What else does a distribution company do?

[leviticus]

I did it solo a few years back, released 4 tracks, each on a run 0f 500.

Was hard to even get shops to call back but eventually i managed to build up a good relationship with most.

If i was to do it again which i plan to, i am going to try and get a distro deal as it becomes a full time job contacting shops, keeping on top of invoicing and chasing up payments and generally trying to get people to take you seriously.
This is mainly because i am lazy and i don't have time, and i dont want to be stuck with a pile of white labels in my cupboard again

[FSTZ]

I did it solo a few years back, released 4 tracks, each on a run 0f 500.

Was hard to even get shops to call back but eventually i managed to build up a good relationship with most.

If i was to do it again which i plan to, i am going to try and get a distro deal as it becomes a full time job contacting shops, keeping on top of invoicing and chasing up payments and generally trying to get people to take you seriously.
This is mainly because i am lazy and i don't have time, and i dont want to be stuck with a pile of white labels in my cupboard again

lazy? or you have better shit to do with your time?

[wirez]

Vans and drivers

[setspeed]

Another option cutting out the distro is always the Bandcamp.com way, which is proving successful for a lot of independent bands/artists as they now support a physical release option where you get you're short run pressed up as cheap as you can, then buyer can buy the physical release direct from you via bandcamp using paypal then you mail it out to them and that service is free. You can even give them a digital/vinyl bundle and bonus tracks and all that, you just need to promote/advertise the release yourself.

Something I have looked at. I think because I am interested in doing 300/350 presses I could do it cheap if I didn’t need to pay distro. Does bandcamp do all music? I don’t get what they actually do from looking at their site! Are they digital only?

check out http://label.bassmusicblog.com for an example of a bandcamp site: you upload your shit, set a price and away you go. bandcamp don't even take a cut (yet).

what is REALLY cool now though is they've started catering for physical product - i.e. as far as bandcamp's concerned, it takes a payment, passes it on to you, and emails you to say 'John Smith has just paid £10, please send him his t-shirt' which you send from your house or whatever.

regarding the distro thing, you'll struggle to get a P&D off anyone (most of all ST - it's not an accident that they distribute all the big boys, their quality control game is big) in the next 6-12 months, it's tighter than a nat's chuff out there; unless you can show some serious hype, promotion tactics, reasonably established artists and maybe a name remix for your first 3 releases. It's do-able, but 350 records is a good result for anyone these days, not just a new label, and breaking even on vinyl is harder than it's ever been.