avalanche records

Archive for January, 2012

I, Ludicrous’ tribute to Peter Crouch at the Bull and Gate, Kentish Town, London on 15 June 2006.

Sorry I posted theses figures on twitter but forgot to add them here

What is clear from these figures is that vinyl is definitely selling more year on year. Not as daft a statement as it sounds as in an industry that often relies on smoke and mirrors it was by no means a foregone conclusion. Radiohead’s “The King of Limbs” album was a clear example of something that was distorting the figures in both total sales and average price but it is also clear that there is more to this than one big album. It would be interesting to see the percentage of total sales for each release that vinyl held and also to see how many albums for instance broke 500 which is often considered the minimum cost effective pressing for vinyl.

The effect of Record Store Day has been mentioned in analysis before but does need to be stripped out to present a more balanced picture and it would be good to know if more vinyl generally was made available in 2011 as that too is relevant. Practically what an artist/label wants to know is if it is worth making a release available on vinyl. Has vinyl sales just improved at the top end. The Top 8 in 2011 outsold the Top 40 in 2010. Certainly while in 2010 the Top 40 constituted 17% of the total vinyl sales in 2011 it had risen to 25%. That does still leave any number of possibilities as to how the remaining 75% is made up. I should hopefully have the answers in the next couple of days.         

I came back home to see Darren Hayman’s views on twitter about Stuart Murdoch asking for money on Kickstarter to fund his film “God Save The Girl”. Now I’m not a big fan of this sort of thing in music but it seemed fair enough to me for raising money for a film. I get increasingly annoyed at hearing people talk nonsense (quite often outdated nonsense) about the music business so I fully understand that I have quite a simplistic view of making films but they seem on the face of it more expensive to make than albums and have more of a history of “angels” funding them. However looking at the page for Stuart’s film it does seem to mimic the Pledgemusic model with numerous incentives to give money and receive something in return. It looks to me (and maybe I have got it wrong) that the difference is that those who put in money don’t get a share of any profits or even their money back. Those who fund films or indeed plays I’ve always understood do so knowing there is a good chance they will not see their money again but with the possibility at least that it may be returned many times over. This way they are sure to get something but  ……….. 

However with Pledgemusic being used to fund albums I feel on slightly more solid ground. It’s not a good idea at all. Ignoring whether it is begging or taking advantage of fans fervour what it does do is take an artists fanbase completely out of the equation when the album comes out. Sure if you have 5,000 fans and 500 pledge then it isn’t really a problem but then if that is the case you shouldn’t really need the pledge system. It is similar to artists having an album/single launch. I regularly get bands in saying they “have hit a brick wall”. What they mean is they have sold their album to their fans at their launch, had a bit of publicity in the papers and in blogs and had a few orders online and then it just dies. At this point some then realise that what shops provide is literally a permanent “shop window” for their album long after the launch and reviews have passed and wonder if I can help. Of course from a shop’s viewpoint it is a bit late by then to get involved.

A successful release needs momentum and word of mouth and what both Pledgemusic and launches do to a large extent is kill that. Clearly I am biased but shops can reach people who don’t know about a band whereas gigs and pledges only attract those who are fans already. I quickly looked at Pledgemusic just to make sure it was what I remembered and who is right at the top but Ian McCulloch. At first I couldn’t believe he needed pledges to record an album but given everybody is sent a copy on March 5th and he is already in the studio it just seems like it is a way of making as much money as possible from the album. I assumed the £15 tote bag must have the CD with it but now I’m not so sure. Mac’s Armani glasses are £500.

I should say Stuart and Darren along with Ian McCulloch front/have fronted three of my favourite bands. Of course they are all rubbish now ! I jest. Honest !          

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/godhelpthegirl/god-help-the-girl-musical-film?ref=category 

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/ianmcculloch

We are indeed spoiling you ! Not only do we have Rachel instore on Monday 6th February promoting her new EP “Black Currents” but The Twilight Sad will be playing songs from their new album “No One Can Ever Know” also out that week on Wednesday 8th. I’m sure if we ask nicely they’ll play a few older songs too.

There are no times confirmed yet but we expect them to be later in the day so folk have the chance to make it after work, school, college etc. We will post more details as soon as we have them.  

I’ve been getting asked a lot for more info on the album club so here briefly is a little more for those interested. The club is not monthly as such we just pick a release when we find something we think our members will be interested in. Most of our choices are Scottish artists but not exclusively. We have championed Withered Hand, Meursault, Broken Records, There Will Be Fireworks, Kid Canaveral, Conquering Animal Sound, Savings and Loan and many other Scottish bands. Our latest big success has been Star Wheel Press.

Having said that we have also chosen The Flowers of Hell from Canada and Farewell Poetry from Paris. Many of these bands provided extra EPs for their releases. We have included samplers from labels including Domino, Sub Pop, Fat Cat as well as local labels such as Song by Toad. The Saving and Loan album came with a copy of Martin Donnelly’s poems while the Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat album we chose came with a signed card. We don’t run the club to make a profit (probably a mistake !) but rather to showcase artists whose work we feel our members will appreciate. Our patron is Ian Rankin and it was his support along with Lauren Laverne that first brought Star Wheel Press to the public’s attention. 

Our first choices of 2012 will be a bumper 3 packages all together. We did a similar thing at the end of 2010 that was very popular. While our main choices will still be artists we are hoping to bring to a wide audience there will be more “high profile” extras from those artists and labels we have supported over the years. These will be for album club members only and not available in the shop as they will only be able to be made available on a  “promotional purposes only” basis. Many will be current but some will stretch back more than 30 years. I would love to say more but I can’t !  

Finally there will be several Avalanche compilation CDs including one covering the history of Scottish music, one for current Avalanche favourites and one looking to the future. You can join by coming in the shop or online by scrolling down to the bottom of our shop page http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/products-page/

We have some cracking in-stores for February in the pipeline and several possibly all for the same week. Confirmation very soon. In the meantime here is Rachel Sermanni’s video for “The Fog”