It's going to be quite complicated, but that's worth it.

As we already explained here, the post prices in our country have outrageously increased in the last 3 years, making it the second most expensive Post service in Europe. In our business that's particulary terrible with one-CD orders (10€ in our shop): shipping to Europe in 2009 cost(ed) 5.40€ on top. To the rest of the world 6.30€. Did we already mention the Post makes more money than we do from our own business?

How can it be so much? Well, one jewel box CD is ~100 grams. With the enveloppe we're at 102 grams. So for one CD and an excess of 2 grams, we were forced to charge you for the 100-350 grams fare.There are aready workarounds: buying CDs by 2 or 3 to optimize stamps value (we have a calculator for that), or buying boxless CDs (one CD+artwork is only ~35 grams).

In order to maximize profit even more, the Post negociated with bookshops and supermarkets to let them do the stamping, while they would focus on their bank activities instead. Yes, we've been shipping your CDs from a bookstore since 2008 !
Problem is these retailers realized that was a lot of work for little money. And that little money was apparently still too much for the Post.

In France or Switzerland, there have been nice automats including a scale, a credit card reader and a change machine in every post office for years. However, to have them in our country, the Post needs to...invest!

So here's the masterplan: the Post decided to increase prices by 10% in 2010 (just like your salary, right)...unless you do the stamping yourself! You read it right, our stamps now have 2 values. If you buy them by ten or more, you pay them the 2009 price. Else, in a Post office or an outlet, or in small quantities, the 2010 price applies. To achieve that, our country's stamps no longer have a "facial value" written on them, but have a numeric "countervalue". For instance, shipping up to 350 grams in Europe requires 2 stamps with a little European flag and a number (3) on them.

Not to have our customers impacted by the increase we bought hundreds of stamps at the begining of the year when they finally got printed.

Now look, I said before the Post prices were especially bad when you purchased only one jewel box CD. Now we do the job ourselves, we are bound to use our own scale...that may have a small lack of precision. Something like +/- 2 grams...
Sure, there must be a weight control somewhere on the Post side, but not to have too much human intervention in the chain, there must be a margin of error. So thanks to the Post which though about everything, we're covered from the eventual lack of precision of our scale, which that was tested with a few promos.

So, starting today at Suntrip, shipping one jewel box CD to Europe is 2.70€ instead of 6€. To the rest of the World is 3.15€ instead of 6.90€. That's a decrease of 55% :) As for the other rates, we're already happy enough to keep them at the 2009 price.

Thanks for your attention.

While we were releasing 5 albums in 2009, many other artists didn't stop producing. Fortunately you could still enjoy their music thanks to other Goatrance labels.

But they also knew we were planing the killer compilation. There was no battle plan, no strategy, but it was silently coming...
...oh, enough with warfare vocabulary!!!

Lovely music, that's what our first release this year will be made of.
No, not the typical utopian ostentation. We mean real music, emotions, warming your heart, bringing sunshine into your room and colors to these difficult times!

SUNCD18 is a landmark we've been waiting for and I must say the artists selected so far have even overcome our expectations.
No, it's not completely ready and we're still hesitating between a couple of names, but that's a matter of days now.

Keep in touch, we'll announce more on this very blog very soon!!!

Something else: unless you lived under a rock, you must have heard the music industry has never been in such a difficult situation.

French readers may read a few articles just released in the past weeks:
Record labels, what's going to happen now?
The downfall of the music indsutry in the last 10 years.
What's the disc's future at the moment the 2010 Midem starts?
There's even a book about this:  "Long live the disc crysis!"

How about Suntrip? Well, we see great results with our first 100% digital release, which tends to confirm both the trend and your confidence in our artists' music. But we also know our audience are passionate people that value music and consider it as a piece of art, not just a stream of bytes. So we'll continue releasing CDs as long as possible.

See you soon :)

2009 was a hectic year with wonderful releases, and we had the best support and vibes ever.

Who could have believed, 10 years ago, as Goatrance was fading away, that it would be so much alive and strong now? Who could have believed Goatrance labels would receive countless good promos every month then? You, artists, fans, promoters, made all this possible.

From the bottom of our hearts the whole Suntrip family wishes you a happy, happy new year 2010 !!!

[who said a compilation is coming up? ah you heard it somewhere? well, it's true, and we'll tell you more soon...]

In spring 2007, we had announced an unofficial Filteria album in digital format only containing remixes and unreleased material. At the time we believed we would soon be distributed digitally, but that didn't happen. And we didn't have our online shop then. So this album never saw the daylight… Until now, right on time for Christmas!

These tracks are approximately from 2006 and are close to the Heliopolis/Sky Input era both in style and sound/production wise. Worth mentioning is that most of these remixes were made for the summer party season. Filteria has selected his favorite versions of the remixes.

Here's the tracklist of "Remixes & Unreleaseds"
1. Operation Mind Expansion
2. Latch
3. Poem
4. Speech Module (Filteria Remix)
5. Rotate To Vibrate (Ze Remix)
6. Unfiltred (Sun Remix)
7. Reflected (Blinded Remix)
8. Total Planetary Being (Filteria Remix)
9. K.O.B. – Multiple Disorder (Filteria Remix)
10. K.O.B. – Weight Of Oblivion (Filteria Ambient Remix)

In total, more than 90 minutes of madness :)
Check the samples and order here.

Hey please don't forget E-Mantra and Radical Distortion abums are our latest official CD releases, and they are definitely worth listening !!!

Thanks to all those who attended the Suntrip 5th birthday party. That was quite an experience!

Anoebis had worked hard so that the organization would be flawless and the artists' and people's vibes were awesome! You can have a look at the 2 videos we took during the night:

The track on this one is Filteria's Navigate from our very first release! It was 9am and I was about to cry when I saw all this energy.

5 years of existence and 16 CDs from a Goa label would never have been possible without our wonderful audience, our wonderful artists, and the relentless support of our friend labels, promoters, and our distributor Arabesque.

Thanks to all of you!

This week end is a major event, the Suntrip 5th birthday party, in Belgium!!!

You may have heard the lineup is changing. One of the members of RA was expecting an happy event last week, but the little baby is still with her mom at the time we're writing this... It should be anytime now, and you'll understand he won't leave them so soon after.

instead, E-MANTRA (RO) will be with us, presenting his album “ARCANA” released just last month! With his acidic tracks full of transcendent, entangled patterns, you’ll experience a unique initiatory passage to the fabrics of psychedelic music!!

Artifact303 remains 100% confirmed, of course.

Please contact us to know the location.

The long awaited album of Emanuel Carpus, E-Mantra's Arcana is finally available!!! 

More and 2-minute samples on the album's page.

Get it now in all major shops, and in our shop of course.

http://www.suntriprecords.com/release/cat/SUNCD17/
http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display_release.asp?id=8212
http://www.beatspace.com/dettagli/dettaglio.asp?id=5310
http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/sut/sut1cd017.html
http://www.goastore.ch/product_info.php?products_id=3493
http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/12096749/Arcana/Product.html
http://www.bol.com/nl/c/muziek/e-mantra/3118133/index.html

Enjoy the madness!

5 seems to be the right figure at the moment. 5 years birthday, and 5 releases in 2009.
Five? Yes, let me count: Merr0w, Filteria, Afgin, Radical Distortion....and now E-Mantra :)

E-Mantra, Emmanuel Carpus from Romania, proves that Goa-Trance opens new horizons still in 2009.

This prodigious artist with a unique style, who already appeared on at least 10 compilations, including one last month, gave us the priviledge to release his full length album called "Arcana". Prepare for a concentrate of twisted, acidic, spiraling and psychedelic madness mixed with fantastic melodies!

Arcana a mystery in itself: its music of course, highlighted by the symbolic of each track and the album title itself...on top of it, will be released Friday November 13th!

Arcana is more than just a GoaTrance album; it's an initiatic passage to the fabrics of pychedelic music!

More and 2-minute samples on the album's page.

It's incredible and overwhelming: 5 years ago aleady, we released our very first CD, Filteria's Sky Input.
Also, almost 10 years ago, a few of us jumpstarted Psynews.org and it's still alive!

Thanks all for your support. Goatrance is still alive and kicking thanks to you!
We had to celebrate all this, so here comes the...

Live:
RA (Suntrip Rec) - Norway
Artifact 303 (Suntrip / Moonquest) - Romania

DJs:
Anoebis (Suntrip Rec) - Belgium
Javi (welcome to Suntrip Rec) - Belgium
Lynx - Belgium

It will be somewhere between Brussels and Antwerpen, in Belgium, on Saturday December 12th, and there's room for at least 350 lucky Goa freaks!!! Email us or get the real fyer to know the exact location.