A lot of tracks go across our admin department’s desk, and when they find something exceptional, they flag it up. One of the artists that we’re particularly proud to welcome to our catalogue is Gyre. A one man outfit from Bournemouth, Gyre’s tracks are a mixed up kind of electro, dub and lemon-jellyesque samples and loops. They mingle heavy basslines and lush, layered sound to create something that I can hear being played in the main room at Fabric, or maybe beefing out of someone’s ridiculously big in-car sound system down at the beach as the fire burns and the exotic cheroot is passed around. Click the album art to visit Gyre’s myspace, or the iTunes link to show your appreciation in a financial manner.
U.K. entertainment retail chain Zavvi, has gone into administration, the U.K. equivalent of Chapter 11 bankrutcy protection.
Administrators Ernst & Young said today they intended to trade the 114-store Zavvi UK with a view to selling all or part of the business as a going concern.
Zavvi was formed just 15 months ago from a management buyout of the Virgin Megastore division of the Virgin Group.
Last month Entertainment UK, Zavvi’s main supplier and part of Woolworths, went into administration which meant Zavvi had difficulty obtaining stock on favourable credit terms.
This resulted in considerable working capital difficulties, in addition to continuing operating losses.
“In the absence of a buyer for EUK, and with dire trading conditions on the high street, the Zavvi Group has seen a material fall in sales and the directors have now been forced to place parts of the group in administration,” said joint administrator Tom Jack.
Ernst & Young said Zavvi Guernsey will be liquidated, while the 11-store Zavvi Ireland business was not subject to any formal insolvency proceedings.
The Zavvi Group as a whole employs 2,363 permanent staff and 1,052 temporary staff.
The front page of a music retail site is usually plastered with recommendations or featured bands. They are being promoted because the site thinks it can make money by selling them. You want to be one of those bands that gets the support of a big retailer, don’t you? Good. So, you need to offer the site something special to make them pay attention to you. If you’re just a small fish, then you need to prove to them how all that’s preventing you from becoming big time is a lack of promotion, and that if they help you, they’ll reap extra rewards.
Primarily you need to have a package that’s commercially viable. Retailers won’t bother putting you up on their front-page pedestal if they don’t think they’re maximising the potential that space has to offer. Sorry, but there it is. Commercially viable doesn’t mean you have to sell out and go pop, quite the opposite, it means you have to have something unique and attractive about your music, your image or both, that will make people take notice and want a piece of you. Figure out what this is. Think about the image that you’re presenting of yourself and play to that.
Capitalise upon your strengths, match them up to the audience of the retailer that you’re approaching and give them a ready made package. Get together tracks, pictures, press releases, merchandise, everything you can muster, and give the retailer a bundle that they can just plug in to. It’s a big effort, but a big payoff if you can beat the crowd of artists who want that slot.
A lot of tracks go across our admin department’s desk, and when they find something exceptional, they flag it up. One of the artists that we’re particularly proud to welcome to our catalogue is Gyre. A one man outfit from Bournemouth, Gyre’s tracks are a mixed up kind of electro, dub and lemon-jellyesque samples and loops. They mingle heavy basslines and lush, layered sound to create something that I can hear being played in the main room at Fabric, or maybe beefing out of someone’s ridiculously big in-car sound system down at the beach as the fire burns and the exotic cheroot is passed around. Click the album art to visit Gyre’s myspace, or the iTunes link to show your appreciation in a financial manner.
