Invest in Vinyl Collective/Suburban Home's Future

[traffic]

fuckin asshole cant even spell my name right...

i spelled your name the way it's supposed to be spelled.

[hickey]

yeah i just moved here

If you make it down to Boston for a show or something, give me a shout.

[servo]

YOU GUYS SEE WHAT I MEAN THIS GUY IS A SUCKY JERK

SUPPORT A REAL INDEPENDENT POP PUNK LABEL LIKE FAT NOT THIS GUY

[servo]

hickey im like an hour from boston so this will happen some day... after i find a fucking job and get some fucking money. lets get this thread back on track. ill post the idea i pmd virgil last night

"so you have to have an assload of cds sitting in your warehouse right?

just ship a bunch off to friends around the country and vc loyalists and tell em to take em to used cd stores. let them keep 20% of what they get and have them send you the rest.

obviously one of each title per shipment, and try to keep the mix 50% suburban home stuff or less.

depending on the inventory youre looking to liquidate you could make anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars and you will not find a faster way to move cds. "

[fartmike]

$100,000 dollars in debt? uh-oh

No, the debt is only part of it.. the rest of that money, whatever the proportions are, is for starting up new projects and whatnot rather than take out more loans.

how much of this money goes to great american beer fests?

[hickey]

hickey im like an hour from boston so this will happen some day... after i find a fucking job and get some fucking money. lets get this thread back on track. ill post the idea i pmd virgil last night

"so you have to have an assload of cds sitting in your warehouse right?

just ship a bunch off to friends around the country and vc loyalists and tell em to take em to used cd stores. let them keep 20% of what they get and have them send you the rest.

obviously one of each title per shipment, and try to keep the mix 50% suburban home stuff or less.

depending on the inventory youre looking to liquidate you could make anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars and you will not find a faster way to move cds. "

One flaw with this is getting the "friends" and "loyalits" to send back the 80%.

[servo]

true, very true. but you will not find a faster way to move cds, which are the new dead format

[pjaicomo]

Send me some cds.

[mcnail]

Hmm, I have mixed feelings about this.

I think it's awesome to help a label out when they are in need, but I'm not sure this is the way to go about it. It seems like at some point asking so much from the fans, you are kind of taking advantage of the extreme loyalty some here at this board have to the label/site. Like someone mentioned, it's sort of like you are taking on business investors, but not giving them equity in the company.

Why not look for more traditional funding, like venture capitalism?

Why not give away the digital catalog for free (a la Magic Bullet) to build interest in your roster. It seems crazy, but people download the shit anyway, might as well embrace the future.

Another thing that may be hurting the SH releases is the constant deep discounts and clearance prices on the records. When the records are constantly marked down to as low as $5 in the future, it doesn't really encourage anyone to buy them at full price when they first come out.

These are all just thoughts that came to mind when I heard you were having a rough year.

[servo]

idea number 2

make a shirt that says "I post on pseudo-punk messageboards and smoke craft weed" and i will give you $10 for it

[Guest Admin]

No, the debt is only part of it.. the rest of that money, whatever the proportions are, is for starting up new projects and whatnot rather than take out more loans.

how much of this money goes to great american beer fests?

that was $50 and that was paid out of my personal funds. thanks for asking.

[ihprstl]

I've been going to shows in Cleveland for 5+ years and at current count have attended close to 600 in that time period. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen someone bring a distro to a show, whether it's a basement, VFW hall, small club or enormodome. Some places just don't have kids independently motivated enough to start their own distros. Why not offer them a starter kit (which is what Virgil is making it sound like)? What's wrong with punk rock training wheels?

right. but either the starter kit is going to be basically wholesaling records, which as pointed out before, if kids had money/desire to wholesale records, they more than likely would. if this starter kit is going to be free/consignment, to get more kids into the idea, that certainly wouldnt raise money, and would just involve sending more $$ out the door.

granted thats all speculation at this point since the details werent given.

not to question you, but i have to wonder what shows you are seeing where not even the bands/roadies/labels of the bands brought along an independent distro and set it up at the show. i find it amazing that someone can go to 600 "punk" shows and see a record distro less than 5 times.

I've been going to shows in St. Louis for 17 years, and I have NEVER seen it here. Not once. I used to see it at the Fireside in Chicago, but that was a long time ago.

[axlrose]

I have seen two times where someone not playing had merch for sale. One was Honey Flow distro at the Imadethismistake show the other is Stevo of 1-2-3-4-Go! Records who occasionally will set up at Gilman.

[aarondanger]

I set up at shows as much as possible.

Kiss of death and underground communique do also.

[axlrose]

I set up at shows as much as possible.

Kiss of death and underground communique do also.

Sweet, now work on setting up in the Bay Area. DO IT!

[monk0nuggets]

I think I've seen distro set up only a few times too. One was Hex records selling stuff at the Achilles show, and Jake selling Deathwish stuff at Converge shows. I really don't remember many other times, and I've been to lots o shows.

[silentgods]

the only show i've ever seen someone with a distro was ISIS back in 07.

[mrc]

We used to have distros at some of the shows here but that stopped a year or two ago... But people really stopped going to shows here so i can see why the distros bailed on setting up.

I love seeing distros at shows especially if there is a shitty band on the bill cause i can spend the time they are sucking ass on stage to browse some records.

[kurtz]

I'm surprised so many people don't have distros at the shows they go to. I would say at least 50% of the shows I've gone to over the years have had some kind of distro set up.

[mcnail]

I think it's a strange concept, because I've always felt 100% of the spare merch money in peoples' pockets at shows should go to the touring band, they need all the help they can get out there.

[cj]

how much of this money goes to great american beer fests?

that was $50 and that was paid out of my personal funds. thanks for asking.

i knew some asshole would say something about this.

go fuck yourself fartmike.

there is no need for Virgil or anybody at VC/SH to explain what they do on their personal time to you or anybody else.

just because things businesswise arent going perfectly doesnt mean he shouldnt be able to live his life and enjoy himself.

so again... go fuck yourself you asshole.

[traffic]

I think it's a strange concept, because I've always felt 100% of the spare merch money in peoples' pockets at shows should go to the touring band, they need all the help they can get out there.

i'm kind of hesitant to set up at shows for this reason, but i think the instances where it actually ends up impacting touring bands merch sales are few and far between. especially if you're setting up at a show where you really like the band and can talk up the band and encourage anyone browsing through your distro to really pick up some of their stuff first/as well.

with that said, i very rarely set up the distro at shows unless i'm on tour with the band playing. but not really because i think it's the right thing to do. i actually think it's good for the scene to have this kind of thing going on. i should set up more often.

[vinyljunkie]

Bands aren't always too keen about selling someone else's shit. They're trying to get by themselves, and another band's merch can cut into their sales. I can totally understand that.

are you serious? any band not willing to help out a fellow labelmates band can eat a dick, and have their van blow all 4 tires......between every show. thats the shittiest attitude. after all, their label mates are out on the road helping support them by returning the favor and selling the releases.

how egomaniacal do you have to be to think that your music should be the only one there, and that you are above helping out your friends/labelmates/great independent music. if some kid doesnt like the band, they arent going to buy their LP. but maybe they like another band in the box. Not carrying some other bands LP isnt going to get some kid who thought the bands playing sucked to buy their merch anyway just cause of lack of options.

just the thought of some band pulling that rockstar attitude gets me angry.

[traffic]

Bands aren't always too keen about selling someone else's shit. They're trying to get by themselves, and another band's merch can cut into their sales. I can totally understand that.

are you serious? any band not willing to help out a fellow labelmates band can eat a dick, and have their van blow all 4 tires......between every show. thats the shittiest attitude. after all, their label mates are out on the road helping support them by returning the favor and selling the releases.

how egomaniacal do you have to be to think that your music should be the only one there, and that you are above helping out your friends/labelmates/great independent music. if some kid doesnt like the band, they arent going to buy their LP. but maybe they like another band in the box. Not carrying some other bands LP isnt going to get some kid who thought the bands playing sucked to buy their merch anyway just cause of lack of options.

just the thought of some band pulling that rockstar attitude gets me angry.

i understand where you're coming from, but i think you're taking it kind of the wrong way. i don't see it as a "rockstar attitude" that needs to be punished as much as just inexperienced kids, who don't know any better, and are doing everything they can to get gas in the van, and get to the next city. carrying other bands' records probably won't hurt their sales, but their belief to the contrary isn't motivated by greed as much as fear.

i think we all need to cut each other a little more slack.

[magicbulletrecords]

Often times, the "touring band" wouldn't be out there (with people physically attending their shows) if it weren't for distros pushing their releases in person and of course in stores. A distro at a show serves the function of exposing real people (who actually leave their computers and go to shows) to bands and releases. So if a guy/gal who is already motivated to go to shows learns about a new band, guess who's most likely to be at said band's show when they roll around? It's a two-way street.

Besides, everyone knows the rule about distroing at a show: you don't put out stuff by the bands playing.