avalanche records

Archive for August, 2014

As many of you will know we don’t accept money to promote artists on the website and I’ve refused all offers of links as well. However it has been put to me that the Avalanche site which is already a focus for Scottish music in particular as well as being known for promoting new music in general could be the gateway artists need to reach an audience who might be interested in their music. 

Each artist would be allocated a page only they could access and would be free to promote themselves any way they wished providing links for their own sales and highlighting gigs etc. In return Avalanche would receive a small fixed fee each week small enough that artists would only need a sale or two each week to cover it. Obviously if enough artists signed up this would still provide a reasonable income for the shop while giving artists a far greater chance of having their music heard. 

Though artist led there would be scope to deal with labels too and given our worldwide connections all bands would be welcome. Customers would really like a one stop Scottish website where they can buy everything but that just isn’t possible so a site that they can come to and check out a wide range of Scottish artists is a more realistic option. We will add sections for bands from other countries as Avalanche has always been a Scottish shop with a worldwide reach. Avalanche won’t actively promote the bands beyond saying when they join but we will give our full social media backing to getting people to visit the site and check out what is on offer.

We will also link to other sites we feel an affinity with such as the guys who do the Pine Vinyl cartoons or the Jersey Milk Cow drawings. This will be free and we won’t accept submissions for people wanting links. Having talked this over with only a few people other ideas have also been put forward to utilise our unique social media presence without compromising what we do. For now this seems a good start and while I was not prepared to overly subsidise a shop with online sales if our online presence can make a shop more viable with a decent income I’m very happy to take that route. 

Bands continually come to me feeling they are “lost” online so being part of the Avalanche site will immediately give them a profile way beyond what a small band can expect. They will then be able to link to the sites they are using for sales, downloads, merch etc with far greater hope people will “find” them. 

So briefly that is it. By coincidence I had somebody contact me from a website design background with an idea not far from this with Avalanche as a hub so hopefully giving each band unique access will not be hard to realise. For now bands should register an interest just so we can gauge at what level we launch the idea and use the shop email avalancherecords@hotmail.co.uk with the heading Avalanche Artist Website. I can’t see us needing to limit places but we may need to roll it out in stages so we will contact those who register an interest first. 

There has been an enormously positive response so far given the frustration bands feel so hopefully this will provide an outlet not just for new bands but for others trying to reach a wider audience. More soon !

xxxxxxxxx Our most popular ever tweet ! xxxxxxxxx

Many thanks for all the comments and there is a general consensus as to what people want. Achieving it will be a little harder ! Overall suggestions weren’t a million miles from what we did in the Grassmarket. At the core Avalanche selling new and used vinyl but still some CDs, posters and a large selection of local/Scottish bands. Some loved the vast amount of vinyl we had but more would prefer a more curated  selection. The posters have always been popular and unique to Avalanche and a fair number of people would like to see more similar merchandise. Many suggested a larger selection of vintage clothing from Armstrongs especially if no longer close to their Grassmarket shop.

Again people loved the coffee shop but it had been a bit cramped in our Grassmarket shop and of course we were limited in what we were allowed to do. Quite a few people suggested something more of akin to a cafe and adding some hot food especially come winter. Two subjects occurred again and again and were not a surprise but a solution will be something else.

One was that we needed to be central enough so that people didn’t just “pop into FOPP” because it was nearer. I have to say that even when we were in Cockburn Street for the majority of customers especially those based in the new town this was an issue for us. What was in our favour was their poor selection whereas now since all their stock is consigned they can stock  anything without risk or need for payment. Obviously such an expensive location is out of the question for us and we will never get the same support from record companies and labels. 

The other issue at least has a positive side and that is our reputation for recommending new and in particular local bands’ music. On one hand customers again and again said they felt guilty in that they regularly read the Avalanche blog and followed on social media bur rarely now bought anything happy just to listen on Spotify, bandcamp etc. A surprising number of people especially from outside of Scotland suggested maybe trying to monetise what we do in some other way rather than hope for sales while not compromising our reputation for honest appraisal.

One interesting thing that is a real positive given the difficulty these days of reaching a wider audience is how many people have said that they don’t really bother with social media but do follow Avalanche just so they can keep in touch with what is happening. As many of you will know our twitter feed is wide ranging in its subject matter and to many we seem to act as a filter highlighting things they might be interested in without the hassle of following lots of different accounts. In particular if we highlight something the feedback to the accounts we have mentioned often way exceeds what might be expected from an account ten times our size. Logically this I imagine is because we have 7,500 genuine followers interested in the kind of things we cover be that music, music industry news, cartoons, interesting photos or indeed pictures of bands made from lego !  

Clearly there is a more level playing field online for us be that on social media platforms or even on our website. Many have suggested expanding our online shop not just in range but to make it more encompassing in its coverage of Scottish music. There is a big demand for a one stop shop for all things Scottish but whether that can be achieved is another matter. 

So again many thanks to everybody who has taken time to email and often pop in to see me and have a chat. Not sure what will be possible but it certainly gives food for thought.

In 30 years of Avalanche it has never been about the money. It was always about the music and more importantly new music. Not necessarily Scottish music just new music. Good, interesting, exciting new music. As someone who started listening to and buying music in the 70s I moved from Wizzard and The Sweet as a kid onto punk and never had a liking for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and their peers. Sure The Beatles were great and as a kid in Liverpool everybody knew someone who knew one of The Beatles but they were for a different generation. 

Now three decades later is has to be about the money. It still has to be about the music but it has to be about the music as well. Edinburgh council don’t accept anything but cash for the rates and no shop in Edinburgh is cheap to run. At the same time as we all know music has never been valued less and been so easily available for free. The propping up of HMV and FOPP with terms indies could only dream of has been well documented already as has the fact record companies, labels and artists all now want a share of a cake that gets smaller every year.

Against this backdrop there has to be a plan for the future. Not a survival plan but something more positive than that. So what are the options ? Edinburgh Council has recognised that looking “cool” to tourists is a good thing and have a brochure to that effect out later in the year in which they have asked to feature Avalanche but whether their plans to help with council buildings or have a creative quarter like so many other cities comes to anything is a big “if” indeed.

We could find somewhere not so central with a rateable value under £10K and therefore not pay any rates at all under the council’s scheme to help small businesses. It would give people a base to visit and while I’m not totally against it it would need to be about more than just surviving.

We could find bigger premises in conjunction with other like minded businesses. If this was the case I can no longer take the risk of leading the way. There is interest in this from others and I’d be keen to hear from anybody else who thought they had something to bring to the idea. 

We could “go online”. Not in a sad selling on Amazon/eBay kinda way but developing the website to cover Scottish music comprehensively and using our strong social media presence in a way nobody else is really doing at the moment. Again others have expressed an interest in being part of this option without compromising what Avalanche stands for. 

Lastly and by no means least we crowdfund or possibly Pledge. I have had offers of investment but what is needed is customers as well as investment and involving customers ticks both boxes. I’m interested in the Pledge model and know Benji Rodgers the founder and president from his indie band days.  As part of the council involvement I spoke to various agencies, which is a blog in itself, but when it came to funding even they suggested that with a worldwide brand we should raise funds this way. It would be a case of how we pitched it given we will also be doing more with the label, looking to commission posters and have a couple of other merchandise ideas in the pipeline too.  

Whatever we do we will need to sell stuff and therein lies the problem. Dan’s Withered Hand album this year may be the last album we ever sell in any quantity. Scott very kindly tweeted our link for the Owl John album but as soon as Warners own site listed the album at a price we couldn’t match and with a signed poster sales just stopped. We have an indies only James Yorkston vinyl and again James publicised we had it not once but twice but Domino his label are very efficient at taking sales for themselves. And so it goes on. Today We Were Promised Jetpacks put their album up for presale and we were immediately offered tote bags and t-shirts to help compete and the guys tweeted we had them but it is an uphill battle achieving sales anything like they used to be. 

Which brings us to the Twilight Sad and their new album. As I said in the last short blog it will be more important than they can ever know. Sure there will be an indies only vinyl but that will be available from the band and their label too.  Whether I sell 20 or 200 is completely out of my hands depending on what is available to fans. Again I know I can count on their support but understandably fans will go with the best offer they can get.

And that in turn brings us back to making money. If we can’t sell a lot of these albums with great support from the artists themselves then more than a major rethink is needed. Our destiny has to be in our hands and I do have thoughts on how that can be achieved. I’ve really just touched the surface here but I need to move forward quickly now and encourage folk to add to all the input I’ve already received. 

This break has done me a power of good and let me see things in a new way. We hold our own best online now but there is also a huge amount of goodwill towards the shop and in particular a need for a physical presence. Can I just say a general thank you for what have been some very kind comments and apologise for not replying individually to everyone. I really do appreciate the thought people have put in to our future as well as understanding both Avalanche’s history and what makes us tick.

Cheers

Kevin

I think I’ve exhausted all the avenues that need exploring and while there is by no means a definitive answer the options are as clear as they are ever going to be. I must thank everybody for all the input and now is the time to see what is feasible. The challenges to the very premise of what a good independent record shop on the high street should be about increase almost daily but I think it is fair to say that nobody wants to leave. For Avalanche favourite’s the Twilight Sad their new album will be more important than they can ever know.

We will be at the Platform 2 market in the Waverley Station with a large selection of new vinyl, a stunning collection of used vinyl we have just acquired and our usual selection of local/Scottish bands. The used vinyl is nearly all mint and includes many titles from Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, The Beatles, John Lennon, Neil Young,  Bruce Springsteen, Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan. There are also many classic indie title from The Pixies to Swans and a lot of electronica which is mostly on Discogs but I can bring in if there is anything customers want .

http://www.discogs.com/seller/AvalancheGrassmarket

There will also be some great boxes of used vinyl at £5 covering all genres and sections for Jazz, Blues, Soundtracks etc. We will have the new Mogwai “Come On Die Young” 4xLP box set, the indies only King Creosote double vinyl and of course the Owl John CD (vinyl is later). I have a few free Owl John badges left. 

Regulars and the many Festival visitors will be able to find us at Platform 2 every Friday in August. News of a new location after the Festival very soon.  

So what has been learned in our hiatus. Well mostly it has confirmed what I already knew. Vinyl is bloody heavy to carry about, it will always rain when you don’t want it to and people have a very strange grasp on publicity especially in the age of social media. Most of all even well meaning folk regularly fail to deliver.

Also more than ever music buyers are split into fans and the casual listener. Avalanche has always been a shop for fans though not necessarily of a band. Fans of Scottish music or just good music would come to the shop looking for recommendations and we would do our best !

At a time when less people are buying less music choosing instead to stream there have never been more people wanting a slice of what is by now a much smaller cake. On top of that vinyl for all the chatter is only 1.5% of that cake ! By the time a release reaches a shop these days artist, label and record company will have done all they can to divert sales their way. Shops will then be expected to compete with the Amazon tax dodgers online and HMV/FOPP on the high street who operate on terms beyond an independent’s dreams. 

Even HMV survive by hopping from shop to shop for cheaper rent while it does no harm to Rough Trade having Martin Mills on board. However I realised that even with investors, and I’ve had several offers, in Edinburgh that simply wasn’t enough. As Pitchfork pointed out in its recent article about vinyl most sales are indie / rock which you would think was good for Avalanche but actually it means that every type of shop from HMV to specialist independents have gone a bit “indie” and now compete for sales. At the same time whether I sell 10 or 100+ of a bigger Scottish band is completely in the hands of whether they decide to offer fans a better deal directly. These days the assumption has to be this will indeed happen and clearly it is not a sensible business model to have what was a USP so out of our own hands. 

So what can be done ? Well I can pass the buck ! I know what I will be doing. I’ll be selling second hand vinyl on Discogs and some new stuff too. It would be good to do that in a shop too. I’ll be supporting Scottish bands online especially those who generally lack the profile they deserve. It would be nice to do that in a shop too. I’ll look to PledgeMusic and its direct to fan ethos to help bands but with a tweak or two ! I’ll definitely start commissioning posters and not just music ones but again that doesn’t need a shop.

It is very clear from customers they want a base they can visit Avalanche and believe me I would be very happy with that but I have lost enough money over the last three years with no support from organisations such as the SMIA or Creative Scotland who put all their efforts into producing music and none into getting it heard. They don’t have a box to tick I’m told ! Scottish artists could receive support from UK shops all year round but instead vast amounts of money are spent recording songs that will never be heard and supporting gigs that achieve few if any new fans. 

It has even been suggested we should start our own PledgeMusic campaign to finance a new shop and it isn’t the daftest idea ever but with margins as they are while Pledge are well worth their 15% for artists it is more difficult to justify for a shop. I know there are other funding platforms but what I like about Pledge is it involves the fans and that is what we need as a shop – customer involvement and not just somebody’s money.

There are any number of ways and reasons shops are surviving but supporting local bands and new music isn’t one of them and if I can’t do that I’d rather move on to something new that doesn’t involve the overheads of a shop. I’m continually told it would be a huge shame to lose that focus in Edinburgh and I agree but these are changing times and simply financing the support we give from shop sales plainly doesn’t work. Edinburgh council recently agreed at a meeting to start supporting the music community in general including shops as has happened in other cities such as New York and Sydney. I’ve been in touch after I was interviewed by The Evening News on the subject and await a response. The council have also asked Avalanche to feature in a brochure to attract visitors in September/October. When I said I didn’t know where I would be I was told “don’t worry they”ll find you”.  

There is a plethora of agencies to help people start businesses and a few to help them grow but none labelled as helping established businesses hold ground against the challenges of online sales and the decline of the high street. It seemed only fair to ask this rather than assume but after being passed from pillar to post I finally ended up at Business Gateway who said they would get back to me. As yet they haven’t.  

It is end times for the old ways even though they have much to commend them. Generally bands are pretty unoriginal at using any sort of funding platform and are not much better with social media with of course some fine exceptions. Shops have fan/customer bases far greater than the vast majority of bands and yet that is now to a large extent ignored by bands. Avalanche will have to work to its strengths. To a large extent online the playing field is far more level and few can match Avalanche’s history and current social media presence.

It is not a business model for a shop to support new music and local bands. I have no interest in looking for a box to tick or helping create a box I’ll leave that to the relevant organisations. Even the haters know I care and what is so frustrating is to see great bands settling for being a big fish in a small pond. I want nothing more than to help good new emerging bands and give those not so good bands at least a chance to find that out. We have the contacts and the knowledge you won’t get in a month of Sundays on the internet and that is true of any good indie but that has to come at a price as unlike before it is never going to come from shop sales.

Of course I’m very keen to hear from other businesses who can maybe help but help is the key word there. We bring a little bit of footfall with us, a big chunk of credibility and access to social media platforms way beyond what most can offer. These posts always generate comment so it will be easiest to address points made as they occur rather than second guessing what people want to know.

And yes the Eels do now try to sell direct to fans just like everybody else. As for the Godspeed quote in the headline some of you may remember this  

http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/2012/10/14/godspeed-you-record-shops-into-oblivion/