Starting a record pool (how to do it related)
DJ_Enki
6,471 Posts
Does anybody have any experience starting and/or running a record pool? What do you need to have in place to make it work? What sort of financial investment does it require? Anybody? Bueller?
Comments
I think the main thing is the connects at labels. And you should have one or two very well known/high profile dj's on your roster, just so your labels reps can report that on and justify sending batches of records out to you. i don't think you should have too much of a problem doing. but most record pools still get their records for free right? sounds like a great racket to me.
Cool, thanks for the info. I actually got approached by a guy with a label and a lot of material in the works about setting a pool up, so the record supply is pretty well taken care of. It's just a matter of sorting out the logistics, I think, and trying to set up some sort of price structure. None of us is rolling in cash, so I imagine we're going to do this as cheap as possible without sacrificing too much by way of service. If we can get something going, I think it'll be a winner for all involved. I'm just trying to figure out how to get it going.
Of course, any and all of y'all are welcome to join once it's up and running. The more the merrier, right?
Yo P~
Let me know if I can be of any help, you know where to get at me...
My 2 fav's:
1). He would title his letter "faggott ass deejay". Then type "only a faggott ass dj would not show up the meeting and not give feedback, so if you're faggott ass deejay keep ignoring you duties"
2). Dude would cut and pasted an e-mail arguement with one of his deejays and forwarded it to everyone. It was the most one-sided things I've ever read, dude even went ahead and bagged on him saying something to the affect of "I can't believe you're a teacher by day, poor kids". The other guy was trying to keep his cool and not ruffle any feathers..
1. You need alot of TIGHT contacts with the record labels.
2. make sure your market doesnt have too many record pools already
3. definitely need high profile dj's that are known not only in your market,
but preferably in other markets as well.
4. labels are cutting their promotional budgets and believe me record pools are
often the 1st to get cut or reduced servicing. Ask any college dj these days
because theire servicing got cut severely
5. you have to offer labels more than just traditional 'feedback' and 'charts' these days, you definitely should be a member of a rec pool coalitional and report to various industry trade magazines. if your market has regional reps for the labels, definitely develop relationships with them 1st cause they speak directly to and report to the national reps
6. Often the typical vinyl allotment for promotional purposes on an artist is usually 5000-10000 pieces and often less with the current trend in cutbacks.
the records get divided up among the radio mixshow dj's/mixtape dj's/college dj's/club dj's/regional street teams & promotion companies/radio station music and program directors/region reps/and then record pools.
Thanks for all this info, man. Very good to know, and some stuff I wasn't thinking of.
Good lookin' out, mang. I will get at you once I have some more specifics in place.
Not to mention, I hear from a reliable source that labels are already starting to move to digital delivery and it is the future. Shit why not right?
With the explosion of the internet & CD-J's, the big dudes are already getting exclusives & advance promos via email or CD-R.
I mean think about it, they will save tons of money this way & get the music to the right people at the click of a button.
Wax will always be around, but with labels scrambling for every dime, this was a long time coming.
Not knocking your idea at all homie, but I'd say if you network enough you can garner yourself the promo club wax & not have to worry about the politics involved with running a pool - it is a hustle.
But hey if you do do it - I'm all for a tight, quality pool with less filler.
I was in various Norcal pools from 1990 - 2003, as well used to get doorstep service from labels & all that shit... Ahhh the good old days!
Been in very well established pools with over 20+ yr history & even they are struggling to keep wax coming.
Labels just aint seeing the pools anymore like they used to.
I'm no longer in any pools as there is just no point, for me at least, I kept very few titles per month & just ended up selling or tossing the rest.
I mean how many Universal or Cash Money promo's does one need? Fucking A man.
The one good thing I will say about some of the pool wax I was seeing, was the promo copies frequently contained acapella, bonus cuts or versions that don't make it to the retail version.
However, sometimes them fuckers put the good/best version on the retail version so you still gotta buy it.
Also, in the well established pools you will usually get your shit waaay before everyone else does.
Peace.
This is an excellent point, and it's something we'll probably have to address head-on sooner rather than later.
Yeah, I think that's pretty much the idea. Though I should say again that this wasn't even my idea--it was brought up to me by an artist/label owner down in LA who said he has long wanted to set up a quality record pool, though what he may in fact be after is part record pool, part easy promo distribution service (e.g. he creates a small-run promo 12-inch then uses the record pool to get it out to DJs without ever getting any label promotions or PR firms involved). We had a brief conversation about it last night, so I'm just now beginning my research on it. All of these potential pratfalls are good to know so we can plan how to avoid them.