|
 |
|
Sub Pop Founder Takes Stock Of The Last 20 Years And Plans For The Future
By Cortney Harding
What's been the key to keeping the label in business for 20 years?
Loving music. At the end of the day, it's been the fact that we are all music fans. It's certainly not our massive CD sales [laughs], although our digital sales are growing nicely.
As you take stock of the last two decades, what have been the best and worst business decisions you've made?
Not to be too cynical, but I would say hiring a good attorney has been one of the [best]. For us, the key has been signing bands that we didn't expect to perform initially and giving them the space to grow and develop. When we started, we didn't have yearly projections or budgets, but as we matured as a label, we learned a lot more about the value of making modest sales projections and then being happy when the bands exceeded our expectations.
In terms of the worst, we've signed artists whose expectations have been too grand and were too impatient to realize that it takes a lot of time to build success. That impedes our ability to form a good, long-term partnership with those acts.
Where does your joint venture with Warner Music Group fit in on the best-to-worst scale?
I've read interviews with you where you say the deal has worked out, but if you could go back and do it over, you wouldn't do it.
First off, the people who work at Warner are all good people, and I think very highly of them as individuals. But the thing is, Sub Pop comes from a culture that is very independent, and that does not do well inside a certain system. It is a huge conglomerate, and while we wish them well, we also realize that Sub Pop operates best in our own community. When the deal first went down, there was a lot of culture shock, and now it seems to have settled down. The deal does not last in perpetuity and will end sometime in the next decade.
Lots of people buy albums just because they are released by Sub Pop. How have you built this up during the life of the label?
The first time we really thought consciously about this was in the early '90s. We were thinking about signing non-grunge acts, and the debate over it lasted about five minutes before we realized we'd be fools not to. In a way, I think we reflect the collections of most music fans; unless you are a hardcore genre aficionado, your collection is probably diverse. We were much more regimented early on, but now I think we are just focused on quality and making an impact.
When Nirvana broke, the thought of the band in a car ad was absurd, and now Band of Horses is in Wal-Mart commercials. How have the changes in attitudes about this affected Sub Pop?
We see Sub Pop as being a platform for artist success above all else, and we see our role as being a counsel to our bands when it comes to making decisions about licensing. The final decision is up to the band and their comfort level; we only give them advice when they ask for it. I also think the debate about "selling out" is incomplete if you don't also look at whether an artist is being played on radio. Historically, radio has been driven by ads, and if your song is on radio bookended by five minutes of commercials, then you really have no room to protest. Being on TV or in film accomplishes the same thing, only artists are compensated for their work.
Our film and TV licensing staff are very good at what they do, and while an individual placement might not pay a lot, it does add up. We have one artist who doesn't sell a lot of records but has had many placements and has managed to not only recoup his initial costs but make a nice living for himself.
In terms of other revenue streams, does Sup Pop have any sort of 360 deals with artists? Or are you still focused on selling music?
Most of our revenue comes from CD, digital and vinyl sales. Licensing and merch both do well, but music is king. We don't do any type of 360 deals with our bands; occasionally, we'll commission some exclusive T-shirt decisions, but we are pretty much a record company.
When you break down the sales, what percentage of them are from the catalog and what percentage is newer material?
This has been a very robust year for us, so the bulk of our 2008 sales are more recent stuff. The Postal Service is still selling, and Nirvana is always going to sell. There are kids today who were born after Kurt Cobain passed away and they are still discovering Nirvana and buying "Bleach."
Your connection to the Seattle sound in the early '90s played a huge role in the development of the label and your brand. Nowadays, it seems like bands are more associated with labels or genres or Web sites than the city they reside in. Has this affected Sub Pop?
While the advent of MySpace and the Web certainly changed the way people view local music, I think we are in for a re-emergence in localism in music. The spike in oil prices has put a big dent in our migratory culture, and while the Web remains, it's going to become increasingly hard for bands to travel. We are in for some hard times economically, and people are going to have to stay home and build local scenes out of necessity.
Speaking of the Web, while Sub Pop has a digital store and your bands all have MySpace pages, you have not embraced the Web as much as some labels that cater to younger fans. What is your digital strategy going forward?
I still represent an old-guard mentality, but I think I do it in a more sophisticated way than some other people. I still cling to the perspective that the medium is not always the message, and we have gotten bogged down in all these discussions about file sharing and downloading and CD burning and legality. It's really about asking the question, What does the music mean to you? You can get everything you want right away, and that is not going to change. If every label, including Sub Pop, were to disappear tomorrow, music
would remain. I'd much rather spend my time talking about music and its impact than music and its business practices.
Where will you be in 20 more years? Still signing bands?
If I'm not pushing daisies, I'll be planting them. I've gotten to the place where I'm comfortable with the fact that it is all out of my control.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contact Us 
