180g Clear Vinyl Awesome

August 2, 2006 7:28 AM

So, the record store I work for wants to do some reissues/boxes/become a label... Obviously,

Here's the deal— They're a vinyl-only eBay store, basically, though I got brought on to write blog content for 'em and help 'em with their dreams and goals. I have two distinct questions here, but they're related, so bear with me.
We'd like to do high quality vinyl reissues and possibly CD comps of a lot of the great, random stuff that we find. In many cases the actual rights-holders are a total mystery (we're trying to track down even label info for a great youth choir gospel album that we've got), and despite knowing some things about putting out indie records, I have no idea how to a) handle reissues, and b) make money at it. Every record that I've been involved with has had a maximum run of 500 copies, and generally recoups purely through tour sales. What should I know about this? How are distribution and marketting handled? What pitfalls are there that my naive ass might wander into?
The second part of this is that we have an opportunity to get in on a Sonic's Rendezvouz box set, doing the vinyl pressing and marketting. This isn't really my arena, but at least the rights-holders are fairly clear and they're willing to work with us. What would we need to do to both put out a killer vinyl box set and make sure that we made money on it? Again, all of my experience with record labels (and print publishing, for that matter) has been on the level of putting out music because you love it and hoping that you make your money back later, rather than developing any sort of real business plan. What should we know?
(And how should I communicate this to the two other guys who really run the store, as they're much more dedicated to the business of it than I am, though they look to me for advice?)

posted by klangklangston to media & arts (8 comments total)

These are complex, maddening questions that I've been navigating myself over the past couple of years. The answers can differ widely based on the status of each item being reissued. I'd recommend talking with an intellectual property attorney who understands publishing and master tape law, and can recommend someone terrific if you contact me (email in profile).

As for making money (or at least selling out a printing) on offbeat reissues, try a mix of prayer, a hipster publicist and getting it into Other Music and Aquarius (and their respective mailing lists).

Sonic's Rendezvous were a good and beloved band, but ultimately I'd wonder if there are more than 500 people who are going to spring for a box set. And since they might all be in Ann Arbor, traditional ideas for promoting it worldwide could be less than effective. In other words, every release is different, and you might need to be ready to adapt, brainstorm and find an audience for everything you do as if it were the first time. Good luck!
posted by Scram at 8:00 AM on August 2, 2006

Well, I've never involved myself in anything related to reissuing vinyl, but I spend a lot of time online reading about people who do it. But here are some links which may provide some insight or ideas for getting started:

SonicFlare.com recently published a three-part story about a tour of the RTI LP-pressing plant. Chad Kassem and his Acoustic Sounds are a major player in the reissue scene.

Analog guru Michael Fremer frequently writes about reissues and the people who do them, such as Classic Records, MFSL, and Sundazed.

Mastering guru Steve Hoffman frequently describes the business behind reissuing at his site (although it's been quite slow recently).

Rhino Records and Oglio Records were handling reissues of less popular bands for a while, but I don't know how active they are with that anymore.

As for making money at it, good luck. My friends still have boxes of the LPs they produced for our favorite college bands back in 1988.
posted by the matching mole at 8:32 AM on August 2, 2006

On the marketing front, I think press is going to be your best route. Here in the UK we have Record Collector, Classic Rock magazines, etc and things of that sort, as well as Mojo, Uncut, etc. I would target the US equivalents both for press ads as well as possible features on the high quality vinyl re-issues plan. Vinyl still has a lot of fans (and a growing number I'd say) so I'm sure you could generate some buzz there. Hell, while you're at it, don't dismiss the foreign market as well. The back pages of the above magazines have pages and pages of collector classified ads, specialist retailer info, etc. If you're selling on eBay you could end up finding a big part of your business coming from overseas.

On the Sonic's Rendezvous boxset, I agree with Scram that there's probably not a lot of money there. What I would suggest is not cutting any corners on the quality of the release even if it means dipping into your marketing funds. Then use that release as a calling card to other bands to show the level of quality that you're selling. Make your company THE place to go for vinyl re-issues.

Power pop label Not Lame did a CD boxset for the band Jellyfish a few years ago and it was a limited edition run that now commands a lot of money on the collector's market. It was clearly a labour of love and it shows in the high quality of the package. I'm sure if Not Lame was to now approach another band with a boxset offer, the quality of that first release is going to go a long way.
posted by gfrobe at 9:17 AM on August 2, 2006

You'll need mechanical and master-use licenses for the tracks you want to reissue; whom you get those from will be... interesting to find out, as you've discovered.

But at least you know what you're looking for now. :-)
posted by baylink at 10:05 AM on August 2, 2006

There are guys who write for Now and Eye magazines here in Toronto (www.nowtoronto.com and www.eye.net) who specialize in letting people know about rare reissues like this--both guys seem to be pretty serious crate diggers. I'd imagine indie papers across North America would have similar writers. Make sure and send them press releases & samples; their word of mouth will definitely drive sales.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:57 AM on August 2, 2006

However tempting it may be, I would play your hand very carefully if you are considering distribution beyond the "sell it out of boxes" type. As you must know from working in music retail, distributors can be utter vampires who will do everything in their power to eat your profits. They rarely pay efficiently, they take a huge cut of your net price, and they don't do a whit of publicity or legwork on your behalf. Unless you've got about $10 grand lying around in advertising/marketing bucks, it's not worth your trouble to distribute it any other way than out of your own little operation there. Nowadays, if people want it, they'll find you.

That said, it's difficult to sell records without an existing band to shill them on tour and generate awareness on the cheap, so reissues have to be approached differently. Hipster publicists are nice, if you have the overhead. College and public radio play is better. Leaking a few choice tracks as freebies on your site could lure the mp3 bloggers and podcasters, who (despite the over-crowded field) can still be quite efficient at generating buzz. If you can do it yourself, more's the better. If not, be as strategic as possible.

And I would think you've cultivated some nice relationships with industry folk from having run the store. If they're upstanding people at all, they might offer some unbiased and non-sabotaging advice beyond what you'll find here.
posted by mykescipark at 6:06 PM on August 2, 2006

Instead of the risk involved in making reissues, why don't you figure out a way to make the music available online for download?

If the stuff is good, it will grow via word-of-mouth and through blogs. Set up a MySpace site.

Sounds exciting!
posted by JLP at 8:04 PM on August 2, 2006

Hey, I want to thank you guys for the help so far, and mention that I brought up a bunch of these points at our meeting last night.

To be clear, I (usually) work in the press side of music, so I'm pretty familiar with that. We'd definitely do a electronic press kit for the Sonics folks (and I should mention that we're looking to just do the vinyl version of the box, as some other company has the CDs coming out, so we'd probably hitch on their coat-tails for the publicity).

Anyone know how reissuing goes when the rights-holders are unknown (mechanicals, as the songs are all traditional gospel)? Is there an escrow that can be set up?
posted by klangklangston at 8:32 AM on August 3, 2006