Indie Record Stores Develop ThinkIndie, An Online Retail Collective

ThinkIndie, the “BastardlyBrainChild of a bunch of IndieRecordJoints,” is a new online music store featuring select  digital downloads and physical product, as well as exclusive content, from a collective of independent record stores around the country. Founded by record store owner-members of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS), ThinkIndie proudly refers to itself as the Black Sheep of the industry, the website beckoning, “Enter the Black Sheep.”

To that invitation, we happily entered the digital side of ThinkIndie.com earlier this week, quickly signed up and downloaded a couple tracks by a local artist we’ve been meaning to check out. A quick-search for Brooklyn’s Here We Go Magic, a quick-download of the digital media downloader, and we were on our merry way to some DRM-free, 320 kbps/MP3s of electro-folk-goodness. ThinkIndie’s digital catalog is only available at this higher-resolution audio standard, and generally at $1.11-per-track, though full albums and exclusive content go for less.

As ravenous music fans, we were thrilled to peruse the liner notes, and the listing of other available titles from Here We Go Magic’s label, Western Vinyl. We were also curious how and why NYC-area independent record stores, labels and artists might benefit from getting involved with this venture. So, we asked!

Here’s everything we wanted to know about ThinkIndie, from one of the head Black Sheep, Tony Davis.

How did this the ThinkIndie concept come about?
The founders of ThinkIndie are a Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS), which includes some of the top independent stores in cities across the U.S. They decided that getting involved in the digital space beyond their online physical stores was something they needed to do. We formed ThinkIndie to be a single site the Coalition could share, and we are now opening it up beyond our group to other indie stores.

What is the goal of ThinkIndie? And what are the biggest challenges in getting it off the ground?
Our main goal is sell downloads to music fans. Some of those fans are existing customers, some are customers that have moved to all downloads, and some have never set foot in a record store.
The biggest challenge is getting the word out about our site to customers, beyond our physical store email lists and social site pings. Also, letting people know we offer DRM free 320 kb mp3s, for the best sound in  the mp3 class, and ease of use. We pride ourselves on being straight forward, and honest with customers and artists.

What sets ThinkIndie’s Digital store apart from other online music stores?
Our inventory is hand picked, we don’t take the entire catalog of any one distributor unless we want the music.
We have years of experience selling music in the physical space, so we want to cut through the noise, and the bad music. We also feel our passion and knowledge of music puts our customers in better position as music fans. We spend our work days with music, so who could know it better?

What does ThinkIndie do for its independent record store partners that they weren’t able to do through their own websites?
Each store becomes a golden affiliate. This means any customer they bring to the site gets locked to the store for all sales. The idea is a customer that wants to support a favorite local store, can do that in digital space too. For a small store to get the digital deals needed to sell downloads would be very expensive. As a group we had the clout and the sales history to get it done.

Will ThinkIndie Digital carry music by totally unsigned artists?
We are working on a store-centric system for local bands. Our many stores know and sell local bands on CD and vinyl already, so we thought let them help those artists get on Think Indie. It will also allow our customers to see what is good in another city. We are in the final stages of getting it going, so any artist should check with his local store on participation.

What about the ThinkExclusives? Are these releases really completely exclusive to ThinkIndie? Are they all in-store performances?
ThinkIndie exclusives are for our site only. We have lots of friends in bands, big and small. Many of the bands want to support our endeavor, since many of them grew up in our stores. Not all the exclusives are in-store performances, some are exclusive versions of standard releases where we have some exclusive material. Some of our favorite exclusives come from My Morning Jacket, Gaslight Anthem, Mountain Goats, Paper Bird, Manchester Orchestra, and many more. [Check out the Exclusives here!]

Who’s behind the hand-picked music at ThinkIndie?
We have our staff, plus the many clerks that work at stores in our group. They all love music, and everybody chips in.

What should artists, managers and labels know about ThinkIndie if they’re wondering how they could benefit from getting involved?How might they benefit from doing an exclusive release with you guys? And how do these deals work in terms of production costs and sales?
First and foremost is our unique ability to connect national download promotions with our regional stores. Think Indie is very nimble, and have years of experience selling music to fans.
You could benefit with an exclusive release by being seen by our network of store customers, all of which love to buy and enjoy music. Exclusives get extra love and placement in our ThinkIndie store and throughout our network of store websites. Indie stores have always been fair, upfront, and timely in handling the production, and payment of artists we have deals with. Junket Boy distribution is our physical products arm, and has done recent distribution deals with Blakroc, Pearl Jam, Widespread Panic, plus many more small and large artists.

For more information and happy shopping, visit http://www.thinkindie.com.

Please note: When you buy products through links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.