Our biggest selling album of the year so far has been "mbv" by My Bloody Valentine and so I joined the debate to point out how artists can sell copies of their own album and include record shops too. I also tried to make the point that independent record shops support independent music 52 weeks a year. When My Bloody Valentine's third album was released at the start of February, a mere 22 years after its predecessor "Loveless" we were bombarded with enquiries. It all looked slightly worrying at first, as there didn't seem to be a release date for shops. The LP and CD formats were only available on the band's own website. Then, just over a week ago it came to our attention that they were going to put some out to independent retailers, so we contacted the band directly. They supplied us with some stock and we were then able to satisfy the demand that had built up from our customers. My Bloody Valentine from what I understand, have not and will not supply any stock to Amazon. There is certainly no link to their website from the band's home page.
So back we go to Billy Bragg. His new album comes out on the Cooking Vinyl label and on Monday 18th March we will have it in stock on CD, 2CD + DVD and on LP (which includes a download of the full album). I'm fairly certain that Spillers Records in Cardiff will also be stocking it. I have absolutely no problem with Billy Bragg selling his own album on his website and I don't think our Welsh friends do either. It would be lovely to have some of the signed prints (as a long time fan I would like one for myself) but I fully respect the decision that they are only available on his website.
What I would like to see though, is a mention on Billy Bragg's website that the album will also be available from independent record shops in the UK. There could even be a link to a list supplied by the record label embedded in there. I think more than anything else that was the point that Spillers were making, I know that I was. If you go on the website it seems to imply there are only 2 options. direct from the artist or through Amazon. It would be great to see all independent minded artists adopting a policy of supporting record shops on their websites. I realise how easy and convenient it is to give an Amazon link, but why not give us a shout out too.
Anyway, I hope it's all cooled down now with Billy Bragg. He is an artist who I have much admiration for. I recently watched him play an impromptu gig in City Square for the Occupy Leeds protesters and I will definitely be there when he performs at Leeds Town Hall later this year.
"Tooth & Nail" is released on Monday 18th March.
Thank you Crash for taking the baton and giving me some peace of mind on the issue, and for trying to bring an end to bad feeling. It would be sad to fall out over music, ain't that the thing that’s s’posed to bring folk together?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wishes to draw alternate conclusions on the 140 back and forth you probably have (directly or otherwise) by now. I was in half a mind to delete my own input to the thread just to keep backlash to a minimum but on re-reading the thread I am still assured that the points that nearly got off the ground were valid and they are points that I wholeheartedly (or indeed foolhardily) thought might be engaged with through discussion with someone like Billy Bragg.
This post follows not only because BB demanded (a good 15ish hours after the initial tweets) that I provide him with either an apology or an explanation, but also because both Crash & Avalanche have been so kind as to further explain more perspective from their position.
That it was late in the night was most likely the reason why the unfolding turned sour. I would imagine that someone who has been around as long as BB has a lot of insightful things to say about the way things have panned out for this business. I fully acknowledge that 'late in to the night' on twitter was not the time or place (however enjoyable some might have found it) to try and put the inconsistencies to bed.
I am disappointment that a pro-active discussion can not be had about the bigger issues here. Giving the benefit of the doubt, twitter is obviously not the best forum for such discourse though that things did flare up so monumentally implies something hit a nerve, whether that was the power “Big Ugly A’s” wield (all be it at the say so of one’s label) or the realization that inclusion in a documentary praising the qualities of Independent record shops while directing people to a preorder online site might seen to be duplicitous. (The former is in reference to the way Billy Bragg himself referred to the Amazon link on his website, the latter is in reference to @justplayed ‘s asking BB “But I thought you loved record shops & their role in our cultural community. Why cut them out? Not trolling, genuinely curious”, while later admitting that he had just re-watched Last Shop Standing, which features BB, which was his impetus for asking such a question). Had things not escalated so immediately I would have liked the opportunity to suggest some ways in which an artist expounding the virtues of ‘real life’ shops might include (all) Independents in their marketing strategy. That was my only reason for intervening in @justplayed ‘s and BB’s discourse. As Crash pointed out, ‘or ask at your local Independent record shop’ would have been a nice inclusion on the website. Any other time, I’m still confident that such positive solutions would have been well received.
A reply from Billy Bragg immediately bought Record Store in to the equation (something along the lines of ‘nice one annoying an artist in the run up to record store day’, which is alas no longer in our time line). With out speculating as to why BB felt the need to bring RSD in to play it seems, (while one is at it), a timely place to point out that even artists / labels / distros get is wrong where this (otherwise perfect & most affirming day is concerned). Let’s take the Sex Pistols release of last year. A reissue pic disc 7” (exclusive for RSD), which was woefully under pressed (given the exposure and demand we knew – who didn’t – that there would be). There were subsequent reissue 7”s following RSD and these were made available to all record sellers (no issue there, lots of labels like to use RSD to launch an album or series of releases) but the thread that started on RSD culminated with a reissue LP of Never Mind the B****. Again, no issue there, until it became apparent (info provided by customers, not the record company in question when pre-selling the release to independent stores) that as well as the (so it would appear) ‘standard’ black LP pressing there was also a more limited, more fancy, more collectible to some, pink & yellow LP version available ‘direct to consumer’ (as industry calls it). That there was a fancier, not supplied to shops edition is something we (shops) have to accept. That it was the climatic ending to a series of releases and a celebration that kicked off with ‘our’ day was the rub. (Yep, any record shops reading, we do all know what happened to the surplus stock of this D2C edition … I just don’t see the millage in pointing out how more twisted it all became!) If you don’t get how frustrating that scenario is then I don’t suppose you spend a vast amount of time using the phrase “Sorry, I can’t supply that (release / version / edition) to you as it’s on line only. Yes, I appreciate that you got out from behind the computer and visited us but nonetheless, I still can not provide you with this release. Perhaps sir would like the version with less tracks today though?”.
ReplyDeleteRSD is ‘our’ day and it was set up to drive folk away from their computers, on to the high street and in to (to quote Shirley Manson) places which “are a haven and a harbour for all curious and wandering souls.”
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spin.com/articles/garbage-shirley-manson-record-store-day-love-letter
Speaking for myself, the boost in positive vibes in the build up (and aftermath) of this time in the spotlight extends way beyond the day itself but let’s not forget, a record shop is for life, not just RSD.
Perhaps they're only big issues to those this side of the counter... (Though my own experience comes from an independent record shop perspective it is painfully clear that everyone is feeling their way through change). I know from dialogue with other shops, patrons, reps, bands (all those guys) that these concerns are shared and cared about, whatever their allegiance. If I'm the only one mouthy (or as I like to think: tenacious) enough to attempt discussion then I don't mind being that person. (No, actually that's unfair to @justplayed who let's not forget initiated the tweet to BB, people like Kevin Buckle who runs Avalanche.
It would be simplistic to imply that big distro / label / artist = bad “in bed with Amazon / Itunes etc” but there are still a heartening amount of folk in the industry who keep the lines of communication open to work consistently and pro-actively to endorse, support and reward Independent stores for their part in all this. It all brings to mind some footage from Last Shop Standing doc’ where everyone’s chuckling about the chart manipulation at play (getting free stock in to stores to get an artist a better chance of gaining sales therefore chart position and exposure). Real life record stores used to be ‘useful’ to the industry and now we’re not it’s up to the industry to assess the added value we bring (as our customers have also had to do when deciding if £1 ‘saved’ on line is in the long term something they want to gamble on). That’s another tangent though.
ReplyDeleteThanks again to Crash for taking the time to clear the air, to Kevin for posing his thoughts, and to those who DMd our twitter account to give their opinions on the matter.
I guess to Billy Bragg I’d like to say that I hope this goes some way to provide an explanation as you demanded I give you on Twitter, (but 140 characters has proved to be irksome so hope you understand this route). I would also like to include an apology for rattling you by joining in on (what I thought was) a dialogue with another tweeter. I am sorry this was interpreted as a personal attack when I (Crash, Avalanche and a lo of people who don’t personally know me) realize that this was not the implication of the reply. I can’t however apologise for raising any of the (aborted) matters as these are still vehemently at play.
I no more wish to make you the scapegoat for the irregularities of the industry than I myself wish to be the sole person bringing them up for discussion, (which seemingly I am not, and that alone I shall take comfort in).
I hope that your record sells really well, wherever it might be purchased from.
We have been taking pre-orders since it was announced and in spite of our Tête à Tête nobody has cancelled their order (as yet!)
One thing’s for sure, music makers will outlive the role I have but how they sell their wares is still a manifold and (hopefully for enough) now a moral matter. The ‘Big Ugly A’s’ (I wager they’ll be the Last Shop Standing, though strangely no mention of their role in the film – maybe that subject will feature in a future ‘extended with outtakes’ version? You never know!), the decline of the high street, D2C, the hunger to take share of an ever decreasing slice of the pie … we’re in interesting times and I’ve no doubt that it’
With nothing but good will, great music and sharing I bid you a nos da from myself, Ashli Todd, AKA Spillers. x
For further reading here are some of Avalanche’s posts of late that focus on issues touched upon here. They are one shop’s perspective and though I do not always agree with Kevin’s own experiences (most are pretty spot on mind), I mightily salute him for taking the time to document them.
http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/2012/10/24/vinyl-album-sales-for-2012-v-2011-the-story-so-far/
http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/2012/10/19/those-paws-sales-figures/
http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/2012/10/14/godspeed-you-record-shops-into-oblivion/
http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/2012/11/16/whats-wrong-with-bands-selling-their-own-releases/
http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/2013/01/27/customer-choice-but-not-too-much/
http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/2013/02/14/record-store-day-2013-what-do-you-think/
Thanks Ashli for your comments. Having seen the original exchanges on Twitter I wanted to give the opinion of another independent retailer about the situation with the Billy Bragg release. I know he felt offended about what he saw as an accusation that he doesn't care about indies, but I think there was a certain amount of misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteHe actually took the time to call me and have a chat about it and I got a bit of an insight into the frustration he was dealing with. He told me that he had been asking his record label for a list of independent shops to put on his website for several weeks, but the problem was that they had not sold it in to everyone so were unable to provide one. Amazon is the easiest and most convenient way for artists and labels to set up a quick click option and this is the big problem we are all up against and is probably what hastened the demise of HMV. There are people that will always take the option now of ordering online without having to visit a shop. What we need to do is convince artists and record labels that they should always mention record shops on websites as well. In an ideal world we will all get a slice of the pie whether it's Amazon, the artists themselves or independent record shops. After talking to Billy Bragg on the phone I have absolutely no doubt he is a committed supporter of independent record shops.