From mltsnt Sent Fri, Aug 27th 1999, 00:37
From mltsnt Sent Fri, Aug 27th 1999, 00:37
At 03:31 PM 8/26/99 -0500, daniel wrote:
>David Turgeon wrote:
>> the aforementioned schematic & c.i. managed to carve their niche
>> themselves, even though they remain quite hermetic.)
>>
>> ahh, the mysterious ways of music marketing.
>
>I have wondered about this myself. I wonder how popular they really are.
>It is hard to judge their success from the viewpoint of the fish eyed lens
>the idm list utilizes. However, I think they carved their niche by having
>a good scene, live shows and support from major players (autechre etc..).
>I have loved what these guys are doing since day 1. Also, I have a
>feeling that they are pretty successful in Europe. Import sales help
>quite a bit. Schematic and CI are two of the labels I buy on site. (and
>have only been dissapointed once).
i think you'd be surprised how small these labels are in reality.
schematic is getting bigger, but i'm pretty sure not as big as you think.
sure push button objects is a big name on the IDM list, but this is where a
lot of the hype starts, it's just now getting around to the rest of the
world. Word of mouth travels MUCH faster in a digital medium. The major
fan base of both these labels is internet based at this point. I think
people underestimate the power of the IDM list, but a good portion of this
list in middle america and other isolated locations that lack their own
'scene' base what they order on the opinions of this list (and related
places like r.m.ambient and the warp board). You'd be surprised how much
pull people like Lance McGannon and PJ S://Kimo have on which labels 'make
it'...
I'm pretty sure Choc Ind. only does pressing of about 1000 or so (which
usually sell out fairly quickly, btw).
>lastly, even labels who put out one type of music have to re-invent
>themselves ever so often. A good example is warp. Compare their first
>releases to what they are putting out now. But even warp now days is
>becoming more diversified.
but that's because of a larger budget, warp can afford to diversify,
because if it fails the whole label doesn't go down the drain. they also
have the appropriate distribution that gets them into loads of stores
(often, 'mainstream' stores). IE, if they put out a broadcast album, it
still hits all the mainstream stores, so the 'post-rockers' can acsess it.
However, schematic wouldn't really have acsess to that market, as their
distributor(s) are mainly Electronic-specialty and sell to a lot of
specialty stores. Fat Cat, also can diversify due to the financial and
distribution from the One Little Indian deal...
it's sad but, it's hard for a very small label to find a market without a
trademark sound. and much respect to MMR and other labels attempting to do
so...
>packaging can be cost prohibitive. Sometimes you are faced with releasing
>something with shoddy packaging or not releasing it at all. Remember do
>not judge a book by it's cover.
>
>if you can afford it then good packaging should be done.
just to clarify.. expensive packaging isn't equal to good packaging.
usually it's time and effort that matters (see: lucky kitchen). of course
the best packaging is expensive and well thought out...
np: del & tajai- 'masterminds'
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