Dance Music... Designed To Fail?

Volume 3

Record Pools
What an incredible idea! Get your product into the hands of all the influential DJ’s in a targeted area and not only get exposure, but feedback in the process! NOT! This doesn’t work and will never work. Record Pool directors are like used car salesmen. They talk the talk; they walk the walk, travel in packs, dress like Hell's Angels, etc., all to get a shipment of records out of you (once again you pay shipping). Why do they do this? Because when they have 50-100 members paying them $50-100 a month (you do the math) they need to keep the blood flowing. This ultimately may result in a top 10 Chart position (bragging rights) for you but it will mean nothing to anyone who has spent any amount of time in this business. And do you know why it means nothing? Because many of the DJs don't even play your records, merely report made up chart positions back to the director! This will not help you sell records, and the feedback you get from the pool members is sporadic at best. I had one record pool boast how detailed their DJ feedback forms were, and was actually faxed some samples. After a month I had heard nothing from them, so I inquired where all of my feedback was... and I was told that they must have been lost in the mail! Oh come on! And can you believe they don't make a backup Xerox copy before mailing them? Go figure? Enter the bottom dweller once more. Are you aware that people who run many of these Record Pools also own record stores? What do you think the chances of your “for promotional use only” record seeing their store shelves? I would rather someone download it. At least I don’t have to pay for shipping.