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an open reply to Wigwam (re: Komakino/DiS Singles)
Hello Wigwam,
I'm sure most people dont care but much of what you've said is rather inflammatory and I'd like to publicly defend points which you and several other people have raised on these boards recently. If anyone wishes me to explain anything in any further detail just ask. I'm more than happy to explain.
Firstly, thank you for caring enough to go off on a massive tirade toward the end of this thread ( http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/412528 ) and I'm stunned that you actually are quite so upset that we're not releasing the next Jeniferever 7" on vinyl. It warms my heart, despite the way in which you've gone about it.
Here's the dealio... We released the Jeniferever album in February with lush packaging (read: v.v.expensive!) and a 7" single. We then spent a fair bit of money on tour support to bring the band over to tour with Isobel Campbell and play headline shows (some of which were free entry to allow people to see the band).
Sadly, the record and shows then barely got reviewed anywhere or talked about much outside of the DiS boards, despite the fact we had Sonic Youth and British Sea Powers press officer working on the album and that everyone and anyone who bought the record do genuinely love it as much as I do, to the point that people like yourself are getting rather riled they can't get their hands on more material.
I'd love to think that we could keep pouring money at Jeniferever (and 7inch singles lose money pretty much everytime, their last one didn't sell a great deal so we can't afford to lose money making one this time - sorry!) and eventually we'll be proven right but we don't have the money to do so and I'd rather spend the money on their next album than on a run of 7" singles. I honestly believe they're one of the most beautiful bands I've ever heard and their mix of Sea & Cake, 80s Creation showgaze and Explosions in the Sky will eventually find a way of touching the hearts and minds of a wider audience.
Despite what you may think, we don't have bigwigs pouring masses of money into our company. We have an influential music manager Ian Grenfell, who was once head of East West (and instrumental in Metallica and Stina Nordenstam being a success across Europe) who believes in what we do and helps us fund and budget each of our releases, which are all profit splits between us and our artistes.
I really do believe in the DiS Digital Singles Club as it allows us to put out acts like Bat for Lashes, Emmy the Great, Adam Gnade, Blood Red Shoes... and place them on a global music map and help filter the very best music to the people who read our site and to the rest of the media who look to DiS for guidance of what the best new music is. In turn, the world DiScovers (sic) a cluster of new bands they might not have done without DiS.
I know not everyone is going to like everything I choose to release. And despite what you might think there is a great deal of expense, not least time and in many cases reputation (hence this defense), which goes into releasing any record.
I hope this gives you some understanding of why we can't always do all the things we want to do and I really wish we could do more but we're a label run by 3 people and a website run by 3 people and only 5 people work here (2 of those people are me). We're massively in debt and hoping (PREYING) that this Snow Patrol duet with Martha Wainwright sells and people start taking out more advertising on the site. We've got a long-term business plan but if we keep losing money on things I put my heart into which make no business sense to release, then we'll end up going bust. It's all about ying and yang.
Sean
http://www.disrecords.com
http://www.drownedinsound.com