Indie Marketer
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Entries Tagged as 'vinyl records'

bon_iver

The Story Is Essential For Success

May 19th, 2010 · Uncategorized

A friend and I recently got into a heated, deep discussion about an album. The album is Bon Iver’s 2008 release “For Emma, Forever Ago.” Arguably, one of the best and most important albums in the past 10 years. The disagreement in the discussion took place when we hypothesized about why Justin Vernon‘s album was such a success. My friend staunchly defended that the album’s artistic integrity and solace was enough to propel it into stardom. She feels that the album was ultimately destined to be a success solely based upon the music contained therein. While that’s a nice sentiment to ponder, I stressed that the album got it’s legs through the story attached to it. A downtrodden, heartbroken, musician retreats to his dad’s remote log cabin in northern Wisconsin to write and hash out such a genuinely original album. When Jools Holland introduced him it’s no coincidence he casually mentions “the young man who wrote and recorded the album in such a location.” The imagery of the songs, the lyrical content and just the warm feel of the album all helps to conjure up the cabin story. The first time I heard a couple of songs from it, I knew I had to not only have it, but I needed it on vinyl. I don’t know that there’s an album more suited for the warm vinyl format. You can send someone a Bon Iver mp3 and they’ll more than likely dig the music. But send someone an mp3 and attach the story of Justin Vernon and the remote log cabin – and there’s another convert, another person who’ll google him, buy the album and likely tell someone else about it.

Smart brands can and do utilize this approach. It doesn’t have to be quite as captivating or “rags to riches” as you’d think, but it does help give the customer a vehicle in which to spread your product or service. Whether it’s Seth Goldman mixing up his earliest batches of Honest Tea in his kitchen with a thermos or Stonyfield Farms‘ Gary Hirschberg staunchly making and adhering to organic dairy products 20 years before the organic food revolution. So what’s your brand story? Are you a feelgood non-profit on a mission?  Are you a scrappy microbrew on the rise? How did you arrive to where you are now? Do your employees even know the story? Perhaps start there, because they should know too. After all, they’re your loudest bullhorns for spreading the word about your brand. You’d be surprised at what a simple, repeatable story can do. Just ask Justin Vernon.

You can buy the Bon Iver album here, or head down to your local independent record shop and pick it up on vinyl.

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DJ

Everyone is a DJ

April 23rd, 2010 · Uncategorized

Lately I’ve noticed a trend here in the Twin Cities of the types of people who are DJ’ing. To quote Craig Finn, “Everyone’s a critic and most people are DJ’s”. It’s true. At almost every venue large and small it seems regular Joe’s are leaving their laptops and fancy beat-matching programs at home and are filling their satchels and 45 rpm lunchboxes and chilling out at venue’s spinning stuff they dig. At Grumpy’s in NE, the Turf Club in between sets, even King & I Thai has a DJ most nights, spinning great stuff while you eat the best mock duck and coconut curry in town.

I mention this because 10 years ago DJ’ing was a sacred and expensive “art.” I’m not putting it down. But laptops and fancy Serato programs were seemingly becoming the norm in the DJ’s arsenal. Now, there’s a growing backlash. The DJ’s I’ve noticed are my fellow aging indie dudes in flannel shirts and beat up jeans. No slick hair, no 80’s shades or neon, just ladies and gentleman playing wax sides and sipping comp’d brews from the bar.

My guess is this sea change is due to the militant resurgence of the vinyl format – but that’s a whole other post topic I’ll get to at some point. People who like indie music are seekers by nature, they’re hunters and intense listeners. They don’t just accept what the airwaves are regurgitating out. We don’t need instant song iPod gratification. Venues, bar owners and promoters are picking up on this and catering to it. Play us something original or something familiar and we’ll love it either way.

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Garage_Sale

Why Record Stores Should Encourage Each Other

April 21st, 2010 · Uncategorized

Ever since I can remember, my mother has had a massive, multi-family & friends garage sale 2x a year. If a neighbor or friend wanted to put some items on the sale she never refused. The more the merrier. It created a massive sale. One that any hardcore garage saler would be insane to pass up. Having the sale religiously on the same 2 annual weekends also assured that the folks who loved and counted on our sale, could easily mark their calenders for next year in anticipation. I’ll come back to this in a minute…

For the past 2 years my good friend Joseph Belk and I have compiled and distributed the Twin Cities Independent Record Store Guide or “TCIRSG”. If you live in the Twin Cities area and have popped into any of the record stores or trendy coffee shops, you may have seen our guide. It’s FREE and quite useful for out-of-towners who are visiting and handy for locals looking to discover or be reminded of when/where the record shops are open. As we were distributing the guides we noticed that a couple of the larger independent stores were apprehensive about displaying the guide in fear that it would tell potential customers about the other existing record stores and that they’d lose business to them. They couldn’t be more wrong. In a world when music formats are going digital and the classic, brick-and-mortar record stores are disappearing so quickly, wouldn’t you think the remaining record stores would want to band together and embrace their loyal community of (physical) record buying customers?

What those couple of stores don’t get is that it goes both ways. I’ve personally popped into a larger record store thinking that there was no way they wouldn’t have a particular release that week, and when they didn’t carry it I then went and checked with one of the smaller stores (and vice-versa). One of the places usually carried the release and both were always eager to order it for me if I still couldn’t find it. My point is that this is the same loyal customer frequenting both stores. I don’t care which particular (independent) record store has my release, I just want one of them to have it. I want them all to still exist. For any of these independent stores to try and dissuade a customer from shopping (or even knowing) about another store is just wasted time and effort. Look at the growing success of Record Store Day.

…Back to the garage sale thing. Like my mother’s massive garage sale tactic of attracting a buzz by teaming up with like-minded individuals looking to sell their wares, she created a spectacle that wasn’t to be missed yearly.  The tighter the community of record stores – the more likely it is to not only retain and satisfy your loyal customers but it will attract new customers to the community as well.

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