ATTN LABELS AND THOSE WHO RUN RECORD STORES

[aarondanger]

I actually really like this idea. I know earlier I posted expressing my experiences in the past with shipping to the black hole, but that doesn't mean I'm against sending promos.

No store has EVER ordered direct from me. Doesn't mean I haven't stopped hounding stores to order direct.

LIES! I did!

Fuck totally forgot.

My mistake. I'm also going to be in your neck of the woods next month. #1 thing to do when I get in town

[lokithelion]

i'd probably do it for smaller stores whom i know would order from me... i just got really soured seeing all my punched out promos, still sealed in shrinkwrap in the used bins, or on amazon like a week after i sent them... screw that.

My wife is going to kill me someday since I've literally never sold a single promo I've gotten working for zines. There are boxes upon boxes of shit in my parents basement. I'm thinking about turning them into some kind of innercity art project where I get gang bangers into screamo bands.

[scottheisel]

i'd probably do it for smaller stores whom i know would order from me... i just got really soured seeing all my punched out promos, still sealed in shrinkwrap in the used bins, or on amazon like a week after i sent them... screw that.

My wife is going to kill me someday since I've literally never sold a single promo I've gotten working for zines. There are boxes upon boxes of shit in my parents basement. I'm thinking about turning them into some kind of innercity art project where I get gang bangers into screamo bands.

Donate 'em!

http://www.discsfordogs.org/

[xjustinxschwierx]

Porchlight and Reckless Records are the only brick and mortar stores that order/have ordered records from me directly, I would totally be into the idea for new stores, if they store made good on stocking at least one release from the label.

[thischarmingham]

Porchlight and Reckless Records are the only brick and mortar stores that order/have ordered records from me directly, I would totally be into the idea for new stores, if they store made good on stocking at least one release from the label.

Well for one...I already have copies of a record you did. Two you can't expect a gaurantee from every store. That point of a promo is to entice people to buy. Not buy and then the promo is a reward.

I mean hell, we all only ever want to do things that result in a victory...however nothing works that way.

[xjustinxschwierx]

Porchlight and Reckless Records are the only brick and mortar stores that order/have ordered records from me directly, I would totally be into the idea for new stores, if they store made good on stocking at least one release from the label.

Well for one...I already have copies of a record you did. Two you can't expect a gaurantee from every store. That point of a promo is to entice people to buy. Not buy and then the promo is a reward.

no I don't expect that much, which is why I don't send out promo's to stores...plus I don't really do that many CDs anymore either, so I'm not going to mail 20-40 stores a vinyl record, It's a losing battle.

There's a huge difference in sending out a batch of CDs that costs $1.50 or less to produce each than a vinyl record that ranges from $2 to $5 to manufacture. I'll gladly mail any stores CDr copies of my entire catalog if they want to hear them though.

[thischarmingham]

Well for one...I already have copies of a record you did. Two you can't expect a gaurantee from every store. That point of a promo is to entice people to buy. Not buy and then the promo is a reward.

I'll gladly mail any stores CDr copies....

As said a few times...that would probably be the thing that'd make sense. Nobody is asking you to mail LP's. Why am I fighting so hard to get labels to help me and other stores promote their releases and sell them? This whole thing has been an excercise in withering my enthusiasm.

[srcvinyl]

PUNKRADIOCAST has over 20 million unique listeners tune in each month and at any given time there are 4,000-5,000 simultaneous listeners tuned in at once. Not being serviced is a huge problem. We play music for free, yet many dont take advantage of this.

But not to sound like a dick, very often we are not serviced the albums that are released by 1234 go so I am a little confused by this. We even accept MP3 servicing so the labels dont even have to pay to submit music to us...and they still dont very often unless we chase after them.

[thischarmingham]

PUNKRADIOCAST has over 20 million unique listeners tune in each month and at any given time there are 4,000-5,000 simultaneous listeners tuned in at once. Not being serviced is a huge problem. We play music for free, yet many dont take advantage of this.

But not to sound like a dick, very often we are not serviced the albums that are released by 1234 go so I am a little confused by this. We even accept MP3 servicing so the labels dont even have to pay to submit music to us...and they still dont very often unless we chase after them.

I always send stuff to you and the last several of my releases have been solicited to radio types by Southern Lovin' so you definitly should have been covered by them at least. Email me directly at [email protected] and let's sort this out.

[srcvinyl]

PUNKRADIOCAST has over 20 million unique listeners tune in each month and at any given time there are 4,000-5,000 simultaneous listeners tuned in at once. Not being serviced is a huge problem. We play music for free, yet many dont take advantage of this.

But not to sound like a dick, very often we are not serviced the albums that are released by 1234 go so I am a little confused by this. We even accept MP3 servicing so the labels dont even have to pay to submit music to us...and they still dont very often unless we chase after them.

I always send stuff to you and the last several of my releases have been solicited to radio types by Southern Lovin' so you definitly should have been covered by them at least. Email me directly at [email protected] and let's sort this out.

Thanks I appreciate it. We did actually get some stuff from southern lovin actually not long ago (earlier this year?) i will double check as i cant recall off hand and maybe that's why i thought you weren't servicing us since they cover several labels. Cam at Southern Lovin is honestly one of the best people to work with EVER!! Very hard working and dedicated. He gets me into the bands, which in turn gets me getting our audience into the bands.

[thischarmingham]

I always send stuff to you and the last several of my releases have been solicited to radio types by Southern Lovin' so you definitly should have been covered by them at least. Email me directly at [email protected] and let's sort this out.

Thanks I appreciate it. We did actually get some stuff from southern lovin actually not long ago (earlier this year?) i will double check as i cant recall off hand and maybe that's why i thought you weren't servicing us since they cover several labels. Cam at Southern Lovin is honestly one of the best people to work with EVER!! Very hard working and dedicated. He gets me into the bands, which in turn gets me getting our audience into the bands.

Cool. Well let me know what of mine you don't have and I'll either get something in the mail or tell me how to get you MP3's and we'll do that. Cam is awesome. He's moving over to wholesale at No Idea though so ye shant be hearing from him for that stuff anymore. Not sure who's taking his place.

[tre]

In this thread I would like to encourage all labels to send promos directly to stores and all stores who are interested in recieving promos to list their addresses. I run a store called 1-2-3-4 Go! in Oakland, CA I've noticed that hardly any labels mail out promos for albums any more. I get posters more than anything and that doesn't really help that much. People ask me all the time what a thousand different records sound like or if they're good and in a lot of cases I have to say "I don't know, it's sealed and I never got a promo". This often results in the person walking out without the record. I try to listen to as much as possible and research but it's impossible to do it with everything. Anyway the records where I do get a promo, like the Happy Birthday LP on sub pop, I've sold 40 copies because I loved the record and played it often in the store. Is that gonna happen with everything I get a promo for? No. But it's definitly not going to happen if I don't get anything to play. I'd love to open a copy of everything that comes in the store but that isn't really feasable. So anyway...if you're putting out a full length I encourage you to send promos to us. I single out full lengths because to me it makes more sense all around to put the effort in to sending those but I'm cool with singles too. Record stores still exist, we're stocking a lot of the records you're making, don't forget we're out here!

1-2-3-4 Go! Records

423 40th Street

Oakland, CA

94609

Hello.

Was at your store a couple weeks ago.

It's a rad spot.

If I am not mistaken you just placed your first order recently with Deathwish, and unless we were out of everything we send promos with every order.

[forgeagain]

I can't believe that people are shit-talking a store owner who is actually reaching out to SMALL LABELS WITH LIMITED OR NO DISTRIBUTION about getting a single promo copy of their releases for in-store play. Obviously cold-sending stuff sucks, but 1-2-3-4 Go and Lunchbox and co. are reaching out and actually asking you for them. Clearly they're not fishing for promo CDs for the used bins.

I, for one, haven't sent store promos in a long time...but at the same time, I haven't done many non-vinyl releases in a while. I'll be sending a package with recent releases and one-sheets to your store, and any other store that bothers to post their info in this thread or the similar one on VLV. I'd love to cultivate a better direct relationship with stores. This sounds like a great way to start.

[thekillinme]

i'll send lunchbox and 1234go stuff. email me @ [email protected]

been waiting on 1234go to get back to me about trading for about 6 to 8 months now, maybe longer. booooo

[caitlinryan]

Sound it Out Records

418 S Union St

Traverse City, MI 49684

I love being able to sell things to people simply because I'm hyped on it and playing it in the store. Promos definitely help with that and I also don't understand the reluctance on the part of some labels to send them out. A lot of the labels I order direct from are pretty good about it, but unfortunately I'm not able to order from all those labels directly as often as I would like and I end up picking up a lot of stuff through my one-stop.

[porchlight]

If labels want to send promos here, I'll most likely play it in the shop:

Porchlight Coffee and Records

1515 14th Ave

Seattle, WA 98122

and you can email me:

Zack at Porchlightcoffee dot com

[tre]

Sound it Out Records

418 S Union St

Traverse City, MI 49684

I love being able to sell things to people simply because I'm hyped on it and playing it in the store. Promos definitely help with that and I also don't understand the reluctance on the part of some labels to send them out. A lot of the labels I order direct from are pretty good about it, but unfortunately I'm not able to order from all those labels directly as often as I would like and I end up picking up a lot of stuff through my one-stop.

Great store.

We shipped an order out to you today.

[caitlinryan]

We shipped an order out to you today.

I know! Did you see that we moved recently? We can do in-stores now...

[forgeagain]

Cool, keep em coming. I will get promos in the mail tomorrow!

[xjustinxschwierx]

I can't believe that people are shit-talking a store owner who is actually reaching out to SMALL LABELS WITH LIMITED OR NO DISTRIBUTION about getting a single promo copy of their releases for in-store play. Obviously cold-sending stuff sucks, but 1-2-3-4 Go and Lunchbox and co. are reaching out and actually asking you for them. Clearly they're not fishing for promo CDs for the used bins.

I, for one, haven't sent store promos in a long time...but at the same time, I haven't done many non-vinyl releases in a while. I'll be sending a package with recent releases and one-sheets to your store, and any other store that bothers to post their info in this thread or the similar one on VLV. I'd love to cultivate a better direct relationship with stores. This sounds like a great way to start.

I'm not shit talking the idea, I think it's a great idea and think it'd be great to work direct with stores as I don't have a one stop distributor right now...mainly because Choke still owes me money from when they went out of business. So I've stuck to doing trades with labels and just establishing consignment deals with distros that are trustworthy sources. For us smaller labels that don't do CD pressings to accompany the vinyl versions it's rather hard to justify the expenses of mailing a box of vinyl away for promo's. But like Justin W says above in the quote, any stores that care to contact me directly or post their addresses will have promo packs mailed out to them. this week.

[xchriszx]

When I visited 1234go 2 months ago I was really pleased by the selection and plan on going back with a lot more money next time I am in the area.

I have only one release (a 7") so far on my label otherwise I would be sending stuff out to said stores.

[xjustinxschwierx]

When I visited 1234go 2 months ago I was really pleased by the selection and plan on going back with a lot more money next time I am in the area.

I have only one release (a 7") so far on my label otherwise I would be sending stuff out to said stores.

chris,

I'd love to have the IR 7" in my distro, let me know if you'd be interested.

PM me or email me: [email protected]

[killyourfase]

If you are doing a CD release and want it to be more than a mailorder thing you are crazy not to send out promos to retail. I run a distributor, and we have a shrinkage clause with labels mainly so we can have promos of all new CDs. Unfortunately it's hard for a label to allocate more than 30-60 promos for retail stores. If you are trying to do legit PR, and with any attempt at radio, promos can cost a label a SHIT load of money. I fully back the idea of sending promos to stores, you just gotta work to find the right places.

I also run a small label too, and doing more than 20 or so promos of vinyl is often near impossible. We just got a new record from the plant and can unfortunately only consider sending promos to a couple close friends and key press (Albert@Decibel, Scott@AP, Brian@Punknews). So for a new label who focuses on vinyl, there is not much of a solution to promo outside of digital.

[thischarmingham]

i'll send lunchbox and 1234go stuff. email me @ [email protected]

been waiting on 1234go to get back to me about trading for about 6 to 8 months now, maybe longer. booooo

If you run Kiss of Death I get your stuff from No Idea so I've already got it.

[Guest afsdan]

I also run a small label too, and doing more than 20 or so promos of vinyl is often near impossible. We just got a new record from the plant and can unfortunately only consider sending promos to a couple close friends and key press (Albert@Decibel, Scott@AP, Brian@Punknews). So for a new label who focuses on vinyl, there is not much of a solution to promo outside of digital.

this is insane. MAKE CD-R's.