Be Careful What you Wish For

My Dad had two expressions he quoted frequently "Be careful what you wish for" and "Be nice to people on the way up as you might meet them on the way down". A couple of recent events have taught me that there are some in the music industry should take note.

Recently a popular and well established folk act were tweeting that their new album was available via Amazon and i tunes at a cheap price (for information a price that I am unable to get it at wholesale from their distributor!). When I cheekily tweeted that they ought to support the independents and could they re-tweet that it was available via my site I immediately received a phone call from their manager. He explained this wasn't possible as my sales were not recorded for chart purposes and they were desperate to get into top 20. The result was they achieved a chart position and I didn't sell a single copy. The ultimate result is that will I stock their future releases - highly unlikely.

Secondly, I was marketing a forthcoming release and as usual it was available on the site with audio samples of a couple of tracks to whet people's appetite (for avoidance of doubt only to listen to and not possible to download). This is an artist who is now being hailed as possible 'breakthrough artist of 2013' who in fact we been stocking and heavily promoting their work for 10 years. Following someone tweeting that they listened to these tracks on my site and were looking forward to the album I received an e-mail from their 'worldwide management'. This e-mail instructed me to remove the audio samples and consider whether I could continue having clips for their previous albums (despite some of them having been avoidable for nearly ten years). This is ironic as a track from the album was played on a Radio 2 programme and it is still available their via i-player. Result - considering whether I wish to continue stocking this artist - despite being a personal fan and strong advocate of their material to customers.

The issue being when only Amazon, I-tunes and Spotify remain where will the power lie and respect and love of the music. I perfectly understand the need to current fuel sales via large outlets 'but be careful what you wish for'.

But hopefully those are only isolated incidents - because in contrast an artist who we'd previously stocked their EP releases has just released their debut album - provided full digital access to tracks - indeed it was available online to listen to entire album pre-release. Their management provided the album to me at a special price allowing me to get close to the larger online retailers. Result I'm taking a strong interest in seeing them do well, will certainly stock their future releases and although not released until Monday 28th is already doing well.

I'm not going to name the guilty but I should name the angels Robert Vincent and his new album Life In Easy Steps is excellent and you should get it now!.

Snow in songs

Whilst snowed in working at your computer what else do you do except find out how many songs you have in your collection with the word 'snow' in the title. Well on a searchable database of tracks of over 13,000 the answer is just 10

Josh Ritter - Snow Is Gone

Home Service - Snow Falls

Dan Walsh - Snow in March

Tori Amos - Snow Cherries from France

Snow (hey oh) - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Laura Marling - Goodbye England (covered in snow)

Henry Girls - Rain & Snow

Mark Ereli - Snowed In

Chris Wood - The Land: When the Land Is White with Snow

and inevitably The Ronettes 'Frosty The Snowman' (does that count?)

Who can beat 10? - they have to be in your own record collection

Who says the young don't buy music!

Letter sent to Rough Trade by 13 year old following demise of HMV

HMV RIP - rise again the independents

HMV going into adminstration was sad for the people whose jobs are under threat and sad for those that remember when it used to be a record shop. The truth is it had long ceased to be a true record shop where you could explore and discover new music.

However 2000 records shops have already disappeared and those of you who saw last year's film / DVD Last Shop Standing and /or read Graham Jones book of the same name will know how difficult it has been for the independents. It is my deep regret that Fish Records can't be financially viable with a high street presence but has to operate as a local record shop online (www.fishrecords.co.uk). The overheads in particular rent and business rates would wipe out any income. I only have admiration for those that can continue to survive and thrive.

That said, my best moments are when customers ring up either seeking recommendations of new music and releases or looking for copies of albums they used to own and can I track down a copy. It is therefore not whether you are online or on the high street but whether you love and appreciate the product i.e. the music and the artists that produce it. HMV fell out of love a long time ago and some of the larger online outfits (you know who you are!) never even started dating.

 "The independent record shops are true gems of our culture. Who would want them thrown away?" 

Johnny Marr Musician

 

“There were record shops when I started my career, they were everywhere…”

Paul Weller Musician

 

“ Record shops kept me going when I was desperately trying to work out how to be an international rock star”

Billy Bragg International Rock Star

 

Last shop Standing:

The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of the independent record shop

 

http://www.fishrecords.co.uk/lastshopstanding/lastshopstandingtherisefallandrebirthoftheind.html

Best Albums of 2012

1	Lucy Kaplansky	Reunion
2	The Henry Girls	December Moon
3	Karine Polwart	Traces
4	Caroline Herring	Camilla
5	Anais Mitchell	Young Man in America
6	Show of Hands	Wake The Union
7	Martyn Joseph	Songs For The Coming Home
8	Fay Hield & The Hurricane Party	Orfeo
9	The Stray Birds	The Stray Birds
10	Dar Williams	In Time of Gods
11	Neptune’s Car	Letters From The Road
12	Luke Jackson	More Than Boys
13	Jory Nash	Little Pilgrim
14	Louise Killeen	Brilliant Tease
15	Blair Dunlop	Blight & Blossom
16	Callaghan	Life in Full Colour
17	Jess Morgan	Aye Me
18	Jim Moray	Skulk
19	Sam Lee	Ground Of Its Own
20	Bellowhead	Broadside