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Musician Dulli goes direct with solo CD
10/14/2005 6:56 PM, Reuters
Todd Martens
Former Afghan Whigs frontman Greg
Dulli has experienced life on an indie and life on a major. Now
he is finding that an artist may not need a label at all.
Dulli is not the first major-label alumnus to go it alone;
it is not uncommon for an artist to take his wares straight to
a distributor. But Dulli, with the help of manager Brian
McPherson, skipped that step, too, and went straight to
independent retailers.
Dulli's album "Amber Headlights" was largely recorded in
2001 and harks back to the denser guitar rock of the Afghan
Whigs. He shelved it after the death of filmmaker and friend
Ted Demme, and turned his attention to the moody soul of the
Twilight Singers.
Dulli says he is releasing "Amber Headlights" on his own to
keep it separate from the Twilight Singers in the public's
mind. "And it was a good chance for us to learn exactly how
putting out a record works," he notes. "We wanted it out from
behind me so I could move on, and we wanted an education in the
music business."
The three Twilight Singers albums -- one on Columbia and
two on indie One Little Indian -- have sold 58,000 copies
combined, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The new disc has an
initial run of 5,000 CDs.
"If we sell 5,000 of this ourselves," McPherson says, "it's
equivalent to selling 40,000 on a label."
The record is available on Dulli's Web store, which was
created by Musictoday, and at indie outlets via Junketboy, the
distribution arm of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores.
The album is also available from amazon.com, and until
McPherson finds European distribution or strikes a licensing
agreement, he is fulfilling most overseas orders through eBay.
"It's a multifaceted, Rube Goldberg device of do-it-yourself
record distribution," he says.
It is working, McPherson adds, but slowly.
Dulli says he is sticking with One Little Indian when it
comes to the Twilight Singers, who will release a new album
next year. "The thing I like about labels is their day-to-day
diligence and the fact that they're putting up front money and
betting on you," Dulli says. "I have a pretty good deal with
the Indian, and they're good people. But this has been an
eye-opening experience financially."
Even if this is not the model Dulli follows for the rest of
his career, it is one he believes more artists will use.
"As far as the major-label infrastructure," Dulli says,
"where everything is billed back to you, from videos to phone
calls to Fed Exes? Shame on them. The chickens are coming home
to roost, as far as the majors go. With the Internet and iTunes
and the various doppelgangers that have spawned, I don't think
you can stop anybody now. Anybody can be Ani DiFranco today."
Reuters/Billboard
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