Z Audio closes its doors to vinyl distribution

[asa]

Already chatting with Bill @ Cargo- guy is flooded with inquiries this weekend but already got back to me.

How utterly refreshing!

That will be my only comment on the subject. Make of it what you will.

[brasco]

Already chatting with Bill @ Cargo- guy is flooded with inquiries this weekend but already got back to me.

How utterly refreshing!

That will be my only comment on the subject. Make of it what you will.

i bet bill thinks he's won the lottery

just get on cargo people

those guys know their stuff

its a big shame for all involved but not the end of the world

this.

[brokedjs]

Big up Z Audio, great bunch of people working there and is unfortunatly a sign of the times.

[z audio ltd]

Thank you so much for all the people that have supported us on this thread.

I apologise to anyone that has had a bad experience with Z Audio distribution.
It is an extremely hard job to do with an overall decrease in sales across the board.
This made the task of distributing vinyl harder and harder by the day.

I think Vinyl sales have a future, but it is a very select few labels and artists that are actually selling enough to justify pressing a record.

When Z Audio first started to distribute vinyl, over 7 years ago, if you had a good record by a new artist on a new label, then you could always sell 400-500, and that would be considered pretty bad sales back then.

Also, when there were a lot more records shops around, vinyl always had the support of a sales rep behind a counter at a physical record shop pushing records.
Now that there are pretty much no shop fronts, pushing new and interesting talent on vinyl is pretty much non-existent.

The culture of buying vinyl has gone nearly 100% via the internet and it has naturally created a hierarchy that is pretty evident in the Dubstep scene, where the big are getting bigger and the rest don't get a look in.

As a consumer buying a record, you are only going to click and listen or buy a record that you know or on a brand that you know.
There is on-one behind a counter saying "Have a listen to this one mate" which you would get at a shop front in my day of buying vinyl.

Z Audio has always pushed new talent and I originally started the company to push artists that I believed in that found it hard to get deals/records out with "Bigger" labels.
This was always our strong point and continued to do this throughout our history of distributing records.

The culture has now totally changed and new artists and labels present their music on the internet rather than a vinyl.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing for the scene, but not for vinyl.

I wish all vinyl distributors the best of luck, it’s not an easy job and a very undervalued service.

I hope that over the years of distribution we are seen to have done more good than bad and again apologise to anyone that has had a bad experience with Z Audio or has been affected by us stopping distributing vinyl.

Big up to:

Cleg and J Mekka
Dan Smith
Shane The Cutter
Andy D
Sam
JC
Reso
Ollywood and Deekline
Hugo and Nick D
Ben Mr Warehouse
Will Blaze
Jason 16bit and all the other crew that have worked at distributing some fantastic music with Z Audio, sorry if I forgot anyone

And never forgetting all the amazing labels and artists we have had the pleasure of working with over the years.

Long live the music!!

[Widowmaker]

you were a huge label, nuff respect. pushing some of the best, good quality tearout ever.

[bolsty]

The culture of buying vinyl has gone nearly 100% via the internet and it has naturally created a hierarchy that is pretty evident in the Dubstep scene, where the big are getting bigger and the rest don't get a look in.

As a consumer buying a record, you are only going to click and listen or buy a record that you know or on a brand that you know.
There is on-one behind a counter saying "Have a listen to this one mate" which you would get at a shop front in my day of buying vinyl.

it's a shame this is the way it is, i look through the new releases about once a week and try and check out artists and labels i've never heard of. I'm have pretty minimal fundage but i'm always buying vinyl, smoking sessions is one of my favourite labels and i've got plenty of plates distributed by you guys so thanks...

[only vinyl]

Go direct to the factory
that Z audio use ..

www. only-vinyl.com orders@only-vinyl.com for a direct quote

[numbernin6]

biggup Z-audio, sorry to see this happen.

[Skriptah]

What a shame, keep the vinyl aliiiive.

[legend4ry]

At least you quit while you was ahead! Ive heard some awful stories about Z-Audio and some amazing ones and doing what they did that is totally expected!

You did a lot for Dubstep, getting the vinyl into our shops and hands (well, the very few shops that are about) so for that, thanks!

[Audio Doughnuts]

ST Holdings is a very veryyyy big distro company to shift things over to. Z-Audio probably won't be changing much apart from the other smaller labels they distributed.

As for those z-audio owns, business will most likely be better than ever!

[TherapyBE]

I've seen a list of labels that are being continued, someone has a list of labels that are not?

[rob sparx]

Migration is now being managed by Keynote Music Management and distributed by ST Holdings

MIGRAT006 probably won't be released until early next year but will be a real special 12 so deffo worth the wait...

[formant recordings]

<---- making a comeback
holdddddd tighttttttt

[lennon]

any labels that still haven't found homes please get in touch!

mike@primedirectdist.co.uk

[dopocc]

anyone else who never got:

a) their money from vinyl sales (10" singles aprox. 915.48 pounds excluding digital sales)
b) money from digital sales
c) no reply from either zac@zaudio.co.uk or accounts@zaudio.co.uk ?

Just wanted to see if others have had similar distribution success

It was my last resort to comment on this board since I have had no reply to ALLOT of emails in more than a year now...

the fak

[pkay]

anyone else who never got:

a) their money from vinyl sales (10" singles aprox. 915.48 pounds excluding digital sales)
b) money from digital sales
c) no reply from either zac@zaudio.co.uk or accounts@zaudio.co.uk ?

Just wanted to see if others have had similar distribution success

It was my last resort to comment on this board since I have had no reply to ALLOT of emails in more than a year now...the fak

I represent Culprate and a few other artists who had releases under Z-Audio via Dubsaw and other labels.

When Culprate and myself left Dubsaw it was made clear that due to lack of payment both Dubsaw and Z-Audio were in breach of contract and held no rights to any of his material

I arranged Culprates debut album to sign with Gradient Audio. Not 24 hours later one of Culprates tracks, which had just been signed to Gradient Audio, appeared on a Z-Audio compilation called Dubsatep Onslaught.

At that point Gradient Audio along with myself issued a cease and desist order to Z-Audio, Dubsaw Recordings, and their parent company EMI.

Z-Audio said Dubsaw claimed they had a contract with us (they didn't). Dubsaw claimed they thought all was good (it wasn't). Regardless we've recouped some damages from Z-Audio and EMI, and are currently seeking others damages based on lost wages, and what equates to all out theft of the material from our artists.

At this point it seems not only are we not alone but there are quite a few persons who are owed money by Z-Audio or who have claims of damages from Z-Audio/EMI. If we could get enough persons together to put legal pressure on EMI we could likely get them to reimburse the artists owed money by Z-Audio, much like they did for mine and Gradient Audios artists.

So I guess this is a call to tally up those seeking damages from Z-Audio. If enough people need help I think I know of someone in the scene who can handle representing the artists at hand.

So if you know anyone have them post here or email me at pkay000@gmail.com and we can get started on getting organized.

This industry is hard enough to deal with as it is... it is simply not acceptable to have people preying on artists and exploiting their talents for the financial gain of a handful of persons

[z audio ltd]

First of all I would like to apologise to anyone that has been affected by the closure of Z Audio distribution.
Over the last few years, as many people are aware, Vinyl sales have dramatically decreased.
The distribution was 7 staff strong at its height and was forced to close the department, as the sales were just not there to continue with the HUGE overheads involved in storage and distribution on vinyl records.

I tried to close the distribution to the absolute best of my ability, but the reality is, it has been near enough impossible to make sure everyone that had business with Z Audio Distribution, was left in good communication and accounted to in full.
To do this, there needs to be funds to administrate the staff and time spent to do so, but this was the reason we had to close in the first place.

I was forced to let go of all staff and now the company is just run by myself.

I would have of loved to have made sure everyone left happy, but I am now only one man and can only do so much.

Just for everyone’s information, I paid a hell of a lot of money out of my own pocket trying to keep it alive, but it was a battle I was always going to loose through the awful economic situation the UK and rest of the world is in.

We did manage to account and pay a majority of labels/artists and suppliers, but the sheer volume of doing this, again, was near enough impossible.

I feel I am only now getting back on my feet and have started to account to labels and artists that have not been looked after in the fall out.

Anyway, enough sob stories.
I would like to account and pay, if applicable, all the labels/artists that have been affected in all of this.

Please can you email me on zac@zaudio.co.uk and I will do my very best to get things sorted.
Please note that it may take a while to clear the back log, but I will create a folder with everyone’s issues and try and answer everyone as soon as humanly possible.

In response to Pkays post.

He has stated his side of the story, so I will now state mine.

Z Audio put out a compilation through EMI that contained the track by Culprate "Airline".

I originally contacted the label manager at Dubsaw records and asked him is he had any potential tracks for this compilation.
I was sent the Culprate track and we verbally agreed that this would be used for this compilation.

I was under the impression Dubsaw and Culprate were on good terms and stupidly, put off getting a contract signed for usage of this track. To my defence though, even if I would have got a signature from Dubsaw, they would have not legally had the rights to sign and would have been in exactly the same situation of breach.

Then on the 14th of June, a day after the release date, I was contacted by Gradient Audio saying that I was illegally selling the Culprate track and asked for me to stop the distribution of this product.

I said to Jason that it was impossible to stop the distribution as the physical copies had already been shipped.
After a long conversation to the States to explain myself and try to amend the damage, I offered Jason double the amount of what I agreed with Dubsaw.
Jason empathised with me and put the blame on Dubsaw.

So I sent payment and asked Jason to sign a contract for the usage.
He refused and got me to sign his own contract for this.

At this point, I thought me and Gradient were on good terms and felt like everything was sorted.

I was in such a panic to sort this out, I never saw that Gradient’s contract never actually gave Z Audio, Digital distribution rights for this track, even though he knew that both formats were in circulation.

After this initial communication happened (about 2 weeks or so), Gradient kicked up a massive fuss direct to EMI and was trying to get EMI to stop selling the product, even though me and him had talked and were on, what I thought good terms.

As soon as I heard this from my contact from EMI this was all going on, I called Jason to find out what on earth was going on.
I was told that the contract I signed, only gave Z Audio physical distribution rights and that I needed to pay a further fee to cover this right.

Looking back, I have no doubt that Gradient planned this all and knew that they would come back and milk me for the Digital rights after he sneakily got me to sign his contract that did not allow us to digitally distribute.
If he hadn't had planned to really dig his nails in, why did he not get me to sign the contract and agree on the distribution of both physical and digital at the point of contact?
He knew that both were in circulation.

Anyway, I then rang Jason and tried to sort it out AGAIN and he said he wanted further funds to grant rights for digital distribution, which I immediately paid.

Then, to take it even further, Gradient contacted me again and said we have a further breach because the product had been delivered to Last FM. (Again about 2 weeks later from second communication)

EMI provided Last FM with the product and I guess it is a slight grey area if Last FM are actually a regular DSP or in fact a radio station.
He said that he did not grant the rights for any radio play ect.

I do actually empathise with Jason’s gripe and this time, and did appreciate he contacted me, instead of going straight to EMI.

He wanted a further advance that would have been 100000 times over the funds coming in for such usage, but I told him he was frankly taking the piss and as a offer of compensation for this grey area, I was prepared to pass on 100% of the Last FM royalties and any other DSP's that might be deemed a regular digital retailer.

I never got a reply and knew it was only a matter of time until something like this would come about.

Make of it what you will, but feel I have conducted myself in the best manner possible and think Jason set out from the very start to make this situation as hard as it possibly can for Z Audio…………..


Zac @ Z Audio

zac@zaudio.co.uk

[z audio ltd]

One last thing, Dubsaw records were accounted to in full.

[dubsaw]

One last thing, Dubsaw records were accounted to in full.

No you haven't!!

I stay out of these forum war but when i read that i lol'd!!!

I got statement after like a year of asking but ain't had no doh.

Wont be replying in here again but aint letting that lie be said!