Geva Alon goes gold
After four solo albums, indie rocker Geva Alon earns a glittering award
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
With all the changes in the music industry, gold is still a major milestone. Singer/songwriter Geva Alon, known for a voice and lyrics that often channel those of long-time rocker Neil Young, says his fans share the credit for his third solo album, “Get Closer,” which just achieved gold status.
“I’m unbelievably proud of it because I know and remember how long the path has been,” said Alon, who released his fourth album, “In the Morning Light,” last year and whose songs are all in English. “But from my perspective, this success belongs to all my fans as much as it belongs to me because my fans are the ones who helped make it happen. So there’s one musician in Israel who is doffing his hat to his fans and promising that this is just one marker in our joint path.”
According to Alon’s record producer, Carmi Wurtman, a gold record in Israel marks 15,000 copies sold, while a platinum album marks 30,000.
“This is a huge achievement,” said Wurtman, “especially for an Israeli artist singing in English. I think only one or two other Israeli artists singing in English have done this before.”
The Israeli standards for gold records have been reduced to 15,000 from 20,000, due to the decreased record sales because of illegal downloads, but when a musician sells a gold record today, said Wurtman, it’s “almost like selling 60,000 CDs ten years ago. Unfortunately the industry has to handle the technology changes and has not yet found a solution for decreasing record sales.”
