Chicago's Alligator Records celebrates its 40th at SPACE
Chicago's Alligator Records celebrates its 40th at SPACE
October 11, 2011
Howard Reich
Chicago Tribune
When the accountants added up last year's figures, Alligator Records founder Bruce Iglauer couldn't believe the results: The Chicago blues label he founded four decades ago turned a profit in 2010.
That's right – in the age of downloading, and in an era when blues recordings make up less than 1 percent of the American marketplace, Alligator operates in the black.
This suggests that it's still possible for an indie label championing a niche music to survive – and thrive – in today's cutthroat retail environment for music. That's cause for celebration, and Alligator has been doing a lot of that throughout this 40th anniversary year.
Howard Reich
Howard Reich
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The festivities will reach a climax starting Thursday, when Evanston SPACE launches a seven-concert series honoring the label by spotlighting a spectrum of its artists, from Lonnie Brooks to the Siegel-Schwall Band to Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials. The performances will give listeners a chance to reflect on Alligator's enormous contribution to the music, and it will provide Iglauer an opportunity to take stock of where his label has been – and where it's going.
"I'm shocked to say that Alligator is still making a profit," says Iglauer. "2009 was a very painful year for us, but 2010 we ended up in the black, and that includes paying out close to $500,000 in royalties. …
"I describe our royalties process now as taking a stack of pennies, cutting them into the smallest amount of pieces possible and pushing them around the table with tweezers. We'll get royalty checks for $50 (for various uses of Alligator tracks) and divide them among hundreds of artists."
When an Alligator cut gets streamed on the digital music service Spotify, for instance, Alligator receives .0029 of a cent, says Iglauer. So it takes a lot of uses for a song to generate much of a revenue stream.
Yet Alligator dares not miss the digital revolution, which is why it has made its catalog available on iTunes, Rhapsody, Pandora, Amazon and you-name-it. Moreover, roughly 180 Alligator tracks are available for legal download in China, and Iglauer says he's in the midst of negotiating a "very complicated business deal" to bring the label's entire catalog there.
He just concluded an agreement to make Alligator's music digitally available in Brazil, and he sees India as another potentially important market. To date, Alligator's income derives 80 percent from the U.S. and 20 percent from overseas. By growing foreign sales, Iglauer hopes eventually to make that 50-50.
Clearly, Alligator has endured not only because of the gifts of its artists but the business acuity of Iglauer and associates.
Not that the speeded-up pace of technological innovation allows Iglauer to take much of an anniversary pause.
"I have to say, in the 40 years that I've run this company, I don't think I've ever worked harder than I am now," says Iglauer.
"We're swimming faster and faster and staying in the same place. And sometimes it feels like we're swimming with our clothes on."
In the meantime, Iglauer and friends are sending a message with the forthcoming 40th anniversary concert series.
"We're saying that the blues is living and vibrant and not just in Chicago, since most of the artists (on the series) are not Chicago based," says Marc Lipkin, Alligator's longtime spokesman.
"We're always fighting the idea that the blues is depressing. Koko (Taylor) used to tell me, 'Blues is not depressing – it gets you out of your depression.'"
To Iglauer, the series expresses his belief that the blues – as an American root music – stands at a delicate juncture. It needs to stay connected to its traditions, but it also needs to evolve.
"I've thought a lot about what we've finished in the first 40 years, and what are we going to do for the next 40 years," says Iglauer. "I want the future of the blues and the future of Alligator to be almost the same thing.
"I'm looking for artists who have a vision for carrying this music into the future – not by repeating what's been done, but by being influenced by what's been the blues legacy, and yet creating blues that speak loud and clear to a contemporary audience.
"This music should not be frozen in amber."
The Alligator Records 40th Anniversary Series, with all concerts at 8 p.m., will present Tinsley Ellis, Thursday, $20-$35; Lonnie Brooks, Friday, $20-$35; the Siegel-Schwall Band, Oct 22, $25-$40; Charlie Musselwhite, Nov. 18, $20-$35; Michael "Iron Man" Burks, Nov. 25, $15-$27; Tommy Castro Band, Nov. 27, $15-$30; Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials, Dec. 16, $12-$22; at Evanston SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave., Evanston; 847-492-8860 or evanstonspace.com.
