Unfortunately the music industry changed a lot the last five years. The market for DJ's who used to spin vinyl has gone and this also happened for the CD and CD single market. Nowadays it's only digital download and mp3. Which is a pity because the music quality of a mp3 is nothing compared to the real deal, CD or vinyl. But things change and the younger generations consider music as something "free". The music industry has not payed enough attention to this new phenomena and saw the sales figures decline. This also happened to the Italian dance music, it is not profitable anymore to market a vinyl or CD single, sales are too low to earn some money. It also changed the A & R for the record companies. Italian labels still exist but it is now all mainstream, there is unfortunately no "Italian feel" anymore. But in the mid 2000s people from Finland and Holland started small record labels dedicated to the Italian sound from the 80s. Italo fan Kimmo Salo from Finland started his label Flashback Records and tried to restore the old feel together with artists from the 80s. In the last couple of years his label released a lot of projects, also on the sublabels Rebirth records and Disco Evolution, check it out at www.flashbackrecords.ore. In 2007 the guys from I Venti d'Azzurro and the Radio Stad Den Haag radiostation also relaunched the I Venti records label. After releasing two tracks in the 90s it was time to refresh the label and start with new projects. The first hitsingle was an instant worldwide Italo hit called Swan - "Shining star". Now in 2012 I Venti Records already released more than 50 records on the different labels called i Venti Records, Delivery Records, Energy Level and ID Limited, check it out at www.iventi-records.com. The four labels try to cover the different sounds where as i Venti Records represents the commercial Italo sound, Delivery Records the more experimental sound, ID Limited stands for repressing of old sought after Italo gems and Energy Level has a focus on the non-Italian but Hi NRG sound from all over the world. Of course the "good old days" with high sales figures are over, but if you consider the whole world as your market then there are still a lot of Italo Disco fans. The music is still very popular and appreciated by fans in Mexico (city), Argentina (Buenos Aires), Brazil (Curitiba area), USA (San Franciso, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Miami), Canada, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switserland, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Greece, Croatia, Chez Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Japan, Australia. Another smaller label from Spain also produces good new "old" Italo stuff, this label is called Five4lt Records, a company also worthwhile to check out.

Today the Italo disco style is considered one of the mainstreams in the disco era, but back in the 80s there was no such thing. Luckily we have a great legacy in many thousands of tracks made that still can give you thrills when you play them! On the CD/DVD that comes with this book you'll find the I Venti d'Azzurro records archive with name, year, label, composer/writers, producers and vocalists. The list is not limited and we will try to update it every three months, if you want to receive the latest version please drop us an e-mail! Labels that still exist and publish Italian (but also other) stuff are Time Label, X-Energy Records and Do It Yourself. For the old style i Venti Records, Flashback Records and Five4it. Euro Beat labels are now only as digital download and the Super Euro Beat series from the Avex company in Japan. Companies that still produce Euro beat are SCP Music, Time Records, SinclaireStyle and Hi NRG Attack.