Silver Jubilee Friday
Founded in 1986 (yes, 1986) by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, Seattle's Sub Pop Records are celebrating their 25th anniversary this weekend. It wasn't until 1988 that the company moved into their first office and began the famous Sub Pop Singles Club.
From Michael Azerrad's fantastic must-read Our Band Could Be Your Life:
For $35 a year, subscribers got a single a month -- but the brilliant part was that Singles Club subscribers paid before they got their records, which gave the label a significant financial boost. "On a limited budget, if you have the desire to sell a lot of records," says Pavitt, "you have to figure out a way to scam and manipulate the public." With typical Sub Pop irony, the teaser line was "We're ripping you off big time."
The first single that those early subscribers got in 1988 was a cover of Shocking Blue's 1969 single "Love Buzz" by a little band out of Aberdeen, WA.
Happy birthday, Losers.
Rock on.
No comments :
Post a Comment