Re: Real World Top Ten

Dirk van den Heuvel (dirk.v@ix.netcom.com)
Fri, 12 Jul 1996 00:35:20 -0500

At 09:31 PM 7/11/96 -0400, you wrote:
>that all said, i can't help but point out the hidden (as opposed to the
>obvious) bad karma of what he said. are those promos and white labels
>you were able to buy the ones marked "NOT FOR SALE; PROPERTY OF XXXXX
>RECORDS?" you know, the ones that provide no royalties to the artists,
>but instead cannibalize the sales of legitimate records? the same ones
>that dj's are sent for free, with the explicit understanding that they
>not be sold to retailers? hmmm, thought so. did you hear about the
>feds busting a couple of downtown records stores last week for selling
>bootleg and PROMO records? ain't no joke, homey. there's an executive
>at warner bros. whose career has been destroyed by accusations that he
>knew employees were stocking up on promo records that were supposed to
>go to dj's (like you) but instead were sold by the employees to retail.
>
>kevin k
>mr fliz
>
You don't really believe all that do you Kevin? While most U.S. companies do
send out promos for free to deejays, record pools, radio, etc. a lot do
release promos for sale and most (if not all) overseas labels let some
promos "slip" into distribution to build the buzz on a record. If you can
get deejays to buy your "promos" why give 'em away? Now bootlegs are a
completely different kettle of fish and those that are just rip-offs of
records not yet out are just killing the scene, the bands and everybody else
involved.

"Promos" for sale are such are part of the underground dance music scenes
that their removal is next to impossible (and that assumes someone was
really trying to remove them--which they ain't!).

This thread brings to mind my theory of the record "food chain". Basically
this is the order of who has the best chance to find/get a hard to find
record (like some white label promo of the next Tricky single for example).

Worst Chance To Get New Tricky White Label
1. Joe Blow. Customer of the street. 0%-5% depending on luck.
2. Joe Regular Blow. A regular at the store. 5%-10% ditto.
3. DJ Joe Blow. Good customer who deejays locally. 10%-25% depending on how
much he/she spends and gets along w/staff.
4. Counterperson Joe. One of the employees in the store, but NOT a buyer. 15-25%
5. Buyer Joe. One of the buyers. 30-60% depending on the size of the store
and if he/she works the day the record comes in.
6. Distributor Employee Joe. One of the workers at the distributor(s) that
sell the record. 50-70%.
7. Distributor Buyer Joe. The buyer at the distributor(s) that sell the
record. 90%.
8. Label Joe. Some big shot at a dance label. See #1 above.
Best Chance To Get New Tricky White Label

There it is (obviously a couple of special deejays break the rules and are
at 90-95%, but overall this is a pretty accurate breakdown). Given this
Lo-Ki should be glad more "casual" buyers aren't looking for white
labels/promos, but in reality most of them couldn't buy the real juicy ones
anyway--stores parcel out those goodies only to their best regular customers
(and usually give preference to deejays) and then only if the store
employees/buyers don't snatch 'em first
--Dirk van den Heuvel--
Dirk.V@ix.netcom.com
CARGO RECORDS AMERICA INC.
The Premier Distributor of Acid Jazz in the U.S. since '93