History
Background
Independent record companies are frequently started by music fans, for many of whom commerce is secondary and financial skills are minimal.Todd Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part 1," ''Razorcake,'' whole no. 53 (Dec. 2009/Jan. 2010), pg. 34. Customarily such record labels send their finished products to intermediaries known as "distributors" on"The ideal label works on making and releasing quality music it believes in. The ideal independent distributor works toward creating a safe umbrella for smaller labels to survive under and uses their strength in numbers. Distributors then use that collective strength to send the music out and collect the money that comes back in. They take a fee or percentage of sales for their services and cut the labels a check at regular intervals. In turn, the labels are supposed to pay royalties to their artists from those music sales."Mordam Records was one such independent record distributor, concentrating on the
Establishment
Mordam Records (the name a play on "More Damn Records") was established in 1983 in San Francisco, California, by Ruth Schwartz, an original co-editor of '' Maximum RocknRoll'' ''(MRR).'' The company's survival and growth was fueled by its exclusive distribution agreements with ''MRR'' and Alternative Tentacles, the record label owned by Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra. The label quickly gained a reputation with its associate labels for fair-dealing and timeliness, with Lee Joseph of Dionysus Records recalling that "checks arrived the same time every month with a statement" from the beginning of his association with Mordam in 1985 until its termination — a situation which Joseph categorized as "fabulous."Structure
The company depicted itself as a wholesale producers' cooperative — or in its own words, "a group of record labels and publishers who sell their products together."Mordam Records, ''Fall 1992 Catalog.'' San Francisco, CA: Mordam Records, 1992; inside cover. Labels associating themselves with Mordam granted the company exclusive distribution rights, with the company selling products to other wholesale distributors around the world as well as dealing directly with hundreds of record stores. The company produced monthly photocopied flyers detailing "new releases" of associated labels as well as semi-annual catalogs depicting and describing all available titles each fall and spring. Building its business upon the lucrative Dead Kennedys catalog of San Francisco's Alternative Tentacles records and monthly sales of the popular ''Maximum Rocknroll'' magazine, Mordam initially concentrated on labels hailing from the Pacific coast, includingMove to Sacramento
Late in 2000, with sales declining throughout the music industry, Mordam moved from costly San Francisco to a lower cost location in Sacramento. Sales for the company, which had peaked at approximately $10 million per year steadily atrophied due to a lessening demand for physical products across the music industry. The departure earlier that year of Lookout Records with its highly marketable catalog, featuring such bands as Green Day, Screeching Weasel, The Queers, and Mr. T Experience, was an important contributing factor in the faltering financial fortunes of the company which necessitated a change of location. The new Mordam site was 731 N Market Blvd., Unit R in Sacramento from the end of 2000 onwards.Mordam Records, ''Mordam Records 2001.'' Sacramento, CA: Mordam Records, 2001; back cover. In a further effort to economize, catalog production shifted from a semi-annual to an annual basis beginning in 2001.Sale to Lumberjack
After about 20 years in the record business, Mordam owner Ruth Schwartz began to feel alienated from her job and the record industry as a whole. Moreover, digital music distribution had begun to entrench itself, shifting the form of the production-distribution business model. In a 2009 interview Schwartz recalled:"I was tired and pissed off.... I did not have a good attitude any more. 'I hate my job. I hate the industry. I gotta get out of here'.... here wasalso a generational divide with a lot of younger people coming into the music scene. People born after 1980 are jumpy. They move fast. When businesses were going down 20 percent, people started to bail."Schwartz recognized that the future of Mordam, if it was to survive, would be as a service company — a digital aggregator and distributor. Exhausted and unwilling to adapt to the changing business environment, Schwartz began to seek a purchaser for Mordam Records.Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part 1," pg. 36 She found it difficult to sell the firm, however, since affiliated labels contractually retained the right to walk away from the exclusive distribution agreement with the Mordam at will. A suitor was found in the form of Lumberjack Distribution, a somewhat younger wholesale distribution operation built around Doghouse Records which CEO Dirk Hemsath declared had been built "in what we perceived as Mordam's image."Dirk Hemsath, '' AMP'', whole no. 33, quoted in Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part 1," pg. 36. Price of the sale was said to be in the range of $200,000 to $300,000. The new combined entity adopted the name Lumberjack Mordam Music Group (LMMG), with Hemsath taking on the role of CEO and President. The purchase meant a change of business terms for the Mordam-affiliated labels, with Mordam's former voluntary "at will" affiliation agreements to be replaced by contractual exclusivity agreements. A handful of labels including Dirtnap Records and Adeline Records exited as a result of the merger. At least some existing labels were allowed to keep their former "at will" exclusive distribution contracts.Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part 1," pg. 37.
Lumberjack Mordam Music Group
With the comparatively small Lumberjack Distribution (owned by Dirk Hemsath of Doghouse Records) absorbing the powerful and established Mordam to form LMMG, a revamped and expanded system of sales and shipping was needed. A contract was signed with WEA, the distribution arm of major label Warner Brothers Music calling for WEA to directly pick, pack, and ship music to certain national chain store accounts via a WEA-affiliated entity called Cinram.Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part 1," pp. 37-38. In accordance with this agreement, affiliated labels (including those formerly under the Mordam umbrella) were to ship physical goods directly to Cinram warehouse. LMMG hoped for first year sales in the $15 to 20 million range, thereby growing business and income of its affiliated labels. LMMG found itself hamstrung by plummeting CD sales and a shift to digital music sales and by a difficult financial relationship with Warner Brothers, which in exchange for money loaned to LMMG had negotiated a favorable compensation agreement for itself, ultimately to the detriment of affiliated labels.Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part 1," pg. 39. As 2007 progressed LMMG began to find its financial situation untenable as the retail record industry contracted wildly, and the unfavorable financial situation with respect to WEA became ever more tangled.Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part 1," pg. 41. CEO Hemsath retreated from the wholesale operation to dedicate attention to his successful label, which had since moved to New York City. By 2008 payments to labels had fallen well behind schedule.Todd Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part II," ''Razorcake,'' whole no. 54 (Feb.-March 2010), pg. 70. As payments were missed and contracts expired, labels would leave the distributor, further contracting revenue. New labels were added in an attempt to fill the gap, with a total of 116 independent labels ultimately attached to LMMG by the time of its termination in May 2009.Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part II," pg. 72. LMMG was notified by the Ohio Secretary of State on April 20, 2009 that its articles of incorporation had been canceled by the state and that it was "not in good standing."Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part II," pg. 73. The company's operations were abruptly halted shortly thereafter with the company remaining in arrears to many of its affiliated labels.Taylor, "The Lumberjack Mordam Music Group Debacle, Part II," pp. 73-75.Mordam Records releases
* MDR-1 Faith No More '' We Care a Lot'', 1985 * MDR-2 Rhythm Pigs self-titled, 1986 * MDR-3 Victim's Family ''Voltage and Violets'', 1986 * MDR-4 Rhythm Pigs ''Choke on this'', 1987 * MDR-5 The Ex '' Too Many Cowboys'', 1987 * MDR-6 Mannequin Beach ''Don't Laugh, You're Next'', 1988 * MDR-7 Victim's Family ''Things I Hate to Admit'', 1988 * MDR-8 Victim's Family ''White Bread Blues'', 1990 * MDR-9 Victim's Family ''Son of a Church Card/Quivering Lip'' 7"Exclusive labels (1987-2005)
* 5 Rue Christine (1998- ) * A-F Records (2002- ) * Ace Fu Records (2003- ) * Acute Records (2004- ) * Adeline Records (2000- ) *See also
*Footnotes
Further reading
* Lumberjack DistributionExternal links
* {{Authority control Record labels established in 1983 American record labels Punk record labels Alternative rock record labels