1994-04-09 Billboard
CD Club Might Be Boon For Alternative Acts
By Trudi Miller Rosenblum, Billboard, April 9, 1994
Archived from: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=QQgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA45
Shoestring Label Provides An Outlet For Side Projects
NEW YORKâSay hello to the Hello CD Of The Month Club, which founder John Flansburgh says has a dual purpose: to give a boost to new bands, and to provide "a haven for flaky side projects" by established acts.
Flansburgh, who is one-half of Elektra duo They Might Be Giants, and Bar/None's Marjorie Galen started the club a year ago because, Flansburgh says, "we knew a couple of acts we wanted to help along, so we got this notion: Why not start our own label?"
"Then we did a financial projection, and realized we didn't have any money," he adds with a laugh. "So we came up with this idea as away to launch something that didn't require outside financing. An added benefit is that we can work with people who are already signed to different labels." Subscribers pay $45 for a year's subscription, and in return receive 10 CDs with four songs each. Participants have ranged from newcomers like Brian Dewan to more established alternative acts like the Residents, Eugene Chadbourne, and members of R.E.M. and NRBQ, to spoken-word project the Duplex Planet.
"Forty-five dollars for 10 CDs is a great deal," says Flansburgh. "This is not about hauling in bucks." The club's overhead is very low, he says, because "it's not speculative; we only manufacture the number we've ordered. We don't send it to stores or get returns." The CDs are sent in a cardboard sleeve, thus avoiding the cost of jewel boxes or booklets. Yet the club is "very artist-orientedâwe give them probably the best royalty rate any of these artists will ever get," says Flansburgh. A staff of four handles subscriptions and mailing.
In seeking out artists, Flansburgh first made some cold calls, "which was pretty nerve-racking," he says. But the fact that he is in a well-known band was an advantage in getting through to artists, he says.
Now, artists seek out the club. "We've had a lot of interest from people who I would have thought had better things to do," Flansburgh says. "It's got a real interesting vibe about it, because it's not going to the critics or the record storesâit's pro-adventure, a fun thing that they can do just because they like making music. It's an outlet for those 'radio-unfriendly' tracks."
Upcoming CDs will include tracks from members of Superchunk, Andy Partridge of XTC, and Flansburgh's They Might Be Giants partner John Linnell.
The club currently has nearly 2,000 subscribers. It is advertised in alternative music magazines, fan-zines, and regional magazines including Raygun, the Village Voice, L.A. Weekly, and the Seattle Rocket. It also is plugged on They Might Be Giants' "Dial-A-Song" line, which gets 300 calls a day, and on a special toll-free Hello phone number that people can call to get a free brochure. The toll-free line is up to 50 requests a day, Flansburgh says, adding that he hopes to have 5,000 subscribers by year's end.
Flansburgh gives a tip of the hat to Elektra for allowing him the freedom to work on this side project. He and Linnell currently are recording their next They Might Be Giants album, due this summer.