smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Jaimie Vernon" <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: Mail order bad? and 'playing it safe'? No way, Jose! |
| Date | Fri, 28 Feb 2003 20:06:04 -0500 |
[Part 1 text/plain (3.9 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
At Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 10:15:13 Bruce wrote:
>And, more frankly, one of the most significant problems battling the music
>industry(and, yes, I think Mike Roux will agree...even places like Parasol
>and Not Lame), especially on the retail front, IS the best buys and circuit
>cities and h ow they do business with selling music. Sure, they sell cd's
>cheaply. Why? Most of them are sold below cost or at cost. Really, folks.
>It's true. You get a great buy picking cd's up there...no argument. But
>they do it for a reason: To get you to buy all the other stuff there. Most
>which, arguably, you don't need. (upgade that mircrowave while you pick
>up
>the new Coldplay, please) And those sales are to t he detriment of mom
>and
>pop music stores of all kinds --- all of who have a shockingly
>'philistinic' business model.
>
>That is: They buy at a certain price. Mark up a certain amount to cover the
>costs of labor, salaries, rent, utilities, office exenses and then enough
>to, hopefully, make a small net profit to keep on selling music they love.
>'Shocking'. Truly shocking. ;-)
>
>And I'll add this, BB and its ilk, de-value the basic worth of music,
>making a throw-away commodity, more so than MP3's every could.
>
>I've said before, I'll say it to my dying breath......support indie music
>retail: in your home town, on your travels around the country and online.
>It's the plasma that keeps great music flowing into our lives. Okay, sure
>you'll pay a few dollars more, sometimes, possibly many times. But there's
>a lot more going on than saving a few dollars when you buy indie. A LOT
>more. And we'll carry music you'll NEVER, EVER see in those stores.
>Never. And we'll carry artists that populate this list, who would never be
>given a listen by the buyers for those companies.
Hear. Here.
The indies are circling wagons awaiting the final Custer's Last Stand of the
major retailers. The Best Buys and the Circuit Cities rely on the major
labels for cost breaks and inventory....now that BMG is circling the drain
and EMI is looking to sell themselves off (for what, the 3rd time in a
decade?) who will supply the lost-leader music for these big boxed stores?
No one....one will drag the other down.
And as always, the moms & pops and internet retailers like Not Lame,
Parasol, Jam, Kool Kat and ourselves will still be doing what we do greeting
the dejected masses because they couldn't get that new Bon Jovi limited
edition $6.99 sampler from Target.
I was actually at a mom & pop today that I've been frequenting as a
teenager, and who regularly carry our product on a consignment basis. The
operator is a little jaded, snooty and insulated from the real music biz
because he runs a kitsch market of NEW vinyl and garage rock CDs along with
rockabilly, blues and '50's rock and roll re-issues along with our classic
rock re-issues. This guy considers me an industry weasal because I have a
legit record label. He wanted to know how badly I was hurting because of the
spiralling label sales worldwide due to downloading. I stopped him dead in
his tracks when I told him that we've increased our online and export sales
by 400% in the last 9 months. Downloading isn't an issue because we don't
have a catalogue big enough that its been widely pirated yet (give it time
and I'll probably be singing the blues as Bruce Brodeen has been). But, for
now, we're catering the people that really want the music we've dug out of
the vaults and are fans of the bands we've helped enlived stale careers.
The music industry is only as dead as its biggest failures....the rest of us
sally forth....
Jaimie Vernon,
President,
http://www.bullseyecanada.com
#1 West Hill Dr., Toronto, ON
M1E 3T4 Canada (416) 284-7067
_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.