Virgil Dickerson has been running Suburban Home Records, a small, independent record label based in Denver, Colorado for the past 12 years. It started as a fanzine in September of 1995 and has become a label, a distributor, a vinyl imprint and store, a custom t-shirt company and this blog about the music industry. He remains optimistic about the future of music sales although it is tougher now than it has ever been trying to sell a product people actively get for free. Suburban Home's bands include Drag the River, Tim Barry, Love Me Destroyer, On Guard, Ghost Buffalo, Josh Small, Stereotyperider, Two Cow Garage and Adventures of Jet.
Sean Klassen has found his lot in life through playing guitar in struggling indie bands for over ten years now, currently playing in tongue-in-cheek heavy metal band Dartanian. Through playing music he discovered the art of graphic design and now spends much of his time designing various records, cds, posters and websites for a wide variety of clients ranging from local bands to international brands such as Universal Pictures and Audi. Sean currently pays his bills working as an Art Director at Factory Design Labs in Denver. He also enjoys wearing argyle socks and playing hockey. Feel free to direct any technical or website related comments or problems his way.
Bill Wilson founded the NY based indie, Blackout! Records while a college student at Fordham University in 1989. In it's 18 year history, the label (and sub-imprints) has released music from a diverse roster of bands, including Crime In Stereo, Deadguy, Ensign, Guided By Voices, H2O, Killing Time, Kill Your Idols, and Sheer Terror. He also has held positions as a Product Manager at RED; Distribution Marketing Manager at Caroline Distribution; and General Manager of Earache Records. Since 2001 he has worked in digital media and social networking, and is currently employed by a big ol' multinational media company in their mobile entertainment division.
I’ve always had a big problem with Soundscan. It tells you WHERE something was purchased, but not WHO purchased it. As stated in the comments on my previous post, labels often think of their main customers as the retailers, the press, and radio. Direct to sales with their customers is last on the list.
A few years ago (2003) I had a short lived customer-loyalty program at Blackout! that did pretty well. Due to financial reasons we didn’t keep it up, but I thought I’d share it with you all to see if this may help bridge the gap between the CD world and what will ulitmately become an exclusively digital world by creating that customer access.
A little while ago, I ran across TALENTfilter, a blog all about great unsigned music. No hipster kitsch, no specific genre… just great unsigned stuff, as heard by an educated set of ears, with a knowledgeable sense of humor about the music biz-at- large. I find myself checking in on it frequently, and decided to talk to the (anonymous) folks responsible. (more…)
By now, I imagine most of you have at least heard bits and pieces about the marketing for Nine Inch Nails latest record. Well, I just finished reading a great breakdown about the whole campaign and wanted to share the link. This is probably the most forward thinking idea I’ve seen by those trying to adapt to the extremely volatile music landscape and surprisingly enough was done by the same people who did the marketing for one of the biggest failed products of recent times, the Zune…
We recently were offered copies of Bayside’s most recent studio album autographed by all members of the band including drummer John “Beatz” Holohan who died tragically in October 2005. I was pretty blown away that they had these autographed CDs laying around their office and I figured that Bayside fans would be more than stoked to be able to get a copy. I purchased 15 copies and sold out of them within a week. I re-ordered 30 copies and have sold nearly half of them in about a week’s time. I mention this because previously we may have sold 15 copies of Bayside’s album since it came out in August of 2005, over a year and a half ago.
I realize that very few bands/labels will be capable of offering their releases with autographs by members who are no longer living, but I offer this example to mention that sometimes you have to offer something extra special in order to capture the purchase of a music fan. That is why some labels offer free t-shirts or patches with CD purchases. That is why some labels offer a bonus DVD or CD. When producing your next album, be sure to think of that extraordinary something to help you sell copies.
While checking out the blog done by Wells from Built by Icon, I saw a very cool video on how CDs are made. If you are a big nerd like me, check it out. I had no idea all the steps involved. Thanks Wells for posting this.
Labels spend thousands of dollars on hiring publicists. I am as guilty as the next guy for thinking that just because you hire a publicist, you will get glowing reviews and press in publications all over the world. We have had successful publicity campaigns, but we have also had some that went nowhere. Ultimately, blog sites, webzines, and magazines are going to write about the bands and albums they care about regardless of who is pitching it to them.
Always thinking of things you can do to promote your music without spending too much dinero, I have a suggestion that all bands and labels should consider. Instead of hiring the big time publicist, why not create a list of bands you love and get them copies of your album(s). See if you can get some of them to say good things about your album and then print the quote in your banner and print ads, on your one sheets, and on your site. Unsigned bands could use this as well. What better thing for a label to see than a quote from a huge band saying that your record rules. If I received a demo from an unsigned band and it had a quote from Ben Gibbard of Death Cab or Matthew Caws of Nada Surf, I would take notice. If a label used those quotes in an ad, I would think that fans of the bands would also take notice.
I plan to do this with the Tim Barry album we are releasing on November 21st. I will let you know how it goes.
If you were to ask me to name one person who inspired me to start a label and dedicate my life to independent music, without hesitation, I would say Mike Park. Mike Park and his band at the time, Skankin Pickle, would always travel through Colorado and I still remember the first time I saw them. It was 1993 at the Mercury Café and my world was turned upside down. I was always passionate about music, but it wasn’t til I saw Skankin Pickle that I realized that independent music offered so much more than a soundtrack. After the show, I was able to introduce myself to Mike and he was so incredibly nice. Since that first performance, I made sure to see them play nearly every time they came to Colorado. I purchased their albums which they self-released on Dill Records. I purchased records by unknown bands(at the time) they also released like Less than Jake, Slapstick, and Tantra Monsters. When I started Suburban Home, I built a rapport with Mike and his newly formed Asian Man Records. He put out releases like Link 80, the Misfits of Ska, and another one of his projects, the Bruce Lee Band.
Mike is an amazing individual. I have considered him a close friend for years and even asked him to perform our wedding last summer. I could not imagine a world without Mike Park and Asian Man Records and lucky for all of us, we do not have to imagine such an existence. Asian Man is celebrating 10 years as a label and I was lucky enough to get mike to answer a few questions I had for him regarding Asian Man and the music industry. Please read the interview and please consider supporting everything Mike does. At a time when indies act as though they are majors, it is refreshing to see someone so passionate about being a small, independent label.
And on a side note, if any of you speak to Mike, tell him he needs to record his under the influence record for Suburban Home!
Finding a reliable CD manufacturer can be one of the biggest hurdles for a small indie label or band attempting to release their own record. I have had friends get burned by shady middlemen and or manufacturers who cannot come through with promised turnaround times. When considering a manufacturer do your research and talk to people who have had experience with the manufacturers you are thinking about using.
Or consider my personal endorsement of Icon Omnimedia. Icon is run by two people who have been involved in independent music for years. I first dealt with Wells when he was running his own label Traffic Violation. Traffic Violation put out releases by On the Might of Princes, Latterman, and others before throwing in the towel in 2003. Also working there is Fat Rich who for years worked at Very Distribution. Between the two, they have chalked up years in independent music and have built a company that truly cares about small bands and labels.
As your band researches the best options for offering your band’s catalog digitally, I point you to an interesting post by the always reliabe, Hypebot. Bruce at Hypebot did a great job giving a breakdown of 6 options available to your band to sell your music digitally. After writing about some of these options on IndieHQ, I would like to give you my two cents. As suggested in Bruce’s post, in order to offer digital sales on your own site as well as the many more popular digital retail spots, you will have to go with a couple of options.
From time to time, I get questions asking certain things in regards to starting a label, getting distribution, touring, etc. When appropriate, i will share the question and response to you. The following is a really good question:
Question: I’ve been doing some research on this type of stuff and read and noted that a start-up label should stick with one genre of music. How viable do you find this type of thinking now a days? My line of thinking is that while I love punk, and all the things that now fall under that umbrella, is it a good idea to stick with one genre of music? So many people are attracted to such a variety of music now, as opposed to even a few years ago, wouldn’t it be wise not to constrict yourself as a label to one type of artist or musical genre? For example, Epitaph has had what seems to be some success selling hip-hop to punk kids…any thoughts?
Answer: My thought on this is when starting a label, if you absolutely love the music, you should put it out regardless of genre. That said, there are labels that you can look to when arguing either side of this subject.
Here are a couple of examples of labels that stick to one genre:
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