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"The rappers don’t reflect the taste of the majority of Burmese music fans. They are just socially privileged kids chasing the trends," says a Burmese youth who fled the country last month. In fact, just getting through the door to experience the new scene is a privilege reserved for the affluent. At 3,000 kyat per head, the price of admission to a concert can consume half the monthly wages of a government worker or public school teacher. And although some Rap and Hip-Hop music is available in Rangoon’s music stores, access to MTV, Channel [V], and other foreign music outlets in Burma is limited. Thus, many artists depend upon overseas contacts to bring them the latest rap cassettes and CDs from the West. And unlike many songwriters and singers in Burma, the financial stability of most rappers frees them from the burden of having to work additional jobs to make ends meet. Yet others disregard the economic divide between the majority of Burmese and the Rap scene, but simply dislike the music because it is electronically produced. "It’s not real music because they use computers," says the music teacher in Rangoon. The use of computers instead of live musical instruments, however, may have less to do with aesthetic values and more to do with the tight economics of the industry. Computers capable of producing sophisticated music are expensive, particularly by Burmese standards, but the cost of hiring live musicians for recording sessions and performances is steep, making the purchase of an expensive computer a wise strategy to reduce overhead expenditures. A respected author in Rangoon says she prefers original compositions to copy songs and computer music, but is sympathetic to the problems faced by today’s artists. "Musical instruments are rare and expensive but with limited time and resources, what other options do they have?" A Funky Situation Financial limitations contribute to the continuing popularity of compilation albums that feature individual songs by various artists. Most do not have the money to produce an entire album, so these collaborations are commonplace. Those that do have enough cash oftentimes produce their first album for free, with hopes that the producer will take them on for future recordings. One young Hip-Hop act fronted US $45,000—relatively cheap by local industry standards—to hire a band and to produce, distribute, and promote their first album. It proved to be a smash hit, selling nearly 60,000 copies in only a few months, but the band bitterly complains that they only received $400 while their producer pocketed more than 10 times that amount. "Producers are the money men in the industry", says a Hip-Hopper who adds that most musicians are reluctant to speak out against the inequities of the industry. "Only a selected few can earn a sufficient living from their music earnings." As a result from these kinds of experiences, the band’s leader says he will try to upgrade the computer in his studio so that he can go completely solo, sidestepping the producers altogether. It Takes a Nation of Millions Discordance in the music industry between the creative talent and the business talent is a common tune worldwide. In Burma, however, where runaway inflation and strict social control prevail, the problems that musicians face are particularly acute. With a population of 50 million people, Burma’s market for potential music consumers is relatively small, and market problems are compounded by ethnic divides and geographical limitations. To cover the costs of production, distribution and promotion, artists must sell about 30,000 cassettes just to break even—a lofty ambition in a country where an album that sells 20,000 copies is considered a success. But the music industry is not immune to inflationary pressures and music fans are feeling the pinch: Cassettes that sold for 350 to 400 kyat earlier this year, now sell for 600 kyat while CDs have also nearly doubled in price fetching up to 1,800 kyat today. Music pirates also cut deeply into the legal market. Zaw Paing, one of Burma’s best selling artists of all-time, sold over 300,000 copies of his hit album, Myo Ah Win Nya—a phenomenon that happens only once every five or six years. He also sold nearly 10,000 karaoke VCDs. But much to Zaw Paing’s chagrin, buyers purchased nearly five times as many bootlegged copies of the album. Pirates are rife along the border and their products are particularly coveted in Mandalay and upper Burma where incomes are much lower than in Rangoon. While artists acknowledge that no single group has monopolized production of pirated music, most quietly fingered the Wa, who have diversified their opium-dependent income to producing methamphetamines and bootlegged video and music CDs for sale in Burma and abroad. "We face big problems but we can’t do anything about it," complains one songwriter.