Several indie record labels announced today that they’ve parted ways with Warner Music Group’s Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA) and will be working with North Carolina distributor Redeye going forward, Billboard reports. Beggars Group—the collective of labels that includes 4AD, Matador, Rough Trade, Young Turks, and XL—are joined by Domino and Saddle Creek in the move. The labels made the change effective January 1.
In April 2019, Warner moved all of its business—including physical product released by ADA indie labels—to the Indiana-based company Direct Shot Distributing. Record stores and retailers have complained about Direct Shot, saying shipments arrive after extensive delays or go missing entirely. Read more about the reported issues surrounding Direct Shot in Pitchfork’s report “A Major Music Distributor Has Stifled Vinyl Sales for Record Stores and Indie Labels, Sources Say.”
“Historically, independent labels have always seen getting records into stores as the first business decision they need to make,” Beggars chairman Martin Mills said in a statement. “But now that physical is such a small and decreasing part of the majors’ business, for indies, to whom physical, and especially vinyl, is so much more important, to partner with the majors for distribution has become arguably anachronistic. Beggars works with great, fully independent distributors everywhere else in the world, and believes in bringing the advantages of our scale to the sector; and much as we’re sorry to leave ADA, with whom we’ve had incredible success, we’re very happy to be fully independently distributed at last in the USA.”
Redeye will be responsible for the distribution of new albums by Grimes, Pinegrove, Dan Deacon, Frances Quinlan, and more. In 2019, the labels that announced the move to Redeye released new music from Big Thief, Thom Yorke, FKA twigs, Jai Paul, Kim Gordon, (Sandy) Alex G, Holly Herndon, black midi, Aldous Harding, Deerhunter, Hand Habits, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Georgia, and more.