I just today talked to a buddy of mine that's in with the Flameshovel people and he said they've been looking around for a year or so. According to him they've known about it for at least a little while.

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Dante3000 (rich) (February 24, 2009)

Well that's good at least. The quote they use, "None of the four labels I spoke with had any inkling that this was afoot", is really quite damning.
-Dante

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TheOneTrueBill (February 24, 2009)

Yeah, that's pretty bad. I don't know what the whole story around any of this is, maybe the others had some sixth sense or something?

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LookingForCorpses (February 24, 2009)

You generally have a good idea when your distributor is in trouble.

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LushJ (February 24, 2009)

You'd be surprised how long some labels linger on ailing distros. Part of the problem is- where are they going to go? If they're a label that can't do the non-exclusive distro thing because of time issues, it's a huge deal to find a decent new exclusive distro.

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LookingForCorpses (February 24, 2009)

I realize that. That's not what I'm saying though. I'm saying, it's hard to not be aware the distro is having problems. I understand the reasons for staying.

You pretty much answered your own questions there.

It's shitty but as soon as you announce the possibility of a shut down it becomes a self-fufilling prophecy. The only hope a business has in these situations is to fake solvency and hope things pan out.

It's a catch 22 if there ever was one.

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Dante3000 (rich) (February 24, 2009)

Yeah but I'm saying, the decision to shut down distro shouldn't have been made so suddenly (if that's really how it went down). If you're for sure closing your distro branch give at least a months notice for people to get some shit together.
-Dante

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Guy_Incognito (February 25, 2009)

I don't know jack about this specific instance but usually you don't know these things until the last moment. If you know for a fact your a shutting down, then you would do it effective immediately. The main reason being why would anyone operate at a loss even for a month if they knew they were going to shut down?

I could be off base on this case here but that is usually how it goes when a company winds down. Either they make money by selling off inventory until they do a planned shut down or they operate at a loss hoping to turn things around until they wake up one day and realize it's hopeless and tell everyone not to show up to work.

Uh, it already did?

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ffwoodycock (February 24, 2009)

nah, it just shut down its distro.

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Cheesetits (February 24, 2009)

Oh good call.

isn't it just the distribution arm of the label, not the label itself?

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ffwoodycock (February 24, 2009)

yeah, but im hoping that the label itself doesnt shut down some day

but he's covered both kelly clarkson and bruce springsteen, and they're both still fine.