While the record industry is in shambles with sales down over 40%, a revolution is happening on Long Island. Tim Olphie, owner/operator of Vibe Records, is building the label of the future, one that is both artist and consumer friendly. From Olphie’s perspective, the artists and the consumers are the two most important elements in achieving success in the music business however corporate greed is the virus that is dragging down the current system.
“It’s a fact that 66% of record buyers have said that they would buy more albums if they were less expensive. They don’t mind paying for the records, they don’t believe in stealing them but they don’t like the cost,” said Olphie. “I’m offering artists a joint venture where they participate in 50% of the selling price ($9.65 per unit). After they get their artist royalties, the producers get their royalties we split 50-50 on the net profits with the artists. For example, if an artist walks away with $5.50 a record and we sell 50,000 units they just made $250,000.”
Olphie understands both the artist side and the retail side of the business because of his diverse background. His career began when he played guitar in his group Gablin, who won a battle of the bands contest judged by the late Harry Chapin in the late seventies. He worked in retail managing a chain of ten Record World stores and then graduated to become the General Manager of SOUL/MCA. Back in the day, Olphie discovered the legendary, Spectrum City, which evolved into one of the greatest rap groups of all time, Public Enemy. Olphie claims producer Rick Rubin stole the group from underneath him but that didn’t stop his success. Olphie went on to oversee the soundtrack to the gangster film, "Juice," featuring the late Tupac Shukur.
The success continued as Olphie signed over 20 artists to various major and independent record companies. One of the 20 artists he signed, blues guitarist, Danny Gatton, on Elektra Records, won a Grammy nomination in 1993. Being a guitarist himself, Olphie connected with Gatton, who later tragically committed suicide.
During his days working as a record executive at Sony Music, Olphie worked on album campaigns for superstars like Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey. But all the while he dreamed of putting together his own label where he could develop artists’ talent from scratch taking on the role of executive producer overseeing every step of the recording process.
While Vibe Records is a small independent label, it has national distribution and takes care of the marketing, promotion, sales and distribution of every album they produce. “This is something that’s never been done before in the record industry with an independent label. We are doing nothing different than what the big record labels have done in the past,” said Olphie. “While they are just glomming on the consumer, we are an artist development company. We also license the artist’s masters, but they own them. If you’re an artist, it’s a win-win every step of the way. We are pro-artist. It all goes back to me being a musician.”
Vibe Records outsources everything from hiring independent promotion and publicity people to distributing its albums through EMI who puts their albums in every record store in the country and Canada.
“The biggest expression in this industry is, ‘I don’t know. What do you think?’ Decisions are being made by committees and the artists of today no longer have any control,” said Olphie. “I’m not tying up artists for long-winded agreements. At Vibe Records, we know how to market acts within specific genres. The artists get to maintain their royalties and masters while giving them more control. This is a new concept called a hybrid deal. We work project by project. We are not over extending ourselves with a huge catalog.”
Vibe Records has a diversified roster featuring: Pop and R&B acts like, Katelyn Tarver, J & Travis, Mike Murphy and will be working in the future with J’Adore, as well as an up and coming country act called, The Baker Girls. “We are all about diversification", said Olphie. “There’s nothing we can’t do.”
Olphie has faced constant adversity throughout his career. Currently he is in a battle with the publisher of Vibe Magazine. Olphie owns the rights to release albums under the Vibe Records name and he says Vibe is violating the trademark law by putting out a new CD called, Vibe Hits Vol. One. “Which Vibe is this?”, stated Bonnie Raitt at the 2000 R&B Foundation Awards Dinner, of which Vibe Records was one of its staunchest supporters.“It’s causing confusion in the marketplace.” says Olphie.
The time is now for the recording industry to be revamped. Artists have to look out for themselves and executives have to focus on pleasing the consumer instead of dipping their hands in the cookie jar. Vibe Records feels their small independent record company with national distribution run by a seasoned record company executive is the answer. “There are only four record labels left. The independents are the fifth major. The earnings are there,” said Olphie. “I’m blowing the whistle on the entire record industry.” |
