BACKGROUND: Based in North Carolina, the eight-year-old Home Grown Music Network combines the key elements of the business while bypassing established avenues of distribution and promotion. HGMN provides member artists with an array of services from networking and distribution to publicity and promotions. HGMN was founded in 1995 by Lee Crumpton, a former disc jockey who has just added more capital behind his new record-label offshoot, Harmonized Records, expanding his retail distribution system to emphasize major regional record store chains. Harmonized Records, the Network�s own new label, was introduced in the spring of 2002.

New Label Harmonized: We started a new label this year. Up to this point, we�ve been doing a lot of the duties of a label, helping the bands get the music out there and exposed to the consumers. We decided to take it a step further and help bands through the whole process of manufacturing, marketing and distributing. Most of the bands on the label are starting from the ground up. We�re going to help them grow and we�re going to grow with them.

Where Submissions Come From: We get several packages a day at this point. There�s a lot of crap in there, but every so often a gem will come to the surface. Usually only about one or two a month make the cut. We�re starting Harmonized from scratch. We�ve just done our fourth release, signed two bands and we have a couple other things on the table for the future.

Evaluating Submissions: When we�re evaluating bands, we look at several different aspects. First of all is whether the music is good and they have a quality product. Our staff screens everything that comes through and looks for things that fit our criteria musically. If the music is of quality, we�ll look at other criteria such as whether they�re touring full time. That�s pretty key. If they�re just a part-time band and they�re not really leaving their home market, we�ll probably pass on them. They have to be willing to make that leap to be a full-time act.

We also look at their Web presence as far as marketing, promotions and the business behind the band. If they don�t have a business behind the band, that throws up a red flag. That means it�s going to be more difficult for us to get what we need to keep the product flowing.

Home Grown vs. Harmonized: Home Grown Music Network is my main focus. That�s what I founded back in 1994. Harmonized is something we started this year to help us have a more long-term relationship with some of the artists. What we saw was that certain bands we would help them grow their audience and they would sign on to another label or another distributor. By helping them we were hurting ourselves.

Setting Up Harmonized: The label is run sort of like a partnership. We split the profits. The band is still pretty much on their own. Where we come in is we help get that product made, get it into the stores and get it into consumers. The bands are helping by playing live, selling the CD at shows and whatever they can do to improve their own situation.

Other Services: With the networking aspect, we help bands with our database where they can log in and access thousands and thousands of contacts. These could be press, radio or other bands. We have a network of volunteer reps across the country that will help them out with posters, flyers or whatever they can do. We have venues in that database, schools and Web contacts. We also have e-mail lists. If one of the bands finds a useful contact, they�ll send it through and all the bands will have that information.

Building Business: We don�t look at budgets per se. The majority of bands we look at are struggling. They�re not doing music to get rich. They�re doing it because they can�t imagine themselves doing anything else. We look at what they�re accomplishing on their own. We look for bands that are committed to music as a full-time career and we try to help them improve their business as much as we can.

Profit: We keep overhead really low. Usually the break-even point on an average product is between 1,000-1,500 units. We could easily blow a lot more money on the marketing end, but we�re being very conservative because we know these young bands are only going to sell a certain amount of product in a certain amount of time.

What You Get For the Money: The bands pay a yearly membership fee that gives them access to all those resources. We also put a mail order catalog out a couple times a year and they get featured in that. There are 200,000 copies of that at the moment and those get spread around very widely. It�s all funded through CD sales.

We also have an impressive mail order catalog where we sell to consumers directly plus we do e-commerce through our Web site. We�re also a distributor, supplying 350 indie stores across the country as well. That keeps the whole thing afloat.

Manufacturing: Manufacturing these days is a pretty competitive field and so you can get a pretty good rate just by shopping around. The bands we work will still have pretty low volume as far as their runs, so you don�t get it as cheaply as if you had a 10,000 piece run. We send everything through a local company that�s about 15 miles away so that we can also take shipping charges out of the equation.

Distribution: CDs are available nationally through all the stores we distribute to. You won�t find them in places like Tower or any of the big mega-chains. We would be on the bottom of their list of people they would pay. They would pay the majors first or whoever else they�re getting Britney Spears from.

We figure it�s smart to stay away from that and really focus on the independents and help those who need indie product to keep traffic coming into those stores. We want to keep those guys alive.

Jam Bands: Jam bands are our primary focus, though a jam band is hard to describe. There are so many different styles that fit into that category. It�s a challenge to put them into stores. Some stores won�t even hear us through, so we move onto the next. Others will give us a try and usually they�ll see success there so they�ll continue ordering whatever�s working for them.

Touring: The one thing these jam bands have in common is they tour. They do 150-200 dates per year sometimes. The bands love to play live. They�re best on a stage and they support live shows because they like that experience. We work around those tour dates, convincing the store that they need that product for when the band comes through town next month.

The demand for CDs in this genre may not be as high as in other genres, but it helps to grow the market because there are so many people trading music that they turn on others to the music. These are very open-minded people who are willing to try a lot of different things. But live is where it all jells together.

The Scene: There�s no specific area of the country where jam bands are more popular. There are hot spots, but it�s really scattered around. For the longest time, New England was the place most of the bands were coming out of. Even L.A. doesn�t get as many jam-type shows as San Francisco.

Bigger Labels: For the longest time, the majors were pretty much writing this whole genre off. After certain milestones, like a Bonaroo where you have 70,000-80,000 fans, then their ears perk up because they see dollar signs.

��Tom Kidd

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