A lot of paper work done today. I sent out the invoices to all the distributors. Always makes me feel weird to see how much is theoretically owed to Silber. So hopefully some of that money will come in over the next couple of weeks.
I also sent out another batch of follow-up emails on Aarktica & Vlor since there have been a few reviews the past week. I still need to send out the ones about the mini-comics.
Speaking of the mini-comics there are now a ton of mini-comic oriented shirts available through Cafe Press. So I hope some of you that dig them can buy some. It’s not organized as good as it could be, but just keep scrolling down to see more images. It would make sense if Cafe Press let you select an image & then select a shirt, but it doesn’t work that way unfortunately. Anybody know some place that does?
Talked to Shane Sauers (Miss Massive Snowflake/Starbage Hands/Northpole Records) about doing a tour in the south together this summer. Should be fun. Also talked about the state of the industry & he’s talking about a shift in business model where he handles distribution & promotion, but the artists pay for all of the manufacturing costs. It seems like I’m hearing about a lot of folks going this route & I’m not sure how I feel about it. I mean on a lot of releases I do a promo service at a level that would probably cost $2500 & do a couple hundred worth of graphic design & a few hundred dollar mastering job if they were outsourced. So at a certain point it feels like a label does a lot of work. I guess if there were more money in music right now all of these ideas would not even be up in the air.
Green lit the artwork for Sarah June’s album. So it should be here in about a month. Release date will be early March.
Talked to Mary Hallinan (Bellwether Manufacturing) about the state of the industry & she told me that though the quantites manufactured are down, they are dealing with about the same amount of jobs as two years ago. I find that interesting. It reminds me of how Nic Slaton complains about how CD manufacturers are the only people making the same amount of money because artists still want a product in their hands even if no one wants to buy them.