thehustle

I have observed over the years a number of ndn owned recording companies starting up and this to me is a good thing. Wacipi, Noon, Wakinyan, Drum Hop...come to mind and independants like Midnite..Stony Creek. What bothers me that not only did they take our land now they want to record and sell our music back to us...Canyon, Arbor, Sunshine etc. Just my thoughts!

12kid

Good Words

injunboy

these labels put out alot of good records. i dont mind blackballing something but i need a good reason. the *white* thing is sad but natives will come around. like they are now. northern cree is big on canyon. their latest cd last month sounds great. i got it. should i have passed on it because canyon recorded it?

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Noodlz

It's all good...if you found a good CD buy it...I would. But "Hustle" is right. It's a raw deal they give. You get a small amount of CD's to sell for free if you record with them and then you have to buy everything from them (not wholesale either) after that. If you recorded a great CD with them that's got some legs on it (being able to keep selling it for a long time) then the group that recorded it makes chump change compared to what Canyon gets out of the deal AND Canyon retains the rights to your CD so they can do what they want with it (put songs in movies, make compilations, etc) and the recording group gets nothing out of that and has no say in how it's used. Not to mention Canyon has a large distributor and they're CD's are sold in mainstream music stores and the recording group gets nothing in the way of royalties either.

If I want the CD bad enough I'll wait to see Northern Cree and try and get it from them so at least they're gettin' some support from it, but it would be better for them in long run if they went somewhere else IMHO.

TheReporter2004

I agree we should support our grass roots companies and let the money circulate!

badmaninc

So if you want us to boycott a company then shouldn't you offer us an alternative to just avoid buying CDs. Its great to say don't buy from this company but what is the option you are going to give us. What is a name of a company you would be willing to vouch for. Not trying to be a wiseguy but would like to know your thoughts.

Noodlz

I'd say don't boycott. I don't think anybody on here has said that. For some people good pow-wow CD's are VERY hard to get so when they see what they want they should buy it. But for myself, I get out and about on the pow-wow trail a little bit and I'll usually if at all possible hold out until I see the group I want to buy it from. AT the very least they're making back what they paid for that CD and get a little coffee money along with it right then and there.

It's discouraging to put all your effort into a CD. Do the work to make sure it sounds and looks great. Get your boxes 3 FREAKING MONTHS after production is over and when you try and sell your CD at the next pow-wow everyone's saying "I bought your new CD last month...." and there's 5 vendors displaying all your new stuff and the vendors are saying they've been selling out everywhere.

These things happen way too often and with a lot of more established recording companies for a long time that was the normal way of doing business with pow-wow groups. The newer companies seem to be addressing that issue and try and take care of their clients a little better. Especially companies established by pow-wow people.

Having experienced this scenario a few times and seen it happen countless others I just try and cut out the middle man and try if at all possible to buy right from the group. On the production side a lot of groups are doing the same thing and cutting out the middle man and recording, mixing, mastering and producing all on their own. It's more work, but in the end all the proceeds go right to your group.

badmaninc

Maybe what these groups should do when they make contracts to record stipulate that they get the first few boxes, so that it would allow them to sell their CDs faster. It would make sense but don't know if the companies would go for it cause they want to recoup their money back as fast as possible.

12kid

nice to see Blacklodge doing their own thing....they now will know how much they sell and the money goes to them...power to the people!