Some of you might ask, "What is a Record Pool?" To answer the question direct, it's the middle of the road between the record company and sales.
Record pools have been around since as early as 1975. One of the first pools was David Mancuso's (The Loft), "The New York Record Pool". All the record companies, and it has changed since then, would send every good and bad record to the pool to be distributed to the d.j.'s. In order to become a member of the pool, the d.j. must be playing at a club. An initiation fee would be asked of the d.j. and monthly dues were paid in order to pick up records. In addition the d.j. would have to provide flyers with their name on it as well as a letter from the club owner stating that he played there. Then there were the mobile d.j.'s. It was a little harder to become a member of a pool, because anyone could make a flyer and say that they were doing mobile parties on a regular basis. In addition to paying monthly dues, the d.j. would have to submit feedback about the records status when played at the club. D.j.'s would also have to give in their top 25 every two weeks, so the pool could send the overall listings of the d.j.'s to them. All of the record pools would hold a monthly meeting where the d.j.'s would gather together and speak about their clubs, the pool and other matters.
Why be a member of a record pool?
As quite as it's kept, d.j.'s did receive about 25 to 30 records per week. Most of the records were send to the d.j. at least two to three weeks before it hit the record stores. This meant that they didn't have to go out and buy a single record. Today there are a few record pools left and records are not sent to the pools like they were 10 years ago. Even though the d.j. receives records from the pool, they still have to go out buy records.
During the beginning days of the record pools, it was very interesting to be a member. The d.j.'s of yesterday were out there with a meaning to become a d.j. Today the d.j.'s has changed were as they consider themselves to be a star. Yesterday it was the artist who was up front. But today it's the d.j. I mention this because that's what we'll discuss in my next article. The D.J. vs. the Artist and the Vinyl D.J. vs. the CD D.J.
Go To Page: 1 2
