For Delmark Records founder and owner Bob Koester, the past five years have nearly spelled the end of a lifetime’s worth of work. “Essentially, the label almost got fucked right out of business,” he says. “The drop in our sales was precipitous. It kind of felt like, ‘Welcome to the new century.’”
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Koester cites a number of reasons for the plunge in sales: indie record stores carrying Delmark CDs began closing, major retailers began whittling down their jazz and blues sections, and, he says, more and more people were burning copies of his releases instead of paying for them. Delmark wasn’t Koester’s only headache. A general downturn in CD sales put Jazz Record Mart’s revenues off by as much as a third between 2000 and 2004, and the studio–which opened in 1992 primarily to record Delmark acts–was suffering too, thanks to the growing prevalence of cheap home and mobile recording.
DVDs have slightly higher profit margins, and their sales have boosted overall sales numbers. “Initially, I was concerned that a sale of a DVD would replace the sale of a CD,” Koester says. “But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Judging by what we’ve seen in the numbers so far, it’s actually adding to our total sales.”
The Tower Records chain filed for bankruptcy last month, which presents new potential problems for Delmark. If Tower’s shuttered or bought out by a less jazz-friendly chain, says Koester, “sure, Jazz Record Mart can benefit. . . . But I’ll lose more on Delmark than I’ll gain at the store.”
