ECM unavailable in the UK

Not for long.....



Music distributors New Note and Proper announce new partnership

Start date to be brought forward after Pinnacle goes into administration

Independent distributors New Note and Proper Music have announced that they have concluded a deal for Proper to take on the physical distribution of the New Note catalogue.

Initially this was planned to be effective from March 2009, but with the news that New Note’s current physical distributor has gone into administration, both parties are working towards an earlier start date..

In the meantime Proper’s wholesale division will start to carry key titles from
New Note’s labels in order to maintain effective supplies during the Christmas period.

The new partnership will now form the UK’s sixth largest physical distributor behind Arvato, EMI, Cinram, Sony DADC & Pinnacle (in administration).

For the past 20 years, New Note was distributed by Pinnacle. As part of the change, New Note will move from their current offices to Proper’s Beckenham, Kent based operation. As well as physical distribution, New Note labels will benefit from access to Proper’s range of speciality marketing services. In addition New Note and Proper will co-operate on digital releases via an ongoing partnership with aggregator IODA.

Combined the two businesses will represent some of the most highly regarded specialist independent labels such as ECM, World Circuit, Topic, Real World and Proper’s own label. In addition, New Note has a strong presence in the Classical music market, representing leading independent labels such as ECM New Series, Naïve Classique, Avie and Telarc. In total the two businesses will handle over 600 labels and have an active catalogue of over 20,000 exclusive titles.

New Note co-owner Eddie Wilkinson said: ‘We are delighted to have agreed this partnership with Proper. We had many years of success with Pinnacle but feel that the combined strength of New Note and Proper offer our labels a positive and exciting step forward in the face of an uncertain future for recorded music.’

Proper Music Distribution Chairman Malcolm Mills added ‘It’s obvious that the two companies are a good fit. We will become the primary distributor for anyone involved in the genres of Jazz, World and Folk music as well as consolidating ongoing strength in other specialist genres such as Country, Americana & Blues. We’re particularly pleased about the expertise that New Note brings in the field of Classical Music and the new opportunities that are open to us there.’

Details of how the move will affect retail and other information for dealers will be announced shortly. It is expected that the agreement between the two companies will be formally signed at Midem in January 2009.

Company Facts:

Proper Music Distribution was first established in 1993 and renamed in 2000 via the merger of CeeDee Sales & Direct Distribution. In 2007 it had a turnover in excess of £9m and UK scanned sales in excess of 800,000 units. In the last three years it has twice been nominated as one of the Distributors of the Year at the annual Music Week Awards.

New Note was established in 1988. In 2007 it had a turnover in excess of £2.5m and UK scanned sales in excess of 250,000. In October 2008 it handled the release of the live Buena Vista Social Club album, the follow up to the 500,000+ selling album of the same title.

Lontano, otherwise you would have had to emigrate again.

A good excuse for a trip to Title and Birdland

I get most of my ECM stuff from Caiman in the US, via UK Amazon. They are quite a bit cheaper.

Lontano - is not so far away.... in Sussex anywhere near Emsworth - I live 50 feet from Sussex....

Nigel

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:
I get most of my ECM stuff from Caiman in the US, via UK Amazon. They are quite a bit cheaper.

Lontano - is not so far away.... in Sussex anywhere near Emsworth - I live 50 feet from Sussex....

Nigel

Nigel - I am just outside Horsham on the south side. If you fancy an ECM listening session sometime let me know as I have almost all that they have released. Email in profile.

I imagine that Caiman source from the US distributor which will mean some titles are not available immediately. Don't know why but the US distributor has his own release timetable and it can sometimes be months behind Europe.

Title are the distributor in Oz. I used to love going into their store and picking up the new released ECM titles, more often than not released down under ahead of Europe. Never quite understood why that was the case but no complaining from me.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
A good excuse for a trip to Title and Birdland

Adrian,
I thought you had every ECM recording ever made.
Munch

Stuart,

ECM have two series of releases. The jazz label - ECM and the classical label ECM New Series. I have everything that has been released on the ECM label on CD. I am about 50 short on the ECM New Series. There have been over 1000 releases in total, although some of the early albums were only ever released on vinyl which will be the next project.

There are about 50 new releases each year so that keeps me more than busy, so Title was a very regular haunt for me. They also sold the ECM back catalogue there at bargain prices so I used to go in and just buy up all that I did not have.

ECM will be releasing the new Keith Jarrett Trio release Yesterdays on vinyl in January. First vinyl they have released in 15 years. Good to see. They also have plans to release some other titles on vinyl in 09.

quote:

ECM will be releasing the new Keith Jarrett Trio release Yesterdays on vinyl in January. First vinyl they have released in 15 years. Good to see. They also have plans to release some other titles on vinyl in 09.

Thanks for the info, I have some great stuff on the ECM label on vinyl, Bill frisell, Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett and many others. I will definitely be interested in new releases - a back catalogue of CD only releases on vinyl? Well maybe I'm dreaming.

regards,
mat

Mat - ECM still have some old back catalogue vinyl available that might be of interest.

http://www.ecmrecords.com/News/Special_Offers/LP-Liste....start=0&lvredir=3094


Whilst on the subject of ECM, there is a good ECM Live Week coming up in March at Kings Place in London - Dino Saluzzi, Rosamunde Quartet, Marcin Wasilewski, Julia Hilsmann Trio, Norma Winstone, Nik Bartcsh's Ronin, an ECM live jam......

quote:

Mat - ECM still have some old back catalogue vinyl available that might be of interest.

Thanks Lontano, I will have a look.

regards,
Mat

quote:

quote:
Mat - ECM still have some old back catalogue vinyl available that might be of interest.



Thanks Lontano, I will have a look.

Lontano, see what you've done! I was quietly hoovering these up as I could afford them, and now I've got competition!

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
Mat - ECM still have some old back catalogue vinyl available that might be of interest.

http://www.ecmrecords.com/News/Special_Offers/LP-Liste....start=0&lvredir=3094


Whilst on the subject of ECM, there is a good ECM Live Week coming up in March at Kings Place in London - Dino Saluzzi, Rosamunde Quartet, Marcin Wasilewski, Julia Hilsmann Trio, Norma Winstone, Nik Bartcsh's Ronin, an ECM live jam......

Thanks for the heads-up Adrian. I'm very tempted by Ronin and Hulsmann - on the same night!

Regards
Nigel

quote:

Originally posted by dn1:

quote:

quote:
Mat - ECM still have some old back catalogue vinyl available that might be of interest.



Thanks Lontano, I will have a look.

Lontano, see what you've done! I was quietly hoovering these up as I could afford them, and now I've got competition!

Sorry about that!! Hopefully there should be enough to go around. Good to see some more ECM fans on the forum....

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:
Thanks for the heads-up Adrian. I'm very tempted by Ronin and Hulsmann - on the same night!

Regards
Nigel

Nigel - your other choice is 22 March Marcin Wasilewski Trio and Nik Bartsch Ronin double bill at Gateshead International Jazz Festival.

Another ECM thing for those interested. Not sure if you are aware but there is an ECM Records Forum. What is good about it is that Steve Lake who is one of the main men at the label, responsible for many of the recordings, the Horizons Touched book etc frequents the forum and always responds to comments and questions on ECM. You can find out quite a lot about things if you ask.

For those interested it is at

http://speakeasy.jazzcorner.com/

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:
Thanks for the heads-up Adrian. I'm very tempted by Ronin and Hulsmann - on the same night!

Regards
Nigel

Nigel - I have tickets for this night so maybe I'll see you there!

quote:

Another ECM thing for those interested. Not sure if you are aware but there is an ECM Records Forum. What is good about it is that Steve Lake who is one of the main men at the label, responsible for many of the recordings, the Horizons Touched book etc frequents the forum and always responds to comments and questions on ECM. You can find out quite a lot about things if you ask.



For those interested it is at

http://speakeasy.jazzcorner.com/

Many thanks for this link!

quote:

Nigel - I have tickets for this night so maybe I'll see you there!

I'm waiting to hear back from a friend in London - will definitely let you know if I'm going.

Cheers
Nigel

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
Another ECM thing for those interested. Not sure if you are aware but there is an ECM Records Forum. What is good about it is that Steve Lake who is one of the main men at the label, responsible for many of the recordings, the Horizons Touched book etc frequents the forum and always responds to comments and questions on ECM. You can find out quite a lot about things if you ask.

For those interested it is at

http://speakeasy.jazzcorner.com/

Not usre if I can handle another forum but I saved the link.

quote:

Lontano, see what you've done! I was quietly hoovering these up as I could afford them, and now I've got competition!

Not to worry - due to the current financial climate my hoover is not working that well at the moment.

quote:

Another ECM thing for those interested. Not sure if you are aware but there is an ECM Records Forum.

Sounds interesting I will try it out.

regards,
mat