not because they want to hear them."
Our job is no longer to sell folks things they want to hear. They want an experience and to identify themselves as part of a community. Ownership then becomes a way of them supporting your community through investing in that community. Fostering that in an honest, transparent and "non-gross" way takes a combination of gracefulness, creativity and not taking oneself too seriously, while still taking art and music seriously.
part of being information savvy might have more to do with being selective, going for quality over quantity. At some point the social networking game diminishes each site's effectiveness if you are spread too thin across them all. And beyond social networking our tech savvy pioneer John Beeler has reached out to independent video game developers, has helped us embrace opportunities like muxtape, and continues to seek out creative and non-traditional marketing and/or collaborative art making opportunities or venues.
The other side of this is internally. The more we are able to streamline how we gather and then release the information for a given album or project, the more time we have to release more music, explore new opportunities for our artists, and be more than just a record label that manufactures releases. There are some exciting new tools out there that we have been utilizing to help us in this endeavor. Some of them have been built internally by John, but we have also integrated third party options such as flickr, vimeo, artistdata, and wordpress. At the root of the external and internal technological advances is the goal to build relationshiops with people behind the technology rather than relying on the technology. The tech comes and goes, but the players stay the same.
MICROCULTURE ECOSYSTEMS - In all of this, I think my driving philosphy
which I feel connects these three things is probably what is no more
than a fancy way of saying, DIY. We have tried to create our own
microculture ecosystem by working with friends while making new ones,
and striving for independence, while understanding the need at times
for interdependence (i.e. distribution through Touch and Go and SC
Distribution).
We have also done our best to support bands and scenes through our Unusual Animal parties which celebrate and highlight local art and music talent. We share information and collaborate with like-minded labels. Through all of this, we hope at the end of the day people look at Asthmatic Kitty and see a catalog of creative and innovative music, an attention to details, and an integrity and honesty in the way we do business.
BE GRATEFUL - We work hard, but we also know we are lucky to be alive.
That is why we still personally answer every email that
info@asthmatickitty.com receives. Our mail-order has the best customer
service in the business bar none. Responding to emails, managing
returns, and sending product quickly and smoothly are old-fashioned
concepts that lack a buzzword, but they have helped us bring customers
back to our website to purchase merch rather than send them to Amazon
or iTunes or big box stores. This kind of attitude also helped us
develop the brand, which gives us a certain amount of capital when
introducing a new act or even in selling grocery tote bags. And in
each communication with customers, artists, and the companies we
contract - each of us strives to maintain an air of graciousness
because we know that this whole thing could come crashing down at any
minute. It's good to live on the edge.
More about the Asthmatic Kitty Recrods and it's artists here.






