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#676664 - 09/25/09 08:09 PM

Re: Rhino on its way to extincton? [Re: Bill Lumbergh]

Crunch!
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Registered: 09/10/08
Posts: 393

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Originally Posted By: Bill Lumbergh

I'm guessing the problems with Rhino began after Warner Music aquired it, when it became primarily dedicated to mining the Warner Elektra Atlantic catalog, especially after they renamed the company Warner Special Markets or whatever the monicker was. Which likely meant that, to some executives at the parent company, they looked at Rhino on an organization chart and said, "Um, why don't we scale back WSM/Rhino and let Atlantic and Warner Bros. handle their own catalog exploitation"?

Too bad, because Rhino was so much more. And given the enormous wealth of undiscovered indie and local-scene gems created in the past decade, it's too bad that Rhino won't be there to sort through and anthologize those gems.

Rhino fumbled the first time Warners flushed out the Santa Monica crew, but they recovered. In fact, the last couple of years were amazing in my book, back to the old Rhino spirit. The New Order comment is out of line - stuff like that happens sometimes, no matter how many hands it passes through for QC. To suggest that the people who just lost their jobs were all mindless, disinterested drones instead of dedicated professionals is ridiculous, and kicking them while they are down to boot. Keep that in mind the next time you fuck up and aren't crucified by a faceless keyboard jockey.

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#676665 - 09/25/09 08:15 PM

Re: Rhino on its way to extincton? [Re: Crunch!]

Bill Lumbergh
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Registered: 02/21/01
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I hope you don't think that's what I was suggesting, because I wasn't.

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#676670 - 09/25/09 08:27 PM

Re: Rhino on its way to extincton? [Re: Crunch!]

Eephus
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Registered: 01/04/09
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Originally Posted By: Crunch

To suggest that the people who just lost their jobs were all mindless, disinterested drones instead of dedicated professionals is ridiculous, and kicking them while they are down to boot. Keep that in mind the next time you fuck up and aren't crucified by a faceless keyboard jockey.

I, like, Bill, certainly wasn't suggesting that.

However, this:

Originally Posted By: Crunch

stuff like that happens sometimes, no matter how many hands it passes through for QC.

...is grade A bullshit of the first order. You either get more hands, or you get somebody with better hands who doesn't let the shit happen, instead of coming to the table with a "well, this might be fucked up" excuse in your back pocket - even before the fact.

I've said it before, I'll say it again - you're a label and want me to keep buying your product? Convince me, with what you release, and HOW you release it, that you actually give a flying fuck in the first place, and maybe we'll talk. Until then...

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#676679 - 09/25/09 08:53 PM

Re: Rhino on its way to extincton? [Re: Eephus]

Woo Hoo
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Registered: 09/25/09
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rhino responds:

http://www.rhino.com/sept24/

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#676681 - 09/25/09 08:54 PM

Re: Rhino on its way to extincton? [Re: Eephus]

quadguy1
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Registered: 03/31/04
Posts: 436

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The death of Rhino as a full service label was pretty much written by the death of B&M stores like Tower and the relegation of the CD departments of places like BestBuy to second tier status.

The key here is that part of the model that allowed a label like Rhino to exist and thrive was the ability to pre-shift a few thousand copies of these expensive to produce and modest selling deep catalog type releases.

Now, with most physical sales through Amazon (who don't stock more than a few copies of deep catalog), WalMart (who don't stock deep catalog at all), Target (ditto), BestBuy (ditto) and a rag-tag rapidly shrinking group of last man standing regional and local B&M stores, there just isn't the ability to get the pre-orders or the in-store promotion necessary to make the stuff that we all associate with Rhino cost effective.

Very very sad...

Something to remember next time you assert that the death of the B&M store is "no big thing" or that downloading "doesn't really hurt anyone except the rich..."

Someone else mentioned above that they should focus on the Handmade division, because those collections appeal to people who by-and-large will still buy physical product rather than download. I think that's right, but you can't maintain a large staff on the back of handmade type releases.

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