company like Modular Moods, burning on a low flame because the Jewish organizational universe is unprepared to interact with for-profits”
Shemspeed has applied for many grants over the years and has often obscured the fact that its a for profit. Erez’s inability to close a deal is not JDub’s fault. It may not be entirely his own fault either, but it does not rest solely on structure or competitors. What is Shempseed’s mission? did it align with the funding he sought? who does shemspeed serve and how? what is its business plan? why is YLove its sole focus? and why exactly would an org serving Pico-Robertson – the most Jewishly engaged neighborhood in LA need Jewish philanthropic support anyway?
there could be any number of reasons funders found Shemspeed unappealing or simply out of line with their particular philanthropic goals, regardless of the organization’s structure.
I get your point, for profits should be eligible for funding from rich Jews. they are. its called start up capital. angel investors. Joshua Venture Group was open to for profits in the last round. Did Erez even apply? and if he did, what feedback did he get on why he was rejected?
Also BOYS, can you define Sustainability for us? does it mean lasting forever? or surviving solely on revenues? the word is being thrown around a lot here
With all due respect to Ariel and Aharon, the arts have always required patronage, the brief success of the recording industry notwithstanding. Motzart didn’t sell records, he got underwritten by megaphilanthropists. Likewise, Jewish causes have always required philanthropic support. Can you name a single JCC, synagogue, newspaper or other Jewish institution that is sustained by membership dues or subscription fees alone? There is no such animal. There never has been.
The idea that any Jewish cause, and in particular, any Jewish arts venture, will ever be financially self-sufficient is a fallacy that has been perpetuated by those who seek to impose corporatist and capitalist thinking onto the philanthropic world. The market is a fickle beast that does not always make decisions in its own best interests. If self-sufficient business models become a prerequisite for funding Jewish causes, kiss contemporary Jewish life goodbye, let alone Jewish social services for the needy.
Also, last time I spoke to Erez, he was crying that he loses money on everything he does. So, so much for the for-profit alternative! The issue is not self-sufficiency. It’s substance. There’s no real market for Jewish content because Judaism is lame and/or boring and/or provincial and/or obnoxious and/or offensive. You can dress a turd up in the hippest, slickest packaging imaginable, but at the end of the day if it’s still a turd, no one’s buying. You can’t fault JDub or anyone else’s business model for that. The Jewish brand is circling the toilet bowl, and there is no scoop net in sight.
@Max
I’m not sure why you are commenting on an article without knowing anything about the company you are commenting on. This article is from 2007 (it says that at the top of the article). Shemspeed runs a non-profit side where they produce programming such as the Sephardic Music Festival (in its 7th year). I believe that festival has been covered by everyone from the Wall Street Journal and Time Out to the Times and NY1. They also run projects like the Jewish Diversity Project and the Hip Hop Sulha. This article was written while the writer had caught Y-Love at a show in LA. Shemspeed has over a dozen artists and work with the Marleys, Matisyahu, Idan Raichel and many more, not sure where you got the impression that Y-Love was their only artist and that they serve Pico-Robertson when the company is actually from NY. They have their mission, background info and full staff and board info on their website. Maybe next time do at least 5 minutes of research before commenting, so that you could know at least one thing about the company.
http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/investing-in-value/comment-page-1/#comment-103765
Natan is a proud supporter of PresenTense, and we’ve learned a lot from Aharon and Ariel, their team, and their fellows over the years. As always with PT, with this piece they’re drawing – or long ago drew – our attention to important trends outside of the Jewish philanthropic sector that should inform and improve our work within it.
But I would caution against taking this piece out of context and using it to “prove” something about JDub’s closure, as some readers seem to be doing. As anyone involved with running any organization knows (Aharon and Ariel more than anyone!), an organization’s success or failure rides on a complex, always-shifting set of circumstances. It’s reductive to assume that JDub closed because of something as simple as the prioritization of “value over image.” Would that it were so simple to figure this out!
For that matter, in reference to some of the other pieces about other Jewish music-related organizations on eJewishPhilanthropy (and related to Max’s comments above), I’d also suggest that anyone who has not been part of funding conversations really should refrain from presuming to understand the rationale behind those decisions. The decision to support or not to support any initiative is also extraordinarily complex, and it’s reductive (and offensive!) to imply that it just boils down to a popularity contest and/or to willful ignorance on the part of funders about the landscape of organizations.
I’m guessing that most of the people reading these many pieces about JDub want to understand what happened with JDub in order to learn and strengthen their own work (though it’s disheartening to see how many people – especially in the comments sections – are using this as an opportunity to gloat, attack, and make wild assertions about JDub and its supporters).
But the real analysis of JDub’s closure – one based on data and research, rather than opinion – will be a while in the making. We’re all eager to read it – but we should expect and be glad for the delay, which will enable real reflection and contextualization by whomever writes it. Pieces like this one can and should inform that analysis, but shouldn’t preempt it.
Felicia Herman
Executive Director
The Natan Fund
I challenge you all to check out JDub and Shemspeed’s audio players to find out how different these two orgs were–just by simply listening for 2 minutes you’d be able to tell that they had a completely different set of values, mission, target audience and set of goals in mind.
JDub’s roster clearly includes more niche talent–that in meaning probably no one else outside of being already engaged very jewishly would ever think to buy a record or go to a show (don’t get me wrong–I love Girls in Trouble and Soulico).
Shemspeed’s roster is much more universal–that in meaning they make mainstream music. Sure, they have side projects–SMF Vol.1, Levi Mordechai, Darkcho etc. but pretty much they have taken the route Matisyahu has taken. That is making “great music first” and “infusing judiasm second” (Maybe thats because Matis is on their advisary board?). And has he not done more for Jewish Identity Building than anything (including Birthright) in the last 25 years?
The fact is, Shemspeed makes music that people are already listening to in their Ipod’s–Urban/Mainstream music–Hip Hop,Pop, RnB, Dancehall–and takes these genres and infuses Jewish messages into them. JDub didn’t even have one American Hip Hop, RnB, Dancehall artist–or to put it bluntly–anyone who was making music that the majority of young people listen to daily.
If you follow my argument, then you can see why I think their target audiences were completely different, just based on their music. JDub focused on an older demographic, 29-40 year olds who were already engaged in their communities and wanted a further outlet musically. Shemspeed focuses more on 13-26 year olds who simply like mainstream/urban music–and even more than that, probably have never heard those genres performed within a Jewish context.
I feel bad for JDub, I truly do–but there had to be something the Jewish Community could have done for both. It’s clear J-Dub being the ONLY clearing house for Jewish music never made much sense, especially after 2 mins of analysis shows neither of these orgs try to affect people in the same way or target the same people. The reality was Shemspeed had been gaining in notoriety and popularity for years, and downsizing JDub and scaling up Shemspeed probably would have cleared all of this mess.
JDub vs. Modular in Amazon sales rank
JDUB Matisyahu “Live at Stubbs” #5,636
JDUB Balkan Beat Box Self-titled #18,337
JDUB Balkan Beat Box “Blue Eyed Black Boy” #23,867
JDUB Balkan Beat Box “Nu Med” #61,205
JDUB Balkan Beat Box “Nu Made” #75,419
JDUB Golem “Homesick Songs” #99,837
JDUB Golem “Citizen Boris” #103,656
JDUB Soulico “Exotic on the Speaker” #131,301
JDUB Deleon “Casata” #156,945
MODU Y-Love & Describe “Change” #170,333
JDUB Sway Machinery “House of Friendly Ghosts” #172,335
JDUB Girls in Trouble Self-titled #173,153
JDUB Socalled “Socalled Seder” #180,189
JDUB Michael Showalter “Sandwiches & Cats” #188,406
JDUB Socalled “Ghettoblaster” #213,353
JDUB Golem “Fresh Off Boat” #225,318
JDUB Sway Machinery “Hidden Memories Revealed” #226,665
JDUB The Macaroons “Let’s Go Coconuts” #228,777
JDUB Matisyahu “Shake Off the Dust” #283,969
MODU Y-Love “This is Babylon” #297,993 MODULAR
JDUB Girls in Trouble “Half You Half Me” #343,647
JDUB Deleon Self-titled #350,873
JDUB Tomer Yosef “Laughing Underground” #376,084
MODU Eprhyme “Dopestylevsky” #416,985
MODU Sway Machinery Self-titled #608,623
MODU Ephryme “Waywordwonderwill” #738,632
MODU Describe “Harmony” #941,434
MODU Darshan “Lishmah” #1,293,376
Also search The Pirate Bay to gauge popularity among illegal downloaders. You’ll find every JDub release and not a single Modular Moods release.
Also, go check JDub’s reviews on Pitchfork, Spin & Rolling Stone vs. Modular. First thing you’ll notice is that Modular doesn’t have any reviews on any of those sites. The second thing you’ll notice is that all of JDub’s artists are highly rated. Rolling Stone called Balkan Beat Box’s “Nu Med” one of the best under-the-radar records of the last decade. It was JDub that was focused on cross-over appeal to the broadest possible audience. Modular is the one focused on insularly Jewish music. Hence why they haven’t got a single artist who isn’t Orthodox. Go watch a DeScribe video and tell me that’s mainstream music. My ass.
@DS–I was blown away by your passion — this is exactly what the Jewish community needs in order to inspire the next generation. However, there were some glaring errors that I’d like to point out.
First, we all know JDub did some great work, one would hope so considering they were given upwards anywhere between $500k & 1 million dollars to be the ONLY source for Jewish Music. Clearly, what this and other articles regarding this subject are trying to spell out is that there were other options for their contributions, and when approached by an Org like Oleh and/or Shemspeed Records, they politely told them “you know that we fund JDub” & “I’ve never heard of you”– oftentimes marginalizing them before the discussion even took place.
What is clear, at least on the Shemspeed side is that not only were they producing different programs and have different artists, but they had a different mission — one that oftentimes coincided with the missions of these different Foundations perfectly — and they were continuously turned away.
Do their artists and programs attract media attention? Of course — The Sephardic Music Festival was covered in the NY Times, Wall St. Journal, TimeOut NY, Village Voice and all major Jewish publications. Their artists have been covered in the print editions of Spin, Rolling Stone, XXL etc. (online editions often cover content that doesn’t make it to the print ed.)
It’s clear that there wasn’t due diligence on behalf of the Jewish community ,and, allowing JDub to grow to such a state without seeking any alternatives was a mistake. In most areas of philanthropy and business, diversifying your risk is the “golden rule” and the fact that the Jewish Philanthropic World put all of their eggs in one JDub basket, will surely be looked at in the future as to some of the cause of its failure.
I’m still kind of in shock of the budget JDub = 1.1 Million and 9 Full Time employees? Shemspeed = something less than 100,000 budget and a mere 2 employees? Seriously? Seems to me that they produced the same amount of content.