yeah.. ok so warp are meant to be 'professionals'.. but setting and
sticking to release dates, is actually an incredibly difficult task. i was
even having a discussion about it yesterday afternoon with trevor jackon,
founder of the OUTPUT label. when we release records, we both do not
actually set release dates until we have the finished products in our
hands, due to the many delays which can occur in manufacturing and any
blips and problems which you might encounter. we're fed up with setting
release dates which we never manage to keep.
frankly, running a label the delays are very rarely your own fault. ok, so
a label should be responsible enough to build in 'time barriers' or
whatever so that when things do go wrong, the release date doesn't slip...
but that's not too likely. especially if you are running a small label,
like myself, finance is a big problem.. ie it is necessary to press a
record which you must pay for in advance (with no help from distributers,
PAUSE_2 is totally independnet of anybody else and currently is
self-funded). once the copies have arrived, you then have to sit on them
for 6-8 weeks, as the press / media in the UK have lead times this long...
so the record can't hit the shops till, say, 8 weeks after you've received
them.. probably 3 months after you paid for them. distributers then delay
payment even more, by over a month.. and realistically we're talking 5
months of not seeing any money, before we see some again.
now i realise that may not apply with warp, given that for something like
prefuse73 they might not have to put their lives on hold temporarily to
fund the release of the album, but nevertheless, cash flow is a serious
issue... and they do can't spend too much time sitting on their hands, with
1000s of CDs/12"s in their offices .. because they want to sell them to you.
at the end of the day, they are not pushing these dates back to spite you.
there is no malicious reason behind it, just get used to it.. in ths
business, release dates DO slip. and often.
thanks.. tom [broadcasting from P2hq] x
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