Henry Stone Music

Thirty Distributors Ran The Independent Records Business, Says Henry Stone

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“Usually the guy that owned the record label would contact me. I was the distributor here in Florida. I was one of thirty or so independent distributors around the country. I was one of em. I was the only one here in Florida. Every once in a while somebody would try to start up, and then boom. They couldn’t compete. So basically it was me. But then ya had twenty nine guys around the country doing the same thing, each in their own little area. New York had a couple of distributors because it was a big state. Philadelphia had a couple. Some of the small cities had only one, like Cincinnati, New Orleans, Dallas, yknow, whateva, but there was thirty of us basically. If you had a label and you put a record out, you automatically send it to us thirty distributors and we’d sell the record. Most of us were like me, they had the radio tied up in their area. Controlling the disc jockeys so that it was like a thing that this is the way it was with independent distribution.”

  • From a 2013 interview with Henry Stone

©Jacob Katel and HenryStone Music USA Inc. All Rights Reserved

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