IndieHQ / Article Detail

July 21st, 2007

Sympathy for the Record Industry for Sale for $625,000 price tag

Long-standing indie label, Sympathy for the Record Industry, is up for sale. Click the read more link below to read the full statement. SFTRI has put out many incredible releases over their 700 plus catalog including all of the early albums by the White Stripes (which are no longer on Sympathy), as well as releases by Rocket from the Crypt, 5,6,7,8s, Turbonegro, New York Dolls, Roky Erickson, the Dwarves and so many more.

The $625,000 price tag ($700,000 if Long Gone John doesn’t like you), is an interesting number. It begs many questions, how does one determine the cost of a label? Are Sympathy’s agreements with their acts transferable if they do agreements with their acts at all? How much money will it cost to make all of this happen with warehousing their 1.8 million dollars in stock, masters, artwork, etc? And will the close to 1 million dollars it takes to get this done be worth it in the end.

Having 700 titles available digitally should bring in a decent amount of gross revenue alone. I would be curious how much money, if any, they receive each month from Lumberjack or if he is upside down with them. Wow, there are lots of questions and the one I can’t help but think of is will the potential sale of this label inspire other labels to sell? What do you think Tony Brummel?

I think this could pay off in the end and hope to bring you more news about this potential sale.

FOR SALE Preeminent Independent Record Label

Sympathy For The Record Industry

$625,000.00 or $700,000.00 if i don’t like you

Known for a multitude of things including releasing early efforts by Hole, The White Stripes, Turbonegro, Rocket from the Crypt and The 5,6,7,8’s as well as resurrecting the classic music of immortals such as Roky Erickson, New York Dolls, Suicide, The Gun Club, Spacemen 3, The Scientists and Wanda Jackson and lets not forget the serious concentration on a plethora (like that word??) of bands in hot beds such as Memphis, Detroit and Montreal and also being among the first to look towards the Far East to unleash the demented and curious off-kilter sounds of those crazed ornamentals (Asians to you of a p.c. mindset)…
So what?? ‘Big deal’ you say, well, Sympathy has also worked with underated and seemingly unsung heroes like Billy Childish, The Oblivians, Holly Golightly la la la etc and are hailed for recognizing and employing important visual artists to create wonderous covers by Mark Ryden, Camille Rose Garcia, Yoshitoma Nara, Liz Mcgrath, Coop, The Pizz, Dan Clowes blah blah blah la la la etc ad infinitum…
Sympathy are also responsible for releasing records by untold bands of differing degrees of talent with really cool names like The Pleasure F*ckers, Banana Erectors, Anal Babes, Candypants, Teenage Larvae, Tri-State Kill Spree, Iowa Beef Experience, The Child Molesters, Penetration Moon, Smegma, Ethyl Meatplow, The Spaceshits and Destroy All Monsters…

Single-handedly responsible for lowering the standards of the entire record industry…

includes:
questionable/nebulous rights to nearly 750 releases by over 550 bands
current distribution deal with foremost U.S. independent distributor with strong international distribution as well
existing stock modestly estimated at a wholesale value of 1.8 millon dollars
all master tapes, acetates, stampers and mothers to continue production of titles
massive personal archive of sympathy rarities (lots of amazing surprises)
preliminary cover layouts/some original artwork/interesting and valuable artifacts galore
established web site and vastly lucrative mail order business

over 30 snappy sarcastic slogans featuring much-loved heavy-hitters:

“We almost really care’
“Is a force this powerful going to be overlooked by an industry that needs all the Sympathy it can get”
“You’ve tried the rest now go f*ck yourself”
“Sound and fury signifying nothing” (ok, we stole that one from Shakespere)
“West coast perpetrators of the finest in musical mayhem”
“The most favoritest populars, cost so little goody you like ‘em”
‘A name you can pronounce since 1988″
‘18 years of performance anxiety, instability and poor judgement’
‘We just don’t know when to gve up’
“A tradition of obscurity and obsolescence”

incomprehensible bad reputation included at no additional cost

interested parties contact long gone john (anti-mogul/fat cat/accidental c.e.o.) at sympathy13 [at] aol [dot] com

Written by Virgil Dickerson