Indie labels thrive because they’re a trusted source.

I just went to Gorsuch to shop skis.  Billy’s my trusted source.

There’s too much information in this world.  We need filters to break it down, separate the wheat from the chaff, present us with options/choices we can understand.

Billy buys only a few brands, and only a few models within those brands, and when I go in and tell him my needs, he tells me what to buy.

But Billy isn’t just anybody.  He’s been doing this since his teens.  Now he’s in his forties.  Talk about a manufacturer and he knows the owner, what’s in the pipeline for the future, what direction the company is taking.  I trust him.

Oh, I tried others, I tried to shop on price, but I got nervous, I oftentimes found that I knew more than the purveyors.  Or that they’d only been in Vail for a season or two.  When I came back with a problem, they’d be gone.

Billy doesn’t charge the least, but every once in a while he’ll throw me a deal, sell me a pair of skis at 70% off.  We’ve got a relationship.

Indie label owners are irascible.  They’re more into music than profits.  They’re opinionated.  They cull through the options and then serve up music you’ll be interested in, if they’ve already gained your trust.

Number one in the field is Richard Russell of XL.

Richard’s not warm.  He’s not hyping you, he’s not pressing the flesh.  He’s not quite cold, but he’s intense.  And confident.  He doesn’t need to convince you, because he’s already convinced himself, that he’s got the best product.

And he doesn’t have a record in every genre.  Yet every record he has isn’t in the same genre.  You trust Richard to find the best music, and since this is his passion, you’re gonna check out what he sells, and probably like it.

What do the White Stripes and Vampire Weekend have in common?

Richard and XL.  Their music is pretty damn different.

Contrast this with the major labels.  They put out music in every genre and tell you it’s all great.  They’ve got to feed the pipeline, they’re in business.  Money comes first, music comes second.  Whereas with Richard and the other indies, it’s the reverse.

Since we have no trust in the majors, they hype us, sell us, try to convince us.  But we ignore them, because we don’t trust them.

And we don’t trust radio.

And we certainly don’t trust TV.

No, let me change that.  We trust HBO and Showtime.  They’re about quality.  We’re interested in every series they put on the air, even though we may not end up liking each one.  Networks feed the pipeline, throw shit against the wall.  We wait to hear from a buddy if a new network show is good, we ignore the hype.
And we don’t trust Pitchfork, because there’s no uniformity in the ratings.  We’d rather have one trusted reviewer covering fewer albums than many covering everything.

In other words…

You start off with quality.  Then you try to build trust.

Every choice must have trust in mind.  What does your audience think about you making a deal with this corporation.  What does your audience think about your ticket prices.  What does your audience think about each and every move you make. Because believe me, they’re paying attention, that’s what a fan does.

Look at it this way, you can have the greatest girlfriend in the world, but if she sleeps with another guy, she loses your trust. She can protest that she was inebriated, that it was only one night, but you never feel the same way about her again, you can’t forget the transgression.

So if you want to be in business today, don’t think quantity, think trust.  That’s the Apple paradigm…  We don’t make one of everything, but everything we make is the best.  Naysayers claim Apple’s products are too expensive.  Yet MacBooks are in the hands of half of new college students.  But I thought students were broke…  But they’ll pay for quality!

And indie labels always give back.  There’s a free MP3.  Or a vinyl 45 not available at the big box, but only the indie store. These are paybacks to the fan…  Hell, they’re often in limited editions, only the fans can know.

The old music infrastructure has lost our trust.  From Universal Music to Live Nation to Ticketmaster.  It’s an adversarial relationship.  They want to make money, all they’re interested in is taking money out of our wallets.  And acts decide how to play the game.  The aforementioned powers that be try to convince them theirs is the only game in town, they try to impress with power.  But how much power do the old entities have in the new cacophonous world?  Hell, network TV competes with not only cable, but YouTube and other online exhibitors.

It all starts with trust.  And when a bond is made, a customer/fan will continue to give you money, he’s AFRAID of going anywhere else, he’s afraid of being ripped off.  Then again, occasionally Billy will send me to another store, where the helmet or boot fits better…  This only makes me trust him MORE!  Richard Russell doesn’t only rave about his music, but the fact he likes other things just makes you trust him more.  Because first and foremost he’s about music.  It hasn’t been about music in the major label/tour/radio/TV world for a very long time.