End of year charts/in-stores/party etc

I’ve been asked several times why I don’t ask the bands/labels to provide something “extra” if featured in our end of year charts as others do and the answer is quite simple. It seems a little unfair to reward those who have bought a release already by giving those who haven’t an incentive to do so. When for instance we got the Rob St John remix CD I did say that anybody who had already bought the album could also ask for a copy. It seemed only fair. For most these end of year charts are all about marketing and sales while for Avalanche the focus has always been about highlighting our best sellers and in particular those that are maybe to some unexpected. I’m not against sales obviously and as has been suggested will provide a link to buy for each album when I revise the chart for the end of the month.

What I will be doing is contacting those artists that feature to see if they are willing to perform in the New Year probably in the shop but maybe with the odd proper gig. Again as every man and his dog seems to have a Christmas party these days it seemed better to wait and put on some interesting events in the New Year. I think we can safely assume we won’t be seeing Godspeed or Leonard Cohen though there is a cunning plan !  

There is a huge amount to think about and thanks to everybody who has been in touch with ideas or simply support. Sorry to everybody I have yet to reply to.The merchandise idea is going from strength to strength and I’ll certainly involve those artists in our chart. I’ll also be looking to do some exclusive merchandise from our top ten Scottish bands since “Tigermilk” was first released an idea I first had last year while compiling a list over the last 15 years. Belle and Sebastian top that chart with over 20,000 units sold between all our shops and all their releases.

Not going so well is the selling things to people. Weekends have been good especially last weekend but week days are very slow even when we have decent new releases. We have loads of new vinyl, many of this year’s CDs at lower prices and the best selection of second hand vinyl and CDs ever so there is not much more I can do. Posters and badges are as popular as ever.

I’ll post an updated chart and hopefully have more news at the weekend.