[RyanS]

[font size=1" color="#FF0000]LAST EDITED ON Jun-30-01 AT 04:26 PM (EST)[/font][p]Hi,

After calling around, here are some ideas for the people who will be doing record store promotion for Timbre.

- Call ahead; some managers want to schedule times/dates instead of having us just walk in with posters and stuff.

- People are asking me who I am and who I represent when I'm calling. They tend to have a problem with the general public asking for promotional space. Be sure that you take them a copy of the letter Janice is sending with the posters!

- When you visit the stores, write down the store location, name, and number, and also take note of the number of copies (if any) of Timbre that are stocked. Surprisingly a lot of places that you would expect to have the album do not have it at all. Some swear there is no such album. If they don't have it in stock, let Janice know so Trumpet Swan can get some CDs to them. Then you can go back later with posters and harass them again :-)

- Check back with the stores a few days later (visit them if possible) to see if the displays are still up! In 1999 when my friends and I promoted around Florida for Timbre, we'd go back a few days later and they'd taken our posters down!

- Ask if the store is willing to play the album/single over their stereo system or in listening stations. I passed Lose Your Way promos out to a few places in Daytona Beach in 1999 and they added them to their rotation so that the song played every few hours in the entire store. This is difficult since record companies basically pay for their albums to go onto listening stations, but if the manager likes Sophie, maybe...

- Like Janice mentioned, stress to the store managers that their company name and location will be posted on the Internet. That's great store promotion and they're after promotion just like Sophie is!

- Go crazy with your posters! Put them on post office bulletin boards, at the YMCA, on college campuses, in bookstore windows, all over town! Visit lots of little stores as well as the big chains (Virgin Megastore, CD Warehouse, etc.).. Put them in coffee houses, places where there are poetry readings, art centers (I'm going to put them up at the Cultural Arts Centers here)...

- Take photos of your display!

- Bring your stapler and tape--most stores want you to put the displays up yourself.

I can't wait to hear stories from everyone! This is going to be fun!

Ryan

[SleepingBeauty]

Thanks alot for your ideas, this is going to be really really fun. I'm proud to join!

That's all for now
/S

[MarylandPines]

Something else to consider, Ryan is taking the posters to independent stores, as opposed to the big fuckin' chains that are currently all-Britney, all the time. I am taking two posters to Tower Records in Rockville and Annapolis only because they have Timbre in their listening stations. the others are:

The Sound Garden, Baltimore
Oceans II Records, Annapolis
Record & Tape Traders, Reisterstown
Record & Tape Traders, Severna Park

R&TT is a Baltimore-area chain(about 8 or 9) that started in '77. They have a lot of stuff that you can't find elsewhere...out-of-print single, CDs, and posters....hard-to-find, old videos.....their website is http://www.yodelinpig.com/.