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Awarestore.com
By: Sharon Chapman
The Awarestore.com is the premier online source for ordering CDs from up-and-coming independent recording artists. Will Healy, President of the Awarestore.com, recently spoke to Tuned In Music's Sharon Chapman about Aware and its unique niche in the industry.
Tuned In Music - Could you give us a quick history of the Awarestore.com?
Will Healy - Aware Records had an online CD store that catered to artists featured on the Aware Compilations and bands signed to Aware Records. It wasn't called the Awarestore then. It was just an e-commerce site that we started when I moved to Chicago and started with Aware back in 1996. A few years later we started to get calls from bands asking if we would sell their CDs for them. We really didn't know why and eventually realized bands wanted more and more to be affiliated with the brand of Aware Records. In 1998 we started Awarestore.com and started to stock other independent/developing artists. We were always proud of the history of our compilations (discovering the best new bands and releasing them on our compilations) so we started doing something different in terms of online stores -- we started a submission process. Everyone who is added to the store goes through a submission process, and if we feel we can recommend that band or artist to our customers with 100% guarantee that they're going to like it, we bring it in. To me, it just makes more sense. What's the point of stocking thousands of bands that nobody's familiar with? If we keep our inventory smaller in numbers, but have a reputation of stocking quality artists, it makes shopping easier and enjoyable for our customers. We've kept that kind of stock ever since. We also don't charge bands for adding their CDs on
Awarestore.com and stock is sold via consignment. As of 1998 we started doing that and now we are a full-fledged e-commerce online store. We cater to approximately 1,300 independent (with some major label developing) artists along with providing personalized stores for larger acts like Liz Phair, the Walkmen, Martin Sexton, The Jayhawks, Ari Hest, Marc Broussard, Josh Rouse, Mason Jennings, and many others.
TI - How many customers does Awarestore.com service?
WH - It's always been a growing customer base, mainly from word of mouth. We haven't really done much advertising, so it has been fans and customers going online and talking about where they buy their new music. The store stays busy. It has six full-time staff members, 3-4 seasonal interns and now resides as its own company outside of Aware Records headquarters with its only funding coming from items sold. Orders range from 900 to 1,100 in a typical five-day shipping period.
TI - What has been the biggest change in Aware over the years since you started in 1996?
WH - The biggest change, obviously, has been the illegal downloading issue.
The college customers still want to find what's up-and-coming and new. With the illegal downloading rampant, it may not seem like there's anything wrong with it so, unknowingly, it doesn't seem wrong to have your CD collection made on all CDRs. The new generation may not care if they have artwork or lyrics or anything like that for a famous artist. So a lot of people are illegally downloading, putting a Sharpie on a CD, and having a new record. When this is done thousands of times, the "brick and mortar" record stores that have survived the years from selling vinyl, then cassettes and then compact discs suffer.
I'm sure you can think of record stores that you don't notice the presence of anymore, especially on college campuses. While that used to be the best location to sell music, that has backfired due to technology, and is probably now one of the worst locations.
With Awarestore.com, lots of bands that we provide are developing and emerging new artists. Our customers have a pride in finding something new and buying it because they want to be that guy or girl at the party who can say, "Hey, check this out!" They want to bring the full CD in and show people what they discovered. So that's what has been consistent with our client base—the type of product we sell to customers is something they can still take pride in purchasing. CDs don't usually cost more than $14 and our customers directly support the artists by buying their CDs online or at shows.
TI - What is your relationship with the artists whom you sell?
WH - I think it's pretty good. We are an independent company. We have six employees and we're very personal. In order to get us on the phone you don't have to jump through hoops or anything like that. We try to be as helpful as we can to the artists when it comes to questions about how to do a release or a recording process or marketing or anything like that. I love to take a band and explain to them how situations work. Hopefully we provide some help in what they do as artists, whether it's releasing a CD or trying to get exposure in a new market.
TI - What have been the biggest Awarestore.com success stories?
WH - There have been quite a few artists, John Mayer being one of them. When
John Mayer first started, we were the only online store selling his independent release (before he was signed to Aware/Columbia). We saw his CDs going from selling about five copies every two weeks to 100 CDs a day. I'm not saying that John's present fame had anything to do with the Awarestore.com, but with our clientele it started to help people talk about him. Our demographic is 18-28, so you do have very active age group that is on artist message boards. Once the word about John got out, he just blew up on the message boards. I like to think that Awarestore.com provided a great place for him to start the buzz of selling his first CD because at that time a lot of people did discover him there first.
Other past bands include Marc Broussard, O.A.R, Dispatch and Howie Day. Current guys who have sold a ton of records are Matt Wertz and Dave Barnes—both from the Nashville area and both amazing artists.
Another big one was Ari Hest. One of the big thing that Danny [Hest --Ari's brother and manager] complimented me on was that the first time "Come Home," which was Ari's first Awarestore.com release, made it to the Top Ten, he had three blind calls from people on college campuses wanting to book him, and after asking how they heard about him they said "We found you guys on the Aware Top Ten." So I think that was a compliment to us as a business and how we're viewed by the artists we stock. Customers are buying the CDs— what's hot, what's good. I'm happy that the Ari Hest group did feel that Awarestore.com had a little part in the exposure of Ari for the future.
TI - What do you see for the Awarestore.com in the coming years?
WH - Awarestore.com will start working on a paid downloading service for independent artists and continue to provide the online sales for your favorite new "undiscovered" artists. Awarestore.com will definitely try to take a bigger hand in the development of bands on a personal level, and utilize more marketing. Keep on the lookout for the new look and feel for Awarestore.com in 2005!
You may contact the Aware Store at http://www.awarestore.com/ or by telephone at 1-888-AWARE-01.