I am STILL working on getting to finishing off my Odessa interviews, and hope to write up the Paul Finn interview on Saturday. In the interview the owner of Odessa records explains in some detail and not all the detail I would have liked, what it takes to run a record label.
But the thing to keep in mind is more than the obvious stuff, good A&R equals good records, is what should be obvious but isn’t. It takes hard, unsexy, relentless nuts and bolts work.
When I was a rock critic I would work telemarketing to make ends meet and running a record label takes telemarketing skills. Salesman skills. Getting on the phone, calling record shops, getting record shops to listen to your product, getting record shops to stock your products.
All the rest is a question as to when and where and how do you cut corners. What is the difference between being a vanity product (like, for instance, A BLOG IS) who is there to release its own bands songs, and a real record label with a roster of artists.
And how long can you wait till you hit big.
While you are fingering that out you are working your ass off packing CDs into cases, using your home as a warehouse and supporting bands who you just knew would break if ANYBODY WOULD BLOODY LISTEN. Saddle Creek did it. Kill Pop Stars did it. Sun records and Atlanta and Chess did it. Everybody gets their hands dirty.
And what do you get in return?
Do you remember that scene in “24 Party people” when a major tries to buy Factory Records only to be told by Tony Wilson there is nothing to buy. Factory never actually signs a contract with the bands.
That’s what you have in the end. Nothing. And if one of your bands hits big they will either leave you, or you’ll sell em, or you’ll get bought.