Indie record labels suffer london city riots

via prefixmag.com

As we told you earlier this morning, a fire has ravaged the London warehouse of Sony DADC which housed much of the physical product for labels like 4AD, Domino, Warp, and Matador for the United Kingdom. While the extent of the damage was unclear for much of the morning, the Association for Independent Music (AIM) has just confirmed that all materials in the warehouse have been destroyed.

The Financial Times has a good rundown of what this fire means for the various labels working with PIAS UK, the sales and distribution organization who was working with the labels and storing materials at the Sony building. The short version: it’s not good. While some larger labels, like Beggars, likely have other storage facilities, many smaller labels will have lost all of their CDs and vinyl in the blaze, part of rioting that’s been convulsing London since the weekend. A short list of affected artists includes Animal Collective, Austra, Pavement, Adele, Bon Inver, and tUnE-YarDs.

The full statement from AIM is below:

"To all music fans:

You may have heard that the London riots have caused the destruction of a warehouse in North London housing many of the UK's independent labels and artists. All the stock has been destroyed by fire.

This will lead to much hardship for the artists and labels affected. What music fans can do to show their support for the indie label community, and help them survive thisdisaster is to buy a digital download of an album from any one of the digital retailers in the UK, as well as going to their local record store while stocks last.

This way, the labels will be able to remanufacture their CD's and vinyl more quickly, to resupply the record shops who are also affected by the riots.

Alison Wenham, Chairman and CEO of AIM, the UK's Trade Association for the Independent Music Industry: "This is a disaster for the music community, but with the fans' help, labels and artists will survive. Please show your support for the music community by buying a digital album from an independent label today".

The Association of Independent Music (AIM)"