|
Ecstatic Peace is now distributed by Fontana Distribution, an offshoot of Vivendi/Universal (UMGD to the industry types). Fontana is to UMGD what Caroline and ADA are to EMI and WEA, respectivly. It is the world's largest music manufacturing & distribution company's attampt at reaching the indie/punk and urban/hip hop demographics (me,you). Fontana has sucked up quite a few labels from the now defunkt Mordam Records (which has been swallowed up by Lumberjack Dist.) as well as some key labels from Caroline, ADA and RED (Sony's "indie" dist. wing) in this market-share blitzkrieg. By having EP distributed by Fontana instead of Revolver (EP's former dist, Smells Like's current dist), Thurston is basically guaranteeing a steady paycheck and probably has an office and more money for either reissuing older out of print EP titles and promoting new bands like BYOP & the AC. I would also disagree with the post about SY not being good business people, because this move has excellent leverage to stay within the compound of the UMGD family, if you will, but still have the freedom they're used to, and perhaps more. A very shrewd move to make when your contract's up indeed. Not to say they're being sellouts or any kind of indie bandwagonesque banter, all i'm saying is that it was a smart move regarless of SY's future.
|