Mordam Records: История Независимого Дистрибутора Панк-Рока

American record distribution company
Mordam Records ("More Damn Records") was a California record distribution company for independent record labels. It was founded in San Francisco in 1983 as an independent punk distribution company by Ruth Schwartz (one of the original co editors of Maximum RocknRoll). Mordam was the exclusive distributor for dozens of punk rock and independent record labels throughout the 1980s and 90s, gaining a reputation as one of the few "distros" that paid their labels on time. Following the departure of Lookout! Records and Man's Ruin from its distribution network in 2000, Schwartz moved the company to Sacramento. She subsequently sold Mordam outright to Lumberjack Distribution in 2005. It continued as a part of the Lumberjack Mordam Music Group. With record sales in decline throughout the industry, the company went out of business in 2009.

Independent record companies are frequently started by music fans, for many of whom commerce is secondary and financial skills are minimal. Customarily such record labels send their finished products to intermediaries known as "distributors" on consignment, with these middlemen adding an additional markup and selling these goods in bulk to retail outlets. The label is thus placed in a position of making a loan of its products to its distributors, hoping that sales will be made and money returned in compensation. The only way for an independent record label to gain access to these channels was through well connected distributors. 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. Mordam Records also manufactured and distributed a small number of titles under its own name, featuring such punk noise bands as Victims Family and Rhythm Pigs. Through 2000 Mordam maintained a warehouse and sales office located at 2020 Cesar Chavez Blvd. in San Francisco.

Late in 2000, with sales declining throughout the music industry, Mordam moved from costly San Francisco to a lower cost location in Sacramento. In a further effort to economize, catalog production shifted from a semi annual to an annual basis beginning in 2001. Exhausted and unwilling to adapt to the changing business environment, Schwartz began to seek a purchaser for Mordam Records. 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. Price of the sale was said to be in the range of $200,000 to $300,000.

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. In accordance with this agreement, affiliated labels (including those formerly under the Mordam umbrella) were to ship physical goods directly to Cinram warehouse. 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. CEO Hemsath retreated from the wholesale operation to dedicate attention to his successful label, which had since moved to New York City. As payments were missed and contracts expired, labels would leave the distributor, further contracting revenue. 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." The company's operations were abruptly halted shortly thereafter with the company remaining in arrears to many of its affiliated labels.