The All Conquering Savings and Loan

A couple of Fridays ago when the weather was actually quite pleasant the shop was full for most of the afternoon. I played the Savings and Loan album and sold three copies after one play. Busy I pressed play again and sold two more. I deliberately gave it a third spin and sold two more. Three more plays yielded four more sales. That was 11 sales in six plays to people who would never of come across The Savings and Loan any other way than hearing it in a shop. Folk from Bristol, Manchester, 3 from Yorkshire, Dublin, Paris, 2 from London, Newcastle and New York. Yesterday I played it twice and sold five copies though all I know is one customer was from Edinburgh wanting to hear new music and one was from Holland. Around 15 of the Conquering Animal Sound albums we have sold have been because we were playing it. Far more than the in-store which was great but yielded few sales. Yesterday we had a guy bring in an album he had pressed up himself by Young Hunting and when pushed described it as leftfield / experimental. We put it on after he left and sold two copies after playing it once.

Now I still hear of labels sending out 200 promos to journalists, radio, bloggers etc and not a single copy to a shop. I had to buy in a CAS promo. I only have the new King Creosote and Jon Hopkins album because I bought one in and the excellent Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells album not out until May is the same story. I’ve sold three Arab Strap and two Aidan Moffat albums to people on the back of hearing that promo. If a band / label could just get five shops to regularly play their album they would see a huge return and yet they would rather send copies elsewhere.

I regularly get bands in asking how they can reach a bigger audience and after my forays into twitter and facebook I can see why. They are very enclosed worlds and to a large extent very much like blogs preach to the converted. The best way for artists to reach more  people who may like their music is for them to be heard in shops.

I’ve finally got in another 50 of the There Will Be Fireworks album and I guarantee that by both playing it and recommending it they will all be gone again in a month or two. The band have done tremendously well selling it themselves but Avalanche has sold hundreds too and it shows that sales can work for both shops and a band. TWBF still hold the record for selling 9 copies in one single play (five to a group of American girls and four to others).

Reading that something is good is one thing but hearing it with your own ears is another. When the original Withered Hand presell was very poor shops all over the UK were very good supporting the album after I contacted them to say just how good it was. A Newcastle promoter heard it in the shop and gave Dan a gig. RPM then gave him an in-store. Gradually the word spread. Hopefully we can do the same for The Savings and Loan.