Hotcha's Calypso Now Label

I’ve already mentioned my Discogs experience, I believe. Matter of fact, I’ve only recently discovered this platform for all kinds of music aficionados, and I seized that opportunity to dive deep into my huge archives of the 80’s cassette scene. It will probably take me another year to unpack the boxes full of tapes, cover masters, letters etc. At the same time I’m adding releases to the Discogs database, in order to keep this heritage alive. It’s only recently that I’ve discovered that other activists from this pre-Internet-period of networking made the transition to the web, too many to mention now, please have a good look at my blogroll here to the right, especially at the ‘Friends of Calypso Now’. More about them later.

To add releases to a worldwide database is one thing, but I’ve also rediscovered quite a few tapes I had on the shelves for sale when I closed shop at the end of the 80’s. I just stuffed them in boxes and forgot about them. Now, Discogs is also a sales platform, and I started to sell those tapes; I was amazed how big the interest for certain releases is. I plan to sell more and more of the tapes, also from my private archives, because I did get a lot of promos for my radio shows back then (you can download some of those here on the blog).

So now I come to the point: What to do with the money? It’s not that I can’t use money, but on the other hand that’s not the reason why I’m selling – the reason is that I want to give away things I don’t use any more to someone who actually does appreciate it. So why don’t I just give it for free? Because I found a way to serve several sides, by supporting my Kiva Pop Stars.

So I’ve decided to let all the profits from my sales go into Kiva loans. There are thousands of small entrepreneurs out there like Shukrullo Yusupov from Tajikistan. Just see for yourself. And find out why they are pop stars.