Nutz: Well, some of that is pointed at me because I AM your distributor (at least for one of your projects). Alot of it make sense. Some of it you are right on.
But for the last time (and this is not directed at anyone in particular): IT IS NOT A DISTRIBUTOR'S JOB TO FINANCE, MARKET, OR MANUFACTURE ANY LABEL's PRODUCT. So when someone says that they wish their distributor would do this or that, I have to say "Why?".
Communication IS important between distributors and labels, unfortunately, distributors do have other labels to attend to and furthermore, in this marketplace, it really doesn't matter what your distributor does for you, because the chance of failure is greater now than ever.
Retail dictates how much product is in the streets. Radio dictates how much product a retailer will carry. It is an endless cycle and therefore creates the self-fullfilling prophecy...you can't get product in the stores without radio, and you cannot get n the radio without having sales, which you can't get without being in the store. It's pretty fucked up.
I've been preaching on this for years as I have seen the "wriitng on the wall" for a while now. Most choose not to listen or swear, "it can't happen to me because my shit is tight". Fuck that, how good your product is has less to do with selling albums (or shipping them to retail for that matter) than chewing bubble gum has to do with solving a calculus problem.
Artistic integrity is fine. In fact I respect an artist greatly who holds their moral high ground and sticks with this shit regardless of success or failure, but at some point you have to ask "what am I in this business for?".
For those who still don’t believe the word of me: Check what the RIAA says…(in my words)
In 2001, there were approximately 968,580,000 units shipped into retail (not including returns). Rap/Hip-Hop replaced Pop as the number three genre with 11.4 percent of the market. That brings rap/hip-hop music shipments at right about 106 million units and change. Of that figure, independent rap/hip-hop accounted for about five percent or 5 million albums. Of those SHIPPING FIGURES, SoundScan was roughly half or 2.5 million units. It gets better…according to data I have compiled at Bayside of all the distributors that have distributed Bay Area rap last year, the Bay (including Sac/The Valley etc.) accounted for about 20% of that SoundScan figure for a grand total of 500,000 units SoundScanned in our region or $3.5 million dollars made by area record labels (assuming they were paid by distributors) split between roughly 200 companies. God damn…depressing ain’t it. You can also bet that that number will be proportionately reduced this year due to 9/11/01 and the overall economy. Strap in fellas, it’s going to be a bumpy 2003.
Here is the bottom line to everyone: Everyone else is afraid to admit it, or afraid to say it, or just doesn't know...so here it is...The independent rap game as we know it has forever changed. WE are not as viable as we used to be, for many reasons, some can be debated but no matter what the reason, the over saturation of the game combined with the lack of resources and access we have to mainstream media (radio, video, magazines) limits our chances of selling.
Cool Nutz made a good point, selling out the trunk is still profitable. Develop a relationship with your indi stores, create a buzz in your back yard and let's get back to sell 5, 10, even 20,000 units out the trunk. Then distributors will have no choice but to deal with you.
Some of you won't like to hear this but the game WILL take care of the nay sayers and the laggers, and the fakers, and the untalented (see also: un-connected or not financed). The game will swallow those who cannot adapt to these times. It is an unforgiving industry and I think 80% of the cats in it are in it for the fast buck. I been doing this 10 years and NEVER got the fast buck. This is the most financially retarted and crippled industry in the world right now behind computers and retail. Investing money in an album is much like the stock in ENRON. It looked good, it sounded good, and you've seen others get rich and famous off of it, but the chance of being successful and for longevity are something like winning the lottery and reserved for the few elite members of the game.
Established retailers, wholesalers and record labels are going out of business left and right, so with that I ask most of us this question "What makes you so different?"
Good luck to everyone but don't quit your day jobs, if this is your day job like Me, Cool Nutz, Jay Tee, Chuck from Done Deal and others on this board, you know what we are going through.
If I could give one peace of advice...it would be "sunscreen".
Once again, my humble opinions. Share the information. Support indie rap. Peace.
PS
33,900 albums came out in 1999. Thats how may you are up against and women are the #1 purchasers of pre-recorded music, so think about that also we recording your next murder album or slap a bitch record. Not downing nobody cuz god knows my albums are all grimey but its just food for thought.
