Portland Music Ups and Downs

Given Oregon’s dismal unemployment rate (we’re comin’ at ya,
Michigan!) and the sagging of music sales, it’s not surprising that
local music-related businesses have been having a tough year. But,
since they’d seemed to buck recent industry trends, it was discouraging
to learn that Portland-based music retailer and digital distributor CD
Baby carried out some layoffs last week.

Tony van Veen—president of CD manufacturing powerhouse Disc
Makers, which is majority-owned by an East Coast private equity group
that also bought CD Baby last August from its founder Derek
Sivers—explained that “in recent months CD Baby has seen a bit of
a drop in CD sales volume, which are being replaced by digital download
sales growth. This meant that there’s less work in the warehouse,
picking and packing orders. We don’t believe the current downturn will
end soon, and as a business we can’t afford to carry more staff than we
need over the long term.”

Some CD Baby employees, however, are crying foul, seeing the layoffs
as a move by the East Coast owners to weed out the remnants of the
Portland-based, Sivers-era management. Mercury contributor
Maranda Bish, who left her job of nearly two years at CD Baby shortly
before the cutbacks, stated: “Twelve employees were laid off, and very
generous severance packages were provided. But it dismayed many
employees that some of those laid off were known to be dissenters of
the new management, and others were employees who held key positions,
effectively removing the last vestiges of the old management. In light
of the way things were handled, another high level employee resigned of
his own will. The rest of the staff has been assured, after this third
round of firing, that their jobs are safe. The sentiment remains
insecure.”

One upside to economic downturns is a rise in entrepreneurship;
denizens of Sellwood, a neighborhood long without a reliable music
venue, can take heart in the imminent opening of The Woods this summer.
The project of business partners Vivien Lyon and Ritchie Young (of Loch
Lomond), The Woods occupies the former premises of the Wilhelm Funeral
Home at SE 14th and Claybourne, and features an aesthetic, according to
Young, “like a 1930s lobby in the fanciest hotel in Missoula, MT…
When you walk in there we don’t want you to see any new technology
except the PA, just kinda have this feeling you could be at a clubhouse
in the ’30s or ’40s.” Booking will be handled by Caroline Buchalter,
formerly of the Wonder Ballroom and Mississippi Studios, and will be
oriented “more towards quieter, acoustic music.” The Woods will serve
alcohol, with no definitive word yet on all-ages possibilities.

In other communal-bootstrap-liftin’ news, Levi Cecil—better
known as Leviethan—is testing out a new business model for his
forthcoming album, Everything Is Fine. Cecil is soliciting
advance purchases from fans to cover the costs of manufacturing and
promoting his record, which he estimates at around $3300. More than
halfway to his goal, Cecil expects to have the album ready for pressing
by mid-June. “This isn’t about money,” says Cecil. “I could easily go
into debt and put out the CD and try to sell it. Really, it’s an
experiment to see if I can help to change people’s thinking about how
the music they listen to gets into their ears. I’ve always felt that
music is not a product, it’s an idea that’s worth investing in.”