Hi Everyone,
Here are the charts for the week.
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hey Everyone,
Traveling this week. Here are the charts.
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hi Everyone,
This week I wanted to share some exciting news from the CIMS group.
Bob Roets, owner of Wooden Nickel Records for 46 years, announced his retirement at the end of last year. Don’t worry, Wooden Nickel isn’t going anywhere as Bob is passing the torch to his son Chris. Congrats to Bob on building such a longstanding music legacy within the Fort Wayne community and I am thrilled it all carries on with Chris, the next generation.
Here is an article about Wooden Nickel: https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/wooden-nickel-owner-retires-after-46th-christmas-selling-vinyl/amp/
Here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
A NEW RECORD STORE VINYL SALES CHART
A COLLABORATION BETWEEN HITS, STREETPULSE, INDIE RETAIL COALITIONS, RECORD STORE DAY AND MUSIC BIZ GIVES INDIE RECORD STORES AN OUTLET AS THEY SAY “BYE BYE BYE” TO LUMINATE
Eighteen years ago, most people would have been hard-pressed to come up with a weekly list of ten albums that sold more than a few copies on vinyl, much less a chart of fifty. All these years later, sales of vinyl albums exceed tens of thousands every week, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual business. Independent record stores are at the heart of this exciting, positive section of the industry and their collective sales are an increasingly important aspect of the business. A new chart, the Vinyl 50, published by HITS and powered by StreetPulse, begins this week as a brand-new place for stores to show off their dominant place in vinyl’s “resurgence”.
https://hitsdailydouble.com/news&id=339073&title=INTRODUCING-THE-INDIE-VINYL-SALES-CHART
And it's not just all about the “Benjamins” or the number of vinyl albums sold—more than that has grown in the past two decades: so has the sheer number of record stores. Thanks to a whole new generation of entrepreneurs, there are now approximately 1,500 record stores that both celebrate Record Store Day and sell new vinyl each week. Pretty exciting stuff! In these stores music is shared, families bond, friendships are forged, communities are supported, dreams come true and records are sold. Expansion! Growth! Heck, even Taylor Swift made an album just for these indie record stores, selling 75,000 copies on vinyl in a single week. That's just how much record stores matter.
Historically, record stores have reported their sales to Nielsen Soundscan--since purchased by Luminate-- providing Luminate and Billboard with one of the biggest feel-good stories of the music industry in the last few years, with year-over-year growth outpacing even the most positive projections. Change and expansion requires support, though, especially when what’s growing is independent businesses run by people who live and breathe music but aren’t necessarily all at the same level of business and technology savvy. Instead of ramping up resources to help record stores, increasing both reporters and the accuracy of their data, Luminate's response to this extraordinary growth and new energy was to… well, ignore it. To invest no time, no money, no employees, and no resources into reporting the exploding sales of vinyl with these indie record stores - a dynamic sector of the music industry that many consider its heart and soul. Indeed, behind the scenes, Luminate’s relationship with record stores and those who represent them was deteriorating.
"It isn't easy being an independent business, but over the past two years Luminate/Billboard somehow found it within themselves to make it harder by creating new and depressing ways to kick out the sales of albums credited to record stores, including, but not limited to, sales made through a store’s website,” says Record Store Day Co-Founder and President of the Dept of Record Stores coalition Michael Kurtz. “If a store had an artist appearance and sold the artist’s albums to fans, or if a store sent in proof of vinyl sales five different ways but missed one Luminate rule, or even if the store did everything according to the changing rule sets, Luminate might screw up and kick out the album sales anyway. Even legacy stores who have been in business for forty years or more had their album sales mysteriously zeroed out. Making matters worse, Luminate replaced their lone employee dedicated to working with record stores with a merchant service email address. It was untenable and inevitable that they would leave this mess."
Last October, Luminate announced their decision to stop weighting physical record sales on a specific date, meaning that without a VERY LARGE influx of reporting stores in a VERY SHORT time, the charts would go from being semi-representational of the actual sales of physical media to looking like physical sales fell off a cliff. Record stores and retail coalitions were shocked by this decision, and so were the people who use Luminate's data to make daily decisions, including distributors, major and independent record labels, publishers, managers but also spinning out into the businesses that press and ship the records, make the turntables they’re played on and more. So many people, publicly and privately, called on Luminate to change their minds, or at least to bring on a representative sample of stores before unweighting sales, as that would at least mitigate the harm to the charts this unweighting would cause. Luminate's communications about this in the short three months since they announced it were essentially pleas to have the industry help them quickly get more stores on board-- but no changes have been made on Luminate's part to improve the relationship, make onboarding easier, or create transparency about why certain sales are allowed to count and others are thrown out.
No one should be surprised that the majority of independent record stores reporting to Luminate have decided to stop. Why would they bend over backwards to have their data be used in a way that every corner of the business has said is, at best, a very very bad idea? Especially after they’d spent time watching Luminate make their decisions without consulting them or the people who really understand the quirky but important nature of the indie record store world? “We understood how, historically, the industry looked to the Billboard charts and the data that Luminate provides when making important decisions that affect our businesses, so we spent the better part of two years trying to forge and establish a true working relationship with Luminate,” says Coalition of Independent Music Stores President and Record Store Day Co-Founder Andrea Paschal. “The hope was that an actual partnership could be beneficial to everyone. Instead, we were brushed aside when trying to provide valuable insight, ignored, and left in the dark, often finding out by word of mouth after the fact about major decisions that affected our stores. Decisions that continued to erode and marginalize the efforts and sales taking place in indie stores specifically, while also misrepresenting the contributions of these unique retailers to the overall tally of physical goods sold, and to the music industry as a whole, because their reporting is based on what you would call a mere data sample representation of existing independent record stores. It became pretty clear that there was no real intention to change that."
Ultimately, it’s all about business decisions, according to Music Biz President Portia Sabin. "Luminate made a business decision to unweight physical sales, and there are consequences to every decision. Luminate has the right to make whatever decisions it wants for its business, but so do retail stores."
Eric Levin, founder of the Alliance of Independent Media Stores, another Record Store Day Co-Founder and crucially for this topic, the owner of legendary and beloved Atlanta record store Criminal Records sums it all up: "My store has been a proud Soundscan reporter since 1991, we treated it like a badge of honor. Status gave us access to great in-store appearances and access to co-op advertising. We’ve made so many friends with artists, labels, distributors and management and those relationships all remain. Our commitment is to the lifetime of an artist. When Luminate took over and began enforcing new rules and regulations on us, our relationship with them was over. Plus, they were rude. As Bobby Hill said on King of the Hill: “That’s My Purse, I Don’t Know You.”
For questions, press requests, logos, and artwork, please see the publicists below.
About Record Store Day
Record Store Day, the organization, is managed by the Department of Record Stores and is organized in partnership with the Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS), the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and promotes independent record stores year-round with events, special releases and other fun things.
Record Store Day, the global celebration of the culture of the record store, takes place annually in April.
Record Store Day Sponsors:
ADA, Alliance Entertainment, AMPED, AMS, BCW Supplies, Concord Label Group, Crosley Turntables, Dogfish Head Brewery, Furnace Record Pressing, InGrooves, Music Business Association, Marshall Headphones and Speakers, MVD Entertainment, The Orchard, Redeye Worldwide, Sony Music, ThinkIndie, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Traffic Entertainment, URP Distribution, Virgin, Vinyl Styl, WMX
For any media inquiries, please contact:
Perry Serpa
Vicious Kid Public Relations
perry@viciouskidpr.com
917.660.4137
Cristina Sneed
NoiseNY
cristina@noiseNY.com
917.684.0452
Andrea Paschal
CIMS / ThinkIndie Distribution / RSD
andrea@cimsmusic.com
205.595.1932 x208
Hi Everyone,
This week I wanted to send big love to Rochester, NY to our Record Archive family. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Alayna Alderman (Vice President of Record Archive) and her husband Reo responded to the dreaded middle of the night alarm call to find quite the site; that someone had attempted to drive through the front door to gain entrance to the store.
These stories are always so disheartening especially when it affects the small businesses that are there to serve the community. However, Alayna and her team refused to let this major inconvenience get them down. They got creative with getting their customers in and out of the store and were resourceful when resources were limited (turns out the commercial door timelines are rivaling vinyl production!) By yesterday, they were back up and running with a new door to welcome their customers to their weekly Wednesday Happy Hour. Stories like this (especially with our stores) inspire and remind me that when you get knocked down, you can’t stay down. You get up, brush yourself off and get back at it.
Cheers to Record Archive for doing just that.
If you are looking for somewhere to point your Record Store love this week, hint hint… https://recordarchive.com/.
Here are the charts.
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hi Everyone,
As you know, I always like to highlight good things happening at our stores and this week I wanted to share something cool from Looney Tunes in West Babylon, NY.
Looney Tunes is starting a music scholarship program for graduating seniors going into college with a major in the field of music in honor of John Sadowski. Many of you know John from his time in the music business and as a long-time employee at Looney Tunes. This is a great way to honor their friend and to keep John’s love of music alive.
Please check out more of the details on this great cause and thanks to Karl for sharing this!
For full details visit the site here
https://bit.ly/3kndf0N
Video link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zznZqwBdt-o
Here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hi everyone,
This week I have the results of our 2022 CIMS Year End Survey. As we know with independent retail, every store is different and unique with their approach to business, but I always look forward to the results of this survey when we get a comprehensive look into how our CIMS group, as a whole, faired for the year.
Here we go!
How did your December 2022 compare to December 2021?
Overall, the group was up 12% for the month of December with the high being up 34% and the low being down 3%
How did your vinyl sales in December 2022 compare to December 2021?
Overall, the group was up 18% for the month of December with the high being up 55% and the low being down 3%
How did CD sales in December 2022 compare to December 2021?
Overall, the group was down 3.4% for the month of December.
How did vinyl sales for 2022 overall compare to 2021?
Overall, the group was up 10% for 2022, with the high being up 39% and the low being down 10%. Multiple comments said availability of titles affected this.
How did CD sales for 2022 overall compare to 2021?
Overall, the group was up 1% for 2022, with the high being up 25% and the low being down 13%
What percentage of your overall sales were used product for 2022?
Overall, about 25%
How did 2022 used sales compare to 2021 used sales?
Overall, up about 1%, with the high being up 12% and the low being down 10%
What percentage of your 2022 sales were in-store sales vs online?
Overall, about 87% were in-store sales, with online sales making up 13% of the biz.
What were the product lines or genres that stuck out as big winners for the holiday season and all year?
There was a great range of answers including:
Catalog LPs- number 1 answer
Autographed items
Mystery Bags
There seemed to be an increase in all kinds of gift items as well
Were there any contributing or diminishing factors that affected holiday sales and throughout the year?
Top answers were the price and availability of vinyl. Also, many of our stores were hit really hard with all kinds of crazy weather especially over the month of December, which I know had an impact on our December numbers.
All in all, and despite the hurdles, the stores all seemed to have a strong year. In 2023 I would love to see us all work to do what we can to keep vinyl pricing down where possible (I know this is a tough one with all of the supply issues, but let’s keep it on the list), working to make sure we make some room at the press to make sure those catalog titles can get into the hands of the stores because they are performing, and also to keep these stores front of mind and at least on equal footing with everyone else on new releases as well. They remain an important piece of the new release equation and they want to be able to satisfy their customers along with everyone else.
Thanks for reading and reach out if you have any questions or want to discuss.
Here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hey everyone,
Here are the charts for the week.
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hi Everyone,
This week, I wanted to shed a little light on my co-worker and dear friend of many years, Scott Register. Many of you may know “Reg” from his CIMS marketing days. If you have worked with him in the last decade, it has probably been on the ThinkIndie side of things, where he spends his days working to bring special products and releases to indie retail. But for many artists out there, Reg is the guy willing to give their new music a chance to come to life across the airways and into the homes and cars of many week after week on his Sunday morning radio show Reg’s Coffee House. Reg’s show started as a true passion for not only discovering new talent but also wanting to spread the word and share that music with others, and this past Sunday he celebrated 25 years on the air. His slogan “building your music library one song at a time” could not be a truer statement for so many.
I think (hope) he will be okay with me sharing this story. I knew of Reg for years because of the show and working in record stores and through Don and other mutual friends. I honestly think we didn’t really like each other at first. I thought “Ugh….that radio guy…”, because I was way too cool for school and thought “I don’t need THIS guy to tell me what to listen to” and he pretty much summed me up as “the mean girl that thinks she is way too cool for school”. I am pretty sure at the time, the one thing we could agree on was that we probably had no music in common. Fast forward a couple of years, and I am the new kid at CIMS and his co-worker. We are a small office and so I think we both were thinking we had to figure out a way to at least tolerate each other.
I would love to say it was our love of music, in the end, was what broke the wall down, but no- it was candy… a little golden bear in fact. I don’t remember how it all went down, but one day we were at lunch and Reg asked me if I knew about this place that was a wholesale candy supplier that was open to the public. We took a detour, and we were literally two kids in a candy store. We realized on that trip that we both loved Haribo gummy bears like no other candy and that they are really the ONLY gummy bears worth messing with and that was it- The wall came down.
Over the years I have been lucky to share some amazing musical moments with this guy (turns out we ended up loving a lot of the same music) and I can attest he is still as excited about new music today as the kid he was when he started all of this.
Congratulations on twenty-five years Reg! Here is to many more years of bringing music to the people in the many ways that you do!
If you want to drop him a line you can find him at reg@thinkindie.com and you can catch him every Sunday on Birmingham Mountain Radio.https://bhammountainradio.com/
Also, this is a great interview written up in our local this week:
https://www.al.com/life/2022/01/scott-register-on-influencing-alabama-music-lovers-for-25-years-i-tell-people-im-a-conduit.html
Here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Reg's Coffee House - 25th Anniversary Playlist
Listen here
Hi Everyone,
This year marks fifteen years since we all came up with a crazy little idea to celebrate record stores in a big way. So, it seems that the 2022 Record Store Day Ambassador should also be a go big or go home moment, and this morning kicked things off as we announced our first global RSD ambassador.
Taylor has shown lots of love and support to the indies, especially over the past few years, so this only makes sense.
Via recordstoreday.com:
TAYLOR SWIFT.
THE RECORD STORE DAY AMBASSADOR, TAYLOR'S VERSION
Watch for the Official List of RSD Releases, coming soon.
"I’m very proud to be this year's Global Ambassador for Record Store Day. The places where we go to browse and explore and discover music new and old have always been sacred to me. Record stores are so important because they help to perpetuate and foster music-loving as a passion. They create settings for live events. They employ people who adore music thoroughly and purely. Those people and shops have had a rough few years and we need to support these small businesses more now than ever to make sure they can stay alive, stay eccentric, and stay individual. It’s been a true joy for me to watch vinyl sales grow in the past few years and we, the artists, have the fans to thank for this pleasant surprise. Happy Record Store Day, everyone! Stay safe out there."
Stay Tuned, and here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hi Everyone,
We are well into week two of this year and I am back with all that heavy math I promised last week. As we do every year, I surveyed our stores on the good, the bad and the ugly of all things 2021, and spoiler alert… it was mostly good. On a lot of these, I asked the stores to not only do year over year comparisons but also to stack 2021 against 2019, since last year was… weird to say the least.
So, without further ado, let’s dig into how the CIMS stores ended the year:
2021 Holiday Numbers:
How did December 2021 compare to December 2020?
On the low end up 3%, On the high end up 53%, with an average for the group of up 23%
How about December 2021 compared to 2019?
On the low end flat, On the high end up 56%, with an average for the group of up 30%
How did vinyl sales in December 2021 compare to December 2020?
On the low end down 5%, On the high end up 42%, with an average for the group of up 20%
How did vinyl sales in December 2021 compare to December 2019?
On the low end up 11%, On the high end up 77%, with an average for the group of up 45%
How did CD sales in December 2021 compare to December 2020?
On the low end down 22%, On the high end up 75%, with an average for the group of up 16%
How did CD sales in December 2021 compare to December 2019?
On the low end down 40%, On the high end up 67%, with an average for the group of up 8%. I would add that most of our stores reported growth here, with quite a few accounts in the double digits.
2021 Overall Sales Numbers
How did vinyl sales for 2021 overall compare to last year?
On the low end up 9%, On the high end up 103%, with an average for the group of up 60%
How did vinyl sales for 2021 overall compare to 2019?
On the low end up 10%, On the high end up 141%, with an average for the group of up 67%
How did CD sales for 2021 overall compare to 2020?
On the low end down 4%, On the high end up 78%, with an average for the group of up 28%
How did CD sales for 2021 overall compare to 2019?
On the low end down 50%, On the high end up 25%, with an average for the group of down 6%
What percentage of your overall sales were used product for 2021?
On the low end 9%, On the high end up 25%, with an average for the group of 25%
How did 2021 used sales compare to 2020 used sales?
On the low end down 21%, On the high end up 73%, with an average for the group of up 29%
How did 2021 used sales compare to 2019 used sales?
On the low end down 32%, On the high end up 27%, with an average for the group of up 4%
What percentage of your 2021 sales were in-store sales?
On the low end 65%, On the high end 100%, with an average for the group of up 85%
Of your overall 2021 sales, what percentage made up online sales?
On the low end 0%, On the high end 35%, with an average for the group of 15%
Overall, what was very exciting for me to see was that our stores reported growth in all formats (even the CD) and some in astounding numbers. Also, despite the fact that throughout 2020 our stores majorly upped their online sales game, they are still doing the majority of their business within the walls of brick and mortar, which speaks to the importance of the communities these stores have cultivated with their customers. I think that will only continue with all the vinyl discovery that has happened over the past two years especially.
Finally, I always like to close out the survey with these two questions:
Any product lines or genres that stuck out as big winners for the holiday season and all year?
The resounding answers will not surprise you; Turntables, Vinyl accessories and you guessed it… VINYL! Especially hip-hop and classic catalog
Were there any contributing or diminishing factors that affected holiday sales and throughout the year?
On the negative side, there were the obvious ones, the pandemic, supply chain issues and weather issues.
But on the positive side was believe it or not- the pandemic. Many stores gave various examples of how Covid has made everyone take a much closer look at their businesses finding ways to get creative, which has ultimately brought growth in several areas. One store actually noted having the staff unchanged in three years, “Their creativity and cohesion made for an incredibly successful year! “
There you have it, 2021 in a nutshell! Thanks for reading and as always feel free to reach out.
Here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hi Everyone,
Yesterday afternoon many of us gathered around the Zoom campfire for the first “Let’s Talk Physical” event. This was put together by Music Biz’s Physical Business Action Committee, a committee which I and several CIMS members also serve on. The goal was to bring together management, labels, distribution, retail, DSPs as well as other leaders in the music industry to share stories of how we have all worked together to overcome the challenges that 2020 brought with it. Last year certainly was a challenging one, but out of that came many creative initiatives, new business strategies, and believe it or not, success stories. For instance, the Indie sector saw sales growth last year (imagine if we had those supply chain issues rectified). Also, after its 15th consecutive year of growth, 2020 marked the best year for vinyl since the early ’90s. How about despite (or who knows, maybe because of) the pandemic, five of vinyl’s best-selling weeks occurred in 2020, and in case you were wondering, the compact disc is still alive and well. Here is the thing, streaming is great when you are on the go, or as a tool to discover new music and I use it as much as anyone. However, we all spent a lot of time at home last year (and still are) and we are missing the live experience of music, so many of us are listening to music differently and are craving a way to really connect with it, hence spending time on our collections. Also, there is a new wave of collectors who are learning to appreciate the value of owning their music and the ritual of listening to an album, and that is a good thing for all of us in the physical retail business. What became clear from the conversations we had yesterday, is that while it is definitely a business, for so many of us involved, it is truly a labor of love and I believe that is what makes it all work.
Here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hey everyone,
Here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Thad Cockrell
If In Case You Feel The Same
(ATO Records)
Scott Register - ThinkIndie A&R
jimmy fallon - @jimmyfallon
Jan 26
"A reminder to never give up on your dreams because some moron could walk into a hardware store, hear your song, and ask you to come on their show! (That’s me - I’m the moron). See @thadcockrell on @FallonTonight tonight!!"
You’ve probably seen the viral story about Thad Cockrellalready. If not, you haven’t been paying attention the last 3 days. Apparently, Jimmy Fallon heard Cockrell’s “Swingin’” in a hardware store, loved it, Shazammed it, and it became his personal COVID-19 anthem. Meanwhile, Cockrell’salbum had “flatlined” and he was considering a career change. Fast forward to this week, Cockrell was on The Tonight Show and The Today Show, his song is #1 on iTunes ahead of AJR, Morgan Wallen, The Weekend and Olivia Rodrigo, and Cockrell is high on life. All because an influential person loved a song and Shazammed it. That’s a superpower I would like to have. The ability to change the life of a hard-working, deserving artist who everyone calls friend and who has worked his entire life out of his love of his art. That’s the Midas touch I want. Jimmy Fallon, never take for granted what you have, and thanks for helping out my friend Thad. For what it’s worth, Thad played at my wedding with Courtney Jaye, John P Strohm, Maria Taylor and The Hurlers back in 2012. It’s no Tonight Show but hey…Check out videos and the story on Thad and Jimmy’s Twitter.
https://twitter.com/thadcockrell
https://twitter.com/jimmyfallon
Hi Everyone,
A lot has happened in the past two weeks. Yesterday marked the first day in a new chapter of American history. Just as the new year is a time where many people set their goals and make resolutions, the inauguration is a similarly symbolic event. It is a chance for our country to reset, redefine our goals as a nation, and we all can think about changes we need to make to be better. It is also a time for us to begin to heal. Even though yesterday’s event was much different, I couldn’t help but notice despite everything, what a large role music played. It made clear to me what I already knew- that music is such an important force in bringing people together, despite their differences -and that can be very healing.
Speaking of that, I know we all spend a lot of time on zoom meetings lately, but last week I along with quite a healthy group of stores around the country had the chance to sit down with Common and discuss his latest/upcoming release A Beautiful Revolution Part 1. He was very inspired over the past year of events and was able to craft a group of songs that very much speaks to that need for us to come together and heal. It was great to have an artist that so many of our stores have a connection to want to take the time to talk to the stores and really connect with them about his music and the process of making it. It was clear that he understands the importance of our stores and the sense of community they provide. It was also lovely to see his excitement about working with artists he respects so much. As such an accomplished artist himself, that is always refreshing to see. Thank you to Common, Concord, Loma Vista and everyone else that brought us all together for that. It was definitely a lot more fun than most of my Friday meetings.
One of my favorite takeaways from the conversation was the notion that “Revolution is love” a sentiment that was repeated a few times in our conversation, and that is so true. Spreading love instead of hate is not always the easy road… so it can actually be quite revolutionary. This was also echoed through Amanda Gorman’s poem yesterday:
”We must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another”…
“When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we're brave enough to see it
If only we're brave enough to be it”
So let’s go do this.
Andrea
Here are the charts.
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hey everyone,
Here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Various Artists
Scandinavian Swords II
(Northern Electronics)
Blake Wimberly - CIMS/ThinkIndie
I often fall back into this 2016 collection, from the excellent, Stockholm-based Northern Electronics label, featuring some of techno's more forward-thinking producers (Abdulla Rashim, Dorisburg, Neel, Varg to name a few). It's a hazy, sparse, sometimes brutal, often beautiful drift through nebulous, ambient atmospheres layered within brooding, minimal techno vessels. The post-dystopian clean-up crew is here -- bring out your dead!
Hi Everyone,
Man…the hits just keep on coming. This weekend we lost Bill Southard of Ingram/ VPD, a cherished member of our indie retail community.
Bill was a wonderful person with a big personality and an even bigger heart. He always brought cheer to a room and his love for life was infectious. He was a champion for all of us, and always went the extra mile to be supportive of indie retail over the years. Bill will be greatly missed by so many of us.
I should also mention that Record Store Day will be doing our annual meeting next week. We (Michael, Carrie, Eric Luann and I) will convene in NYC to collect our thoughts and continue planning for 2020. It is always a great way to get the idea wheels turning, and that time together face to face really seems to be the magic that holds it all together.
We will have limited time, but in the wake of losing one of our friends, we want to see as many of our NYC friends as possible. To attempt to accomplish this with only so many hours in a day, we will be hosting a happy hour on Tuesday 2/11 from 5:00-7:30 at Tanner Smiths, located at 204 West 55th Street. Come for a few minutes, come for an hour. If you're in the city next week, so are we! Let's get our faces in the same room! We look forward to seeing you and catching up.
Here are the charts,
Andrea
Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic
Hi Everyone,
Not too much to say this week other than it started off with some high highs and some low lows.
For the Highs- Congrats to Billie Eilish and Finneas on their Grammy sweep and performance. Tyler the Creator brought it and Rosalia was on fire! I absolutely love her, and it has been so exciting to see her gaining ground here in the States.
However, it was beyond weird to go into the Grammys, at the Staples Center, with the loss of Kobe. As a long-time Lakers fan, I watched almost every game of his career and what can you say- he was a legend. I am growing really tired of losing legends. I know, this is a game as old as time….and no one can last here forever, but there are certain people on this planet with such talent and raw energy- be it in in sports, music, film, whatever – that they actually seem invincible.
And in a way…I guess they are- because they have forever left their mark on us. The people we hold as our legends (whoever that may be for you) are the ones that inspire. Whether you are driven to get on the court, learn to work a camera, pick up an instrument, invent something. These are the people that drive us to push ourselves to that next level even when it seems out of reach.
So- I guess the message this week is: Life is short. Don’t take for granted the ones you love. Whatever it is you do, do it with passion and go make your mark.
Here are the charts:
CIMS PICK OF THE WEEK
