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Start a new collective?


  

107 members have voted

  1. 1. should we start the collective back up?

    • yes
      55
    • no
      52


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God...NO.

 

A big part of this was that Virgil ran a huge distro and had what, 15 years of record label experience and connections? Without that head honcho, no labels are going to license over their material. There was a storefront already established with a lot of traffic to do the selling. You have anyone remotely of his musical stature at the time who would want to lead?

 

IF it were to happen, you should try and create some kind of account where 2 or 3 people's OK is needed to draw money. I believe you can do that. It just adds one more layer of protection.

 

Also, target a specific genre. The biggest bitch about the co-op before it went down in flames was people saying "I thought I was going to have a say...all we press is pop-punk". People started cliques to get the release they wanted voted in, and then it sold like shit (a Jealous Sound Double LP? Come on). Instead of 200 at $60 do 40 at $300. Make it clear the focus of the label's music.

 

But still...Don't do this...

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If you guys wanted to do this wouldn't it just be easier to figure out what record you'd want then just do a Kickstarter?

 

Or just have two guys start a fucking little label and do special pre-orders or some shit on here. I mean, that is essentially what it would be anyway. The shared investment / profit end would be a shit show, assuming there was a profit. Which... you know... is a big assumption. 

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theres a lot of bs listed in this thread so far.. face it, the shit failed because virgil hosed everyone.  and furthermore to the guy who said labels wouldn't license to us without virgil... theres a couple peeps on this board who have licensed much larger things than virgil ever touched (in some cases platinum records many times over)... so that wouldnt be a problem at all.

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theres a lot of bs listed in this thread so far.. face it, the shit failed because virgil hosed everyone.  and furthermore to the guy who said labels wouldn't license to us without virgil... theres a couple peeps on this board who have licensed much larger things than virgil ever touched (in some cases platinum records many times over)... so that wouldnt be a problem at all.

 

Who is "us"? You going to run it? I was referencing a group of X random dudes with no industry experience. Not saying you need someone of Virgil's former prominence or above or it won't work. Just saying you need someone who has probably put out a few records already to take the lead.

 

I'd also wonder about the numbers / figures. Virgil could essentially sell records (initially) at a price to keep the balance even and still give everyone a free record because he had a large distro. He could do it for the cross sales and publicity. I'm not sure if the numbers would support giving everyone a free record + selling at a reasonable price + a decent cut for the distros who are actually selling it. Unless the plan wouldn't be to give a free record to the people involved as before? But then, what is the point? You going to try and increase the value of the group bank account, not send records to the members automatically, and essentially treat it like stock?

 

Not saying it's unmanageable. Just saying there are clear advantages to have someone in the position Virgil was in at the helm (when he was doing things right).

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Who is "us"? You going to run it? I was referencing a group of X random dudes with no industry experience. Not saying you need someone of Virgil's former prominence or above or it won't work. Just saying you need someone who has probably put out a few records already to take the lead.

I'd also wonder about the numbers / figures. Virgil could essentially sell records (initially) at a price to keep the balance even and still give everyone a free record because he had a large distro. He could do it for the cross sales and publicity. I'm not sure if the numbers would support giving everyone a free record + selling at a reasonable price + a decent cut for the distros who are actually selling it. Unless the plan wouldn't be to give a free record to the people involved as before? But then, what is the point? You going to try and increase the value of the group bank account, not send records to the members automatically, and essentially treat it like stock?

Not saying it's unmanageable. Just saying there are clear advantages to have someone in the position Virgil was in at the helm (when he was doing things right).

You do realize that flood runs a successful label right?

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You do realize that flood runs a successful label right?

 

Yes. I have been around here for 5 years and was part of the first Co-Op. As far as I know, he has not volunteered to lead this and does not send out 200 free copies of everything his label releases, so clearly it is a little bit different.

 

If he says "I got a plan for this...let me share it when it is ready" I will shut up and listen. I don't claim to know more than he does. I thought this was just a general topic that could be discussed by anyone, so I shared my thoughts.

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i hope this happens for the entertainment it will provide.

 

i'd love to see 100 or more people paypal $60 to one person running it and see what happens.

 

also, it'd have to be based on pressing more records from the proceeds of the first one or two.

 

it is also much harder to license things now than it was years ago.

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Yes. I have been around here for 5 years and was part of the first Co-Op. As far as I know, he has not volunteered to lead this and does not send out 200 free copies of everything his label releases, so clearly it is a little bit different.

If he says "I got a plan for this...let me share it when it is ready" I will shut up and listen. I don't claim to know more than he does. I thought this was just a general topic that could be discussed by anyone, so I shared my thoughts.

Point taken.

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MY POST IS LONG BUT ARGUE'S GOOD POINTS

This is a cute idea on paper but let's face it:

  • Every VC member is unique with a unique taste in music
  • This means each person has 1 record they would love to be pressed.
  • Everybody has at least 1 band hyped on here that they themselves hate.
  • Most likely everybody will come out of this with at least 1 record they dislike (and in rare cases all records they dislike)

   The selection could be bracketed into 4 brackets (like NCAA), but how will those record be chosen onto the bracket? let's say people suggest what they want pressed/repressed and then the leaders pick what gets bracketed.  Poor Joe Blow's records were not picked to be in the voting bracket, he then realizes that there is no longer anything for him in this project and he deiced to leave this project alone as a whole. This is lost revenue for this project already. (okay say the brackets are up and voting is in swing we should allow people to listen to the two bands up against each other) Say, each week we'll vote on the remaining records in a until we have four now keep in mind we've lost interest in people getting to these 4 records AKA lost revenue. but we have the 4.

   

I think Kickstarter would be a good platform for this which can be ran 1 of 2 ways

  1. The records would be sold as many rewards after donating (X) amount of dollars (This price will be found by combining the licensing fees, packing materials, pressing cost/jacket printing FOR ONE RECORD and dividing by the amount that will be pressed. Resulting in 4 unique rewards for 4 unique records with 4 unique prices) This would allow you to get the record of your choice. The problem is, say we do, do this, some records would cost more that others and the less popular ones might not be sell out causing the people running to pay out of pocket, along with some people not getting the ones they wanted because of the amount pressed/donation limit selling out. this results in lost revenue and force the runner/runners to pay out of pocket or instead just pressing 32 copies instead of the original amount. This Kickstarter would also let you buy all the records in a bundle for the combine price of all record's Kickstarter prices.
  2. The records will be sold as 1 reward after donating (X) amount of dollars, (Although this time the price would be found by dividing licensing fees, packing materials, pressing cost/jacket printing FOR ALL THE RECORDS and dividing it by the amount pressed of each being pressed) This time allowing a better guarantee of all the records being pressed but the price WILL turn people away because not every would want all the records being pressed and would not like paying that much for just 2 or 1 records. Let's say that the Kickstarter is funded and everything is all knock knock good good. Some people will end up with records they don't want, parting with them will be harder than normal because this project involved many members of VC  and the people that wanted it would already have it and the market with be flushed with many copies of this 1 record (same with ebay.)

    I think Kickstarter will be the best option no matter what, this will allow the public to be involved and allow us to make some more revenue this will also allow for people to help out and not get the records (With rewards like $10: get your name on the thank you of the record of your choice $25: 2 thanks yous and so on). Kickstarter will be open to the pubic (but we kind need them anyway) so essentially we'd need more pressings and this will cost more money, and no matter whether choice 1 or 2 the record prices to go up.

 

No matter what though think the record pressings should be kept low around 250 -300 at most and  only 180 gram no colors those are expensive.

 

   At the end of the day this WILL not only be extremely expensive, but shipping/packing/keeping up with orders will VERY VERY labor intensive. This WILL result in hurt feelings and grudges. I feel like this will have a lot of foul play involved too (making cliques to get your record pressed, bribes for others on voting, and other such)

As much I would love to have something like this happen this is extremely unrealistic when you throw in all the factors I listed and didn't. So I think it's just best if we avoid this all together.

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