Running a Record Store

Running a Record Store

5 December 2004

_USA_ You do not, in general, buy directly from labels. Things would get out of hand. Most stores refuse to buy direct except from friends or locals. There is enough trouble trying to get everybody paid, the whole system needs to keep the number of invoices down. Get a TAX-ID number. $10-20 from your state Comptroller's office. If you are shipping out of state (the usual), there is no sales tax (so far), but you still need a Tax-ID number to do business. Distributors require one to set up an account. Apply to variousDistributorsfor a wholesale account. A that point you can get the weekly faxes sent to you. You might want to befriend an existing record store and see if you can get advice, warnings etc. Big issue is not getting caught with major back stock that no-one is ever going to buy.

online

Sell records online too. Many stores I know make most of their money over the net, and just sit in the store all day dealing with that. Nice to have a place to hang out you know, but rents can be super high. Of course you can listen to the records in the store. Most labels and artists (the holders of the copyright) do not mind and will not enforce their copyright if you wish to play RealAudio clips from a CD that you are selling through your store. However, they do have the legal (and moral) right to request you not do that, and to collect money for performance.
See((Online Audio% You can sell to anyone anywhere on the planet as long as the taxes are paid when shipping. Records are insanely expensive in places like Australia and Singapore. Its still cheap for them if they have to pay shipping that is MORE than the cost of the record.