THE ORIGINAL COMPANY MISSION STATEMENT - 2001

Squank Entertainment LLC is a company dedicated to expanding the boundaries of music. By making a music business that works for the musician, we hope to influence a change to better support original music within the industry.

For sometime commercial restrictions have drastically impacted the growth of music as an art form. To better understand lets take a look at the music industry both past and present.

In the 1940’s for instance things were very different to a musician. To record your music and release it to the public pretty much required the association of a record company due largely to the fact that there were not many recording studios. Also independent distribution was rare if not unheard of, which meant that the small labels were at the mercy of the major companies that could provide distribution. Though the creativity flourished among the musicians at the time, the general number of musicians was much smaller. This smaller number of musicians would ease the fact that the basic path to the listener required printing large quantities of albums and shipping those albums to the stores, radio stations, and juke joints. A somewhat hidden fact was that if the album does not sell, the retailer often could return them and get their money back. This created a large investment to be made for each artist. Now picture a record company investing money in an album that was a failure commercially. That would mean a big loss.

Now lets look at the situation today. Today the basic business practice used for more than sixty years still remains. But the society in which it was developed has changed ever so much. There are many more active styles of music and a larger number of directions in which music can grow. More people, more music, more stores means more invested money needed to achieve national distribution. This translates to even greater risk involved in signing an artist. The truth is that only about 1 out of every 10 albums released is successful commercially. Though when involving an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars and the ever growing demand for higher profits, commercial success does not necessarily reflect good or bad music. Plus most companies, despite the fact they are making millions of dollars, use this risk factor as an excuse to keep more money for themselves resulting in the very low artist royalties. Artist royalties, dependent on contracts, averages some 60 cents per $15 album sale. Really fair considering that without the artist there would be no company. This risk also results in the business side out weighing the art, and the industry aims more for high sales over musical content. Superficial things such as physical appearance and image begin to also be more important than the musical content, especially since the advent of the music video. The artist themselves often concerned with success financially in this ever closing industry begin to write music they think will sell or get them signed, rather than letting the creativity go free and writing what comes naturally. The scouts and executives in the record industry move faster to support music that has already been commercially successful rather than taking a chance with something new and original.

So the industry that was created to get the music out to the people is affecting the growth of the art form. However, technological advances have lowered costs and put recording and producing a marketable album in the hands of the artist. In many cases a record company is no longer needed to get the album finished and ready for distribution. But then, there comes the high cost of producing enough albums to get them out to the ever-increasing number of stores. Also most major companies pay for shelf space in the stores so it becomes a challenge to even get a store to carry it. It all comes down to one thing. This is a game full of multi-million dollar players and there isn’t much room for the little guy. There are also many other problems in the industry such as music rights and whom they belong to, creative control and freedom under contracts offered by major labels in addition to corruption and greed within the industry that results in unethical business practice and one-sided profit dispersal. These are all problems deeply imbedded into the music industry among others and expecting the situation to suddenly change is unrealistic, especially since most things are run by these few powerful companies who are profiting at insane amounts on the way things are. The next best step in my idea is to bypass the pop industry and in reality start an alternate system on the side. A system designed to relieve the pressures found in current practices. A system re-designed from the grounds of manufacturing to the flight of distribution in ways that will let music live and grow freely while paying the artists, the creators, properly for their contributions..

First and foremost Squank Entertainment LLC is a manufacturing and/or distribution company,well at this point. Though there are studio facilities in conjunction with the company and albums will be produced under us for example, “Universal Reversal”, we work mostly with independent artists and record labels with existing albums using non-exclusive lisense agreements. We encourage artists to take advantage of the wide spread technology and growing number of studios. By producing your album independently, retaining publishing rights and maintaining creative control is more easily obtained. However, if the music is not very organized for an album or has some rough edges, then I recommend getting a producer. We do not at this point provide financial support, whether for promotion, touring, etc. What we do is promote and market the company as a whole introducing those participating artists to markets perhaps not found otherwise.

In designing the structure of Squank Entertainment I have changed a few common practices in music manufacturing and distribution to better support original music, today’s independent artist, and the ever-growing art form.

The first change is a BTOS (build-to-order system) producing a unique in-house CD. Rather than taking large investments in each artist printing thousands of albums and putting them on the shelves hoping sales will follow, most albums are not manufactured till the purchase occurs. This drastically reduces pressure for sales/profits and opens a lot of freedom for the artist. Using a virtual catalog and the direct connection of the Internet to the customer we distribute via US postal service and other shipping methods. This creates a low overhead platform for us to stabilize company operations. With average sales volumes, non-stocked albums are manufactured by us and shipped within 2-3 days. In the event sales reach high numbers in a short period, the manufacturing is farmed out to larger facilities. This can result in a delay of 2-3 weeks before shipping, referred to as backorder, but that is a small price to pay to give music its freedom. .

So a path is created using the Internet to get music to the listener, minimizing creative restrictions, and increasing profits to the artist. But it can be nice to go to a local store and pick up a CD. Well that is only a goal on the horizon to reach. Squank Entertainment LLC may begin as an Internet distribution company and it will remain a focus, but that is not where things stop. We will also work to get the music to the stores while maintaining the fundamental principles discussed herein. Other plans for the future are to produce a superior CD to the standards sold in stores today (first deveopled in the 80's). Even talk of signing traditional exclusive record deals with recording, touring, and promotion are in the works. It will take much work and even more time, but this goal will not be abandoned. It is time for the artist to take back the industry from the greedy businessmen. And the more people who take part, the better chance we have to make a change, whether a customer buying a CD or a creative artist signing for distribution under us.

We are not trying to create a new branch of the industry just so we can dominate it. We are one of many up-coming companies working to achieve a more equal business where artists are no longer just a pawn. Let the music live free.

Sincerely,

James M House - Founder

Written in Summer of 2001