Re: Living with squid

[gatech!chinet.chi.il.us!katefans@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Chris Williams)]

Chris here,

Julian Lawton replied to my post:

> Hey - don't be so hard on record companies - the majority of record
> companies are small, genuine & caring (think about how MANY independents
> there are, and how few multinationals)

  It's true enough that there are more indies than giants, but the _vast_
majority of all records are sold by the squid. Last time I looked at the
real British charts (not the "edited by style" ones) it all seemed to be
records like "Now That's What I Call Mucus! Vol. XXIV".

> - take a label like Sarah records
> - I've organised a few concerts for them & have never once had to sign
> any contracts - I even got 35 quid back off them because we hadn't made
> enough money. They put their own concerts on in their home town, underwrite
> bands tours, maintain a mailing list of fans - typical of many small UK
> labels (and I'd imagine US ones). Even larger companies like 4AD have an
> interest in the people interested. For people like this the 'fans' are
> important.

   I know of a couple of small, nice record companies myself - Nettwerk has
a very friendly staff who seem to treat Sarah McLachlan as a member of the
family, and C'est la Mort seems to be just one very nice guy. But I also
know some right royal bastards, the much despised "Wax Trax boyz" in
particular, who wish for nothing more than to have as many tenticles as
their big brothers.
  It should also be pointed out that, in the U.S., the majors view the indies
somewhat like baseball's "farm teams", i.e. "Ok, you find them, develop them,
get them played on collage stations - then we'll offer them a big bucks
contract and lure 'em away!! A-HA-HA-HA-Haha! Ve are horrible! Ha!"

> It's unfair to categorise all record companies as 'the same', rather like
> saying all pop singers are interested in is selling multi-platinum, being
> famous, etc (imagine saying that was Kate's main motivation!!).

   Uh...not to flare up old arguments, but that was at least one of Kate's
motivations. Check out the old "Profiles In Rock/Freeze Frame" interview.
She does (or did) care about the charts.

> Anyway, would YOU have discovered Kate without a record company?

   Maybe. Not to get involved in any flame wars not of my own making, but
we have found _other_ artists without "benefit" of a record company.


                                    Chris Williams of
                                        Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago
                                            katefans@chinet.chi.il.us

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  %Kate: And the next week it's still in the charts, and you go like WOW!%
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