One year anniversary

From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal

We just had our one year anniversary. “Of what?” you ask? Of Joe running the webstore. “Joe?” you ask, now even more perplexed as you lean in toward your monitor. Yeah. You remember? Remember last year at the end of August, I packed up Projekt and drove cross-country? At that point, Joe took over the fulfillment on the Projekt webstore. “Really?” you ask. “I don’t remember this!” Ok… Maybe it’s because I never mentioned it. That must be it. : )

But things have been running wonderfully, haven’t they?

Projekt orders are filled out of Philadelphia’s Digital Ferret record store. Joe has been the full-time manager of the shop for ten years (that’s him in the photo above, note the Remnants of a deeper purity vinyl on the shelf behind him!). Last Summer, as I prepared for buggin’ out of Brooklyn, Shea and I discussed possibilities for the webstore. One idea was for Shea to take it over, get a space and keep it in NYC; but the rents are just too high out there; without the label income, the webstore would have a hard time making ends meet. Besides, Shea had other plans (moose, travel, lattes, sheep, bikes, life!).

I hit upon the idea of out-sourcing. But India was too far away for mail-orders (Ha! No. No! I never actually considered India). When Shea and I discussed possible partners, we realized the best fit would be a similar business with experience filling web-orders. Ideally, it would be a partner that understood this genre; who could keep things moving seamlessly.

Working with Joe made perfect sense. Digital Ferret Records was already a customer for Projekt CDs; and we both stocked similar import titles, sourcing a lot of the releases from our friends at Audioglobe Distribution in Italy. A big up-side to working with Joe was combining our ordering power, he could order more often from Audioglobe, providing faster fulfillment and a wider variety of titles in the Projekt store. This change was an improvement, not just a solution.

Now it’s been a year and everything has been running great.

[ I have to admit that it was odd for me, to part from my mail-order department. I’ve been sticking musical recordings into packages – and then into the mail – for 30 years. It was a change, not having this department under my roof. But now it feels really good, because things work so effortlessly. And since you’re probably wondering… Yes! Shea still works for Projekt. She does behind-the-scenes label promotions stuff, as well as works on the website, tweets, facebookering, etc. Stuff she can do from the international space station, or wherever she’s at this week! ]

I asked Joe if he wanted to add anything to this post, and he emailed back: “I am not really one for words. Music is my passion. The more engulfed in this world I am, the happier I am.”

Shea and I really want to thank Joe for picking up the ball and running with it. And I bet our mail-order customers want to thank you, too. Now they know who to thank. It’s Joe!!

You can leave Joe a comment when you place your next order at Projekt.com.

Bandcamp top-5 of the last 30 days

#1 Various: Summer 2014 – electronic & ambient sampler
#2 tie: Erik Wollo: Tundra (ep)
#2 tie: Steve Roach: The Delicate Forever
#4 tie: Loren Nerell / Mark Seelig: Tree of Life
#4 tie: Steve Roach / David Kelly: The Long Night