Indie Labels 4AD, Matador, Domino and More Exit Warner’s Alternative Distribution Alliance Due to Delayed or Missing Vinyl Shipments

Several independent music labels under the Beggars Group collective, along with the Domino and Saddle Creek record labels, have left Warner Music Group’s Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA). These labels which include the likes of  4AD, Matador, Rough Trade, Young Turks, and XL records will be working with North Carolina distributor Redeye in the future.

Back in April of 2019 Warner’s ADA had moved all of its business, including the distribution of physical releases by these indie labels, to Direct Shot Distributing, a company based out of Indiana. Direct Shot Distributing received many complaints from retailers, which alleged that shipments had arrived after extensive delays or had gone missing entirely.

The Beggars group hosts many influential independent artists such as Bon Iver, Radiohead, King Krule, Kurt Vile, the xx, Grimes, Future Islands, FKA Twigs and The National. Domino Records also hosts many artists of note such as Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Dev Hynes (also known as Blood Orange), Hotchip and Dirty Projectors.

Redeye will be distributing works from Grimes, Pinegrove, Dan Deacon, Frances Quinlan and many others in the near future. The Beggars Group, which also hosts offices in the UK, are also teamed up with the PIAS Group, Hostess Entertainment Unlimited and Distribution Select for record distribution abroad.

“Historically, independent labels have always seen getting records into stores as the first business decision they need to make,” Beggars chairman Martin Mills said in a statement. “But now that physical is such a small and decreasing part of the majors’ business, for indies, to whom physical, and especially vinyl, is so much more important, to partner with the majors for distribution has become arguably anachronistic. Beggars works with great, fully independent distributors everywhere else in the world, and believes in bringing the advantages of our scale to the sector; and much as we’re sorry to leave ADA, with whom we’ve had incredible success, we’re very happy to be fully independently distributed at last in the USA.”