Alternative Distribution Alliance, one of the largest independent distributors in the world, handles the distribution of alternative-country and underground hip-hop music gathered by independent labels. ADA’s job is to find good music, make sure it goes to the right place and gets the amount of publicity it needs to be a good seller. The intelligent variety of marketing techniques used, a computer program called Inspector and the creative staff are the reasons for success.
“We have found ADA’s sales reps and marketing staff to be incredibly knowledgeable about music as well as creative and enthusiastic. We are thrilled to be a part of the ADA distribution family,” Jet Records president Shelley Maple said. Jet Records recently joined the ADA.
Most of the employees have worked their way from the bottom up, starting out as a radio DJ or working in music stores. The president of ADA, Andy Allen, is no exception.
After he decided to let college life go, he began working for a local radio station on the weekends in St. Louis, Mo. During the week, he worked as a salesman in a music shop. Finally, Allen was promoted to local promotion, which he stayed at for 10 years.
Allen later got a call from Island Records to do national promoting in New York City. He also stayed there for 10 years.
Allen has been the president of ADA now for almost 10 years.
“In terms of doing national distribution, you have to have a sales force for the kind of music that you do,” Allen said. “The sales force needs to convince record shops to stock a particular album, and to succeed in doing this, they need to be familiar with those labels and bands, including where their main following is and where they are going on tour. What you want is someone who understands the music that you have and can present it to the people who are buying records at the record stores. We become kind of their foot soldiers from that standpoint.”
Another big part of ADA’s success is a computer program called Inspector. This program monitors the progress on each artist’s CD sales in each store location. This helps ADA decide where they might need to improve in one area or another.
ADA headquarters are located in Manhattan with 16 branches nationwide and some 40 independent labels on their roster. Some of the gold and platinum projects since ADA’s start in 1993 are Nirvana, Liz Phair, Everlast, Sixpence None the Richer, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Better Than Ezra. Among the current best-selling independent artists distributed by ADA are Darude, Modest Mouse, Ryan Adams and more. Some of the hip-hop artists distributed by ADA are Coolio and Soul Assasins. Among the labels ADA deals with are 4 Play, Arena Rock, Atlantic, Beggars Banquet and Bloodshot.
“We are really looking for smart people that have good music. We want to know that they know how to market their music, how to develop their artists, and frankly, we really narrow it down to ‘Do we understand it?’ and ‘Do we think we can do a good job with the stuff?'” Allen said.
For more information on ADA, go to www.ada-music.com.