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Music Legend George Daniels on How Record Labels Planned The Destruction of Mom & Pop Music Stores
May 18, 2022
Living Legend George Daniels of the popular Chicago-band store George's Music Room was an influential part in connecting mom and pop record stores as the music business evolved. George stopped by Sway In The Morning to talk about the history behind his work and how he was honored by the city of Chicago.
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Music Legend George Daniels on How Record Labels Planned The Destruction of Mom & Pop Music Stores
https://youtu.be/d2b45kFHOcA
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0:00
how much do you like music i like music
0:02
to the moon and back in fact rylan often
0:05
stays up way past bedtime just to watch
0:08
his dad work
0:09
[Applause]
0:11
listen that clip
0:13
it's about a young man i got a chance to
0:15
meet for the first time around super
0:17
bowl was
0:19
broadcasting hp yeah i can't think of
0:21
anything
0:21
in l.a in los angeles okay and we were
0:24
staying at a hotel and
0:26
my brother my mentor
0:28
um someone who supported me on my rise
0:30
as an independent
0:32
artist with an independent record
0:34
company
0:35
that picked up a consignment deal for me
0:37
did a partnership with georgia's music
0:39
room and distributed sway and tech music
0:40
and artists that we were producing at
0:42
that time nationwide
0:45
nationwide independently which means we
0:48
got more of the money back from the
0:49
records we sold and he cut me a fair
0:51
price
0:52
he may not remember it
0:54
and he did it without question i don't
0:56
even know if george knew who i was at
0:58
that time had i tell this story over and
1:00
over but he showed love he showed up
1:02
that's what mattered got my music in
1:03
chicago that's how come i became in love
1:06
with chicago is because of this man i
1:08
met him in chicago with you that's right
1:10
right this man is responsible for a lot
1:12
of careers i get some of the legends
1:14
like eddie james muddy waters it goes on
1:16
and on
1:17
uncle all the chicago artists any
1:19
chicago artists that are successful is
1:22
because of this man but not just chicago
1:25
artists around the music business in
1:27
general the music business owes him
1:30
money
1:31
when am i going to get my chick
1:35
looking george daniel
1:37
j.d thank you
1:47
of black retail i love it
1:49
man he's been uh
1:51
pushed many initiatives for black retail
1:53
the mom and pop stores they've been ate
1:56
up by all the big conglomerates he was
1:58
the guy that was waving the flag and
2:00
showing the importance of why those
2:01
stores
2:02
are important how
2:04
that that annihilation of the
2:06
mom-and-pop circuit hurt the music
2:09
business oh no doubt about it then i was
2:11
just talking earlier
2:13
um if it wasn't for the mom and pops
2:15
where would hip-hop be
2:17
that's the fact that
2:18
i was like well i was i'm still i was
2:21
the first uh black person on the board
2:23
of norm oh national association i'm
2:25
recording merchandise this is tower
2:27
records all of the big chain stores
2:30
and uh there was only nine members on
2:32
the board and i wound up on the board in
2:34
in the 90s i did two three-year terms
2:36
but this is during the time if those
2:38
that out there remember a term called
2:41
sound scam sound scam yeah it was really
2:43
sound scam
2:45
talk about that well the bottom line is
2:47
hip hop
2:49
was only known to be purchased at black
2:52
stores white stores didn't know what the
2:54
music was and when i used to go to jack
2:56
the rapper blre urban network impact i
2:58
used to get in the asses i can't say
3:03
that's good but the black executives you
3:05
know they didn't realize uh they were
3:08
there yes because of the music but they
3:10
were there because of sales
3:11
and who's responsible for sales the
3:14
black
3:14
mom and pop stores and we were the only
3:17
ones that knew what this music was
3:19
because it came from the streets
3:21
and that's where you bought your first
3:22
hip-hop i mean i remember ll cool j on
3:25
the 45. i need love back to cali wow and
3:28
so so and then when we did a few in
3:31
first in stores
3:32
there would be white kids lined up
3:34
in the hood
3:35
because they knew what the music was but
3:37
the only place to buy it was through us
3:40
wow and then so sound scan was supposed
3:43
to
3:44
because we used it factor the sound scan
3:46
was a digital program that recorded when
3:49
songs singles were sold yeah well what
3:52
it was soundscan was actually a
3:53
point-of-sale system okay in essence
3:56
they wanted the black stores to buy the
3:58
system it was called a young system out
4:00
of atlanta georgia
4:01
and they wanted us to buy the system
4:03
from them it was like 15 000 and 18
4:06
interest
4:07
and you know the few stores now oh man
4:10
look they want to charge us for it and
4:12
then john just pulled us out of business
4:15
wow because basically that's what it was
4:17
designed to do
4:18
because once they got our numbers
4:20
because before i report to gci's radio
4:23
stations heck i tracked my monitors you
4:25
know my reports by sales yeah the same
4:27
thing with a billboard
4:29
but then when this system came and i was
4:32
at that time i had organized the black
4:33
stores
4:34
and i was in influencing and i said
4:36
please do not buy the system don't do it
4:39
this is going to let them right into
4:41
your cash register because that's what
4:42
it did yeah because we had basic cash
4:45
registers back then no point in sales no
4:46
barcodes and all of that
4:48
man the stores that did it i begged them
4:50
not to but that was the end beginning of
4:53
the end of black retail
4:55
because then they outpriced us
4:57
they you know that same cd that was
5:00
18.99 my wholesale cost was 12 40
5:04
damn
5:06
that same cd
5:07
at target or any of the chain stores was
5:10
9.99 in essence it was cheaper for me to
5:12
go buy from my competition
5:16
and that was because because by mine is
5:18
the marketing dollars that's when i used
5:20
to get on the dues at the conventions
5:22
you know sam goody and the rest of them
5:24
they had those big windows mm-hmm
5:26
twenty-five thousand a month
5:28
just to have a time
5:29
in those windows and so if you got ten
5:31
winners you got a quarter million
5:33
dollars a month
5:34
wow for nothing and you can give the
5:36
music away basically and that's what was
5:38
happening that's what did it to us
5:41
so you know so so are how many black
5:43
retail outlets are there left
5:46
are there any yeah you know damn and see
5:49
so what it is now you know it's back to
5:51
vinyl which is big
5:53
and so uh but you know who could survive
5:56
off of that because now you got the
5:58
online stores
5:59
see so i mean it takes away our whole
6:02
culture part about you know as a kid
6:04
growing up i mean i think of
6:07
the thousands of youngsters that pass
6:09
through my door as a kid to see these
6:11
artists and so on and so forth
6:13
and get an understanding of what the
6:15
business is about
6:16
i mean for me do or die crucial conflict
6:19
they grew up at my store common yeah
6:21
they all came there kanye
6:24
and see so their first influences was
6:26
that neighborhood record store yeah wow
6:28
and so when you think about all the
6:29
stores that were in the bronx in harlem
6:31
in brooklyn bobby's happy house
6:34
man
6:34
oozies in oakland
6:36
birdies bird elves in brooklyn
6:39
creative music in san francisco
6:41
those are my friends
6:43
in a way though that ownership is kind
6:45
of coming back around because when you
6:47
mention kanye like kanye released his
6:49
last album through that device that he
6:52
created yeah you know what i mean or um
6:54
even thinking about some other artists
6:56
that are like okay you can only purchase
6:58
ryan leslie you know what i mean he's
7:00
like this is a special link i'm going to
7:02
connect i'm going to get gather the
7:03
email list of my fans yeah but it's good
7:06
that you know you have that direct link
7:08
to the artist yeah but where's the
7:10
experience of a child coming into that's
7:12
true and being introduced to other
7:14
artists and the interaction communities
7:16
we were the community that's a fact you
7:19
bought music you bought posters you
7:21
bought incense gospels
7:24
everything yeah gospel blues jazz i used
7:26
to program my store like a radio station
7:29
i oh you so i just opened up early in
7:30
the morning because back then you had
7:33
people working 24 hours the graveyard
7:35
i remember and they would listen to
7:36
the radio station and they hear those
7:38
45s playing yeah if they want to shop
7:41
will they get off at 6 7 in the morning
7:43
georgia's music room was open there it
7:45
is wow and i had the speakers outside
7:47
but i start with gospel music up until
7:49
12 o'clock every day that'll be very
7:51
thoughtful that's smart oh when it
7:53
wasn't going the neighbors would call me
7:54
said george was wrong
8:00
george daniels citizens he's been in it
8:01
for a minute man over 50 years he just
8:04
celebrated him they gave him his flowers
8:06
um in chicago this is this is like we
8:09
when i go to chicago who'd i call george
8:11
hey better call
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