A visit to Panyard Inc., one of the Kenmore neighborhood's burgeoning music businesses, is as much a lesson in the history of steel pan drums as a look inside the Akron company.
Owner Ron Kerns is a musician and — when it comes to steel pans — a historian eager to share his excitement about the birth and evolution of the instrument with the hope of keeping the Caribbean art form alive.
"I fell in love the minute I saw my first pan," Kerns said. "I was auditioning for Ohio colleges. When I came to the University of Akron, (Larry) Snider said, 'If I accept you and you come here, you will play a steel drum.' I said, 'What the hell is that?' He showed me and I never turned back."
Kerns opened Panyard in 1990 with former business partner Shelly Irvine after the two percussionists graduated from the University of Akron. The original mission was to document and publish Caribbean steel pan melodies. Today, Kerns makes and sells between 8,000 to 10,000 pans a year from his California Avenue factory.
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JJJ, I'm not a betting man but the way things looking to me is these guys making a nice living for themselves wid "we" ting, it's all here in black and white. I'm not hating on them, I expect to see many more like them outside T&T.
Don't worry your head about that CH, the ambiance are being curtailed via enforcement of 17 USCA sec ..501 thru 509 of the U.S.Copyright Act and T&T International Design Patent, Trademark, Copyright and Moral Rights Act, (Chapter ) 28:80) they will just have to deal with the collateral consequences, of the infringements,example, FOR HOW LONG DO YOU HAVE COPYRIGHT AND MORAL RIGHTS IN YOUR WORK? (a) Generally, during the lifetime of the author and for fifty 50 years after his/her death, (b) FOR COLLECTIVE WORK, 1. Seventy five (75) years from the date on which the work was first published. 2. One hundred (100) years from the making of the work, so you see we at S.N.S.E knew what we were doing from the jump, in 1963 when we first Internationally Designed Patent the Technology, where Copyright is automatic upon registration, and when I, Copyrighted it thru the Library of Congress Washington D.C., therefore the Circle of 4ths & 5ths TECHNOLOGY would be protected for the next 200 years, where there is an extension clause as well, therefore We/the DUMMY'S at S.N.S.E knew what we were doing, didn't we???...
Meanwhile, BACK AT THE RANCH IN AMERICA, White People have fallen in LOVE WITH THE INSTRUMENT and are EXPLOITING it with an A to Z PLAN similar to the one my best friend AQUIL outlined in his MANIFESTO for RUNNING PAN TRINBAGO.
But in reality -- RACE GONE!!! And guess who MISS THE BOAT!!!
They better hurry up and make some GOOD PAN MUSIC that could go GOBAL or else dem WHITE PAN PLAYERS go control that ship too.
AH BEGGING THE BIG 5 to organize the MUSIC fast. Ah hope they have a MORE GLOBAL repertoire FOR THE SOUTH SHOW -- and solve all the PRODUCTION ISSUES.
It's sad to say but I believe T&T miss the boat with manufacturing the instrument [mass production that is] and I bet Panyard instruments are standard.
Don't go there with dat CH U would loose that BET...
Check my math.
Average sales 9000 instruments Average Price US$400. Total sales US$3,600,000
Estimated profit 33.3 % = US$1,198,200 or TT$7,792,200. How does this compare with our local manufacturers.
That is for only one of the many foreign manufacturers. WE gave the world the music. WE didn't have to give away the industry that our genius spawned. It's late, but not too late for us to come up with plans and funding to win back some of this business.
BTW If my math is incorrect please feel free to correct.
But first we need to professionally research the world market.
do you think this will have worked here