Now HMV has gone from Princes Street will Avalanche return ?
Surprisingly I have been asked this a lot. While I was happy to help out at the Offbeat Gallery before Christmas especially as it meant folk could come in to discuss the History of Scottish Music Centre the centre really now has to be my focus. More importantly HMV was really only a small part of the problem. The HMV owned FOPP is still able to carry stock without any need for payment until sold and while there was a time Avalanche was the only indie selling indie vinyl now everybody is at it so as I’ve said before that particular cake may have got bigger but now everybody wants a piece !
Selling local bands’ music really was our thing and that dropped off dramatically not long after we invested in moving to the Grassmarket which was unfortunate. Given the opportunity we could still sell hundreds of a big local artist as happened with the second Withered Hand album but too often you could buy a release earlier, cheaper and with extra stuff directly from the label or band. If selling local bands is simply a bonus then of course you don’t care and take any extra sales you can get. Similarly if it is more of a hobby and not your main source of income then it isn’t so important. For Avalanche it was different. The Pledge model has now taken things one step further and while leaving shops with little or no sales it has also often deprived the artists of an outlet long after the campaign has finished.
Many labels now, especially the bigger ones, sell more of an “indies only” release than all the 300+ indie record shops put together. Similarly they are creaming off most of the sales abroad. There really is no point getting into an argument about it now as it has all gone too far down the line to be reversed. Similarly to promote anything an artist does on social media is normally to direct people to a link saying “don’t buy from a shop buy this better thing from us”. Of course the problem for bands starting is that they need the shops help reaching people but there is no reason for the shop to do so now. All in all I hope you can see why I feel better out of it.
In the long run things will change. Sales are ridiculously low as streaming now means people feel no need to buy new and local bands music at all. One Scottish artist whose album was released last month had great press coverage and is on an established label with distribution but has registered 4 sales. One LP, one CD and two downloads. Now the particular label doesn’t register its sales so they will have sold some directly but that is an album featured in some end of year best of charts that is available to all the HMVs, Amazon and the 300+ indie shops and sold four. Two oddly not in Scotland ! Believe me this is not that unusual an occurrence. One SAY awards album that was download only and had had a few sales in the past sold NONE the week it was featured.
The irony of setting up the History of Scottish Music Centre while saying we shouldn’t wallow in nostalgia is not lost on me but that is exactly what is needed. We need to celebrate the past but look to the future but unfortunately too many people at the moment have a vested interest in pretending all is well.
My intention had been to use Avalanche’s reputation and contacts to help establish the centre but then let the centre stand on its own two feet. However all the people I have spoken to have said that the Avalanche name should not be lost as that is an asset to the project and I have no problem with that at all so long as it is clear it will be a different type of Avalanche.
I met with the Scottish Music Centre (“a member development organisation with classical members and two youth music projects” according to their press officer) in Glasgow who were concerned that folk might think the centre was dedicated to them and suggested a name change. Considering “The Only Fun In Town”. 
1.= Conor Oberst – Ruminations
8. Teenage Fanclub – Here
17. Modern Studies – Swell To Great
Some of you may remember I did originally intend to have a small selection of stock in Gerry Gapinski’s new gallery shop in St Mary’s Street but in the end I settled for simply using it for our click and collect as there really wasn’t the space. However after a pop-up shop I had hoped to get from the council in time for Christmas fell through he’s kindly offered me enough space to offer a decent selection of vinyl, CDs, DVDs and one or two other things more of which later. We’ll struggle to find space for posters but we will reassess that once everything else is in.
Nothing I think sums up how hard it is to actually get people to buy stuff these days than my recent Aztec Camera tweet for “High Land, Hard Rain” . If we have something exclusively then social media is a great way to let people know and for us twitter works better than facebook. If the artist involved lets their followers know then we will sell even more. However with something like the recent tweet posted a couple of times for this seminal Aztec Camera album on vinyl for a mere £11.95 we drew a blank and that is by far the most likely outcome. A fair few told their followers and I’m always grateful that people do that. A lot of people “liked” we were selling it but sadly as of yet there has been no sale. 
However while some opportunities are not time sensitive others are and it would be a huge shame to lose them due to lack of funds. Many artists and bands have already offered their support which is greatly appreciated and in a way the centre will be very focused on bringing Scottish music new and old to visitors but what is needed now is help from those who are already well aware of the wealth of great Scottish music produced over the last five decades. Supporting local Scottish bands was never a financial decision. Selling lots of Bright Eyes albums meant we could support Withered Hand and Meursault for instance and when they started to do well that enabled us to support the next wave of new bands like There Will Be Fireworks. Of course now that idea is squeezed at both ends and at the expense of reaching new people.
When Virgin were clearly in trouble Branson wanted to distance himself from the shops closing and gave his management team a large financial incentive to take over and rebrand as Zavvi hoping that when the inevitable happened people might have forgotten they had all been Virgins. A year later when the inevitable was about to happen Zavvi blamed their supplier who also supplied the failed Woolworths rather than admit they were about to go under anyway. Nobody questioned why they weren’t being supplied directly from record companies to start with. This is how things have always been but it has never been more important. HMV’s model leads inevitably to continual downsizing and eventual closure while the vinyl revival is the smoke in the smoke and mirrors so often deployed.