Giant Sounds

Some weeks ago I shipped the last 50 copies of my first vinyl release (GIANT 001 Lancy Rankin feat. Elijah - Answer / Finn The Giant - Answer Dub) to a record shop in France. I still have a few records laying around so I havn’t deleted the item from the shop yet, but I thought it would be a good time to make a rundown of the release.

First of all I’d like to give big up’s to the following people for their help and support with promotion, distribution and sales:

• Pålle from Reggaeology Sounds for spreading the news about the release on radio, at shows and to record shops in Stockholm.
• Kelvin at Tanty Dub Shop for distribution in the UK
• Ralf at Dub Flash for a great review
• Mattias at Downbeat (Sthlm), Reggae Addikt (France), Musical Riot (France), Jah Warrior (UK) and other record dealers for selling so many copies
• Tesfa Soundsystem, Jah Massive Soundsystem, Vibronics Soundsystem and other sounds for playing the tune on their boxes
• P3 Rytm, BigUp Radio, Radiology, Roots Connection, Jah Radio, La Hora Rasta, Rise Up Show and other radio shows for playing the tune on air
• … and of course Lancy Rankin that took care of business himself in Uppsala

When I started selling the first 500 copies in december 2006 I wasn’t sure I would manage to sell them all - most shops ordered no more than 10-15 copies and sales were very weak from GiantSounds.com. But in a couple of weeks almost every shop were requesting new and bigger shippments and soon I realized that I had to make a repress. So, in januari I ordered a repress of another 500 copies and shipped them all directly to the UK.

With proper distribution the sales took off and in march Answer was in the top 30 best selling 7 inches at Ernie B’s (USA), number 14 at Juno’s (UK) and number 5 at Orange Street (Japan).

Selling a thousand records wordwide isn’t much, but for my first release I’m more than pleased and happy to have made contacts that will be helpfull in making the next release even greater. Planned for this year is a 10 inch vocal + dub and a full lenght album with mainly dub mixes of some of my favourite riddims and basslines from my own little vault of tunes.

Once again, thanks to everyone involved in this release which I hope is just the first of many!

Blessings

/Finn