Racer Records Captain's Log - Aug 6 '95

Lots of people have asked about the day-to-day workings of an indie label, so I thought I'd start giving a little running commentary of just exactly what it is I do around here.

Captain's Logs are written sporadically and tend to get skipped if I'm insanely busy or am doing a lot of computer consulting (and hence very little Racer work).

I'll try to post this as consistently as possible until I forget to do it, I run out of time, or I find out people think it's incredibly pretentious and boring.

Comments and questions are heartily encouraged.

Captain's Log, Monday, July 31, 1995

* The big event of the day was dealing with a Fed Ex containing artwork for Amy's new album. It was supposed to arrive by 10:30, and Amy was going to come by to take a look at it. Unfortunately, it didn't arrive, so I had to call Fed Ex to try to track it down. Since we didn't have the airbill, we couldn't locate it until nearly 8 pm - I ended up driving over to the local Fed Ex hub to pick it up. Amy came by to take a look, and we noted a few things that needed to be fixed.

* Ordered CD mailers for the huge upcoming sampler mailing. (I recently got over 700 sampler requests via the Internet.)

* Met with folks at a local recording studio about possibly helping them with their Web pages.

Captain's Log, Tuesday, August 1, 1995

I took most of the day off as a holiday.

* Talked to a manager in Louisiana about a couple of groups (one rap, one rock) she manages. She's sending a tape.

* Talked to the advertising rep at Tower/Bayside about placing ads in Pulse, and about listening station opportunities.

Captain's Log, Wednesday, August 2, 1995

* I did consulting work all day today.

Managed a phone call or two in the evening:

* Left a message for a band that has sent me tapes, but isn't really right for Racer.

* Swapped voice mail with a studio over a check that never reached them (they moved, and I had their old address).

Captain's Log, Thursday, August 3, 1995

* Did some consulting work today, and had lunch with a new friend who's worked in multimedia, film, comedy, and music production.

* Wrote promotion plans for forthcoming albums (Amy X Neuburg, Potato Eaters, Big Umbrella, and Garden Variety). I've never written promotion plans for any of my releases before, but it seemed like it would help clarify in my mind what needed to be done, and would help communicate my plans to the artists, so they could let me know if they wanted to try a different direction.

* Completed another form requesting a mechanical license for "Calvary Cross" for the upcoming Potato Eaters album. I have had a really hard time tracking down the publisher; the CDs that contain the song either have no publishing info or have old info. After calling a couple of companies, I finally did the right thing and called BMI, who identified the publisher for me right away.

Phone calls:

* BMI (see above)

* Talked to the publicist working on Amy's record release.

* Called Spin about ad rates. They don't give them out over the phone (!), but will send me a media kit.

Captain's Log, Friday, August 4, 1995

* Met (again) with folks at a local recording studio about helping them with their Web pages.

* Fed Ex'd the artwork for Amy's album to the booklet printers, and Fed Ex'd the master (CD-R) and CD label art to the CD duplicators.

Captain's Log, Saturday, August 5, 1995

Did some more computer work.

* Called a band I've been interested in for a long time; they had sent me a postcard for an upcoming show. Bands: ALWAYS put your phone number on your mailings, in case someone wants to get in touch with you.

* When I Fed Ex'd stuff to the booklet duplicator yesterday, I forgot to include a mockup of the final booklet, so I sent that off today.

Captain's Log, Sunday, August 6, 1995

* Assembled about 240 samplers. I'm out of the non-jewel-box CDs, so I'm packaging up the last of the jewel-box CDs. That means a heavier box that has to be folded and sealed with paper tape. It takes a lot more work and time than slipping the non-jewel-box CDs into their easy peel-n-seal mailers.

I took advantage of this time to catch up on some phone calls to friends, including Robbie Rist of Wonderboy. When I'm on the phone enjoying a conversation, I tend to feel like I should be working. This way, I'm getting to talk to my friends and still accomplishing some work.

* I also did a few hours of consulting work.

The Captain's Log is an inside look at the day-to-day operations of an indie label. Contents may have settled during shipping. Questions, comments, ideas, and thoughts are encouraged (whether or not they're related to the log).

Grinning,

Kristi
Racer Records

This page was last updated on March 3, 2004 by Kristi Wachter.