The demise of Amato

[Jay]

The industry has definitely taken a hit in the past few weeks. 3Beat has shut down all digital outlets as a result of Amato closing down.

Quote from 3Beat
"As many of you are aware dance music's main distributor has gone bust [amato] . as a consequence so many labels are in serious trouble as they have lost all their stock and all their money - it has been swallowed by amato's liquidators . so many massive dance labes are now affected ... big players like hot label CR2 , dave seamans audio therapy , darren emersons underwater , ben watts buzzin fly , digweeds bedrock , mark knights toolroom , hajis big love , james holdens border community , axwells axtone , crosstown rebels ,distinctive , eq , freerange , bukems goodlooking , mn2s , kompakt , freelands marine parade , nukleuz , poker flat , soul heaven , sanchez's stealth , tidy trax.... ... and 3beat digital . its like a whos who of dance music . and this is just the tip of the iceberg there are many hundreds more labels like this . "

I knew that vinyl had long been on it's way out but this makes me think that it will truly die off in the next few years. It will be interesting to see how this affects everyone in the next few months. I love the ease of digital but I will never stop loving vinyl. Sad times for dance music.

[Jay]

Forgot to mention:
This topic probably would have fit into the BP discussion as well. Digital makes it much easier for clutter to happen. Vinyl did a pretty decent job at filtering, at least in my opinion. As far I know, 3Beat was second in digital sales to BP so now BP has an even bigger monopoly. Bp had recently cut off some of the newer music from unknown artists and labels in an attempt to do some filtering. In the end though, cash is king and they definitely want that money.

[admin]

It is sad but not many business models can survive forever. Will deffinatly be interesting to see how these other labels are affected. I know first hand how it feels too lose a lot of money when Hooj went down, took a few years to let that go in my mind. Anyways good luck to all these guys, hope they can recover as best they can.

[sven hauck]

Ouch, this one hurt me slightly but not even close to what Jesse was owed from Hooj. You mention vinyl as a filter. Never really thought of it that way but it's true. I think all of us are very curious too see the impact on the labels.

Btw. Blade Runner is my favorite film...

[sven hauck]

Cool post on RA, look for #23 by truthseeker.

http://www.residentadvisor.net/forum-read.aspx?id=36128

[Jay]

Sven,
Nice find on the RA site, sounds like Amato was pretty corrupt.
3Beat left me in the dust and I will be lucky to recover any sales because of this. Not to mention the fact that the music was being distributed to so many sites, many of which I have yet to find. Once I find those sites, I have to re-sign or cancel existing contracts. It will be a long month. I also have to go though this other company in an attempt to recover the money I was owed from combined digital sales. I have not seen one penny from my sales thus far. Luckily I held on the the vinyl I had pressed but those copies are hard to sell, lol.

Jesse,
I did not realize that you had taken a huge hit from Hooj. I just got an email from them talking about releasing all of the old stuff again in new packaging or something along those lines. I know they have been selling older stuff digitally, too bad they can't get you what you are owed.

Agreed on Blade Runner, amazing movie, possibly the best ending statement of all time. "I've seen things....."