125 Records

Friday, December 30, 2005

Welcome to 125 Records

Welcome to the new 125 Records site! It may seem like the company has been dormant during 2005, but that's actually not the case. In the spring, we reissued Jill Tracy's Into the Land of Phantoms, and in November, we did a second pressing of another Jill Tracy disc, Diabolical Streak, which we had initially reissued in 2004. Both have done phenomenally well for us.

In 2006, however, 125 Records is coming out with four brand new CDs. I can only tell you about two of them right now: the Loud Family's What If It Works?, an exciting collaboration between two artists with prior 125 releases, Anton Barbeau and Scott Miller; and Don Dixon's The Entire Combustible World in One Small Room. Both should be out in the early spring.

I am hoping that this blog will provide some insight into what it's like to run a small record label. Back in 2001, when 125 Records began, I asked some people what advice they had for someone who wanted to start an indie label. The most common thing I heard was Don't! Obviously, that advice was ignored, and after five years, 125 is still here. Many lessons have been learned along the way. Some releases have lost money, lots of it; others have broken even, while a couple have proven to be steady income-producers. Naturally, I'm hoping that the CDs we release in 2006 will be very successful, allowing 125 to come up with a new slate of discs in 2007 and beyond.