Wilco Starting Own Label

I obviously don't know the deal they had in place with Nonesuch, but this does come as somewhat of a surprise. Pitchfork is reporting that their contract with Nonesuch has indeed expired and it appears as if they won't be renewing. If you look at the landscape right now, I'm not sure there's a band in a better position to go it alone. They've been releasing records for 16 years and have gradually built a pretty massive following, a hefty percentage of whom (errr, me) are fanatical. For a good portion of their fans (just visit viachicago.org), Wilco could release their next record via a secret hiding place somewhere in Chicago in the month of November, and 100,000 people or so would be booking flights to O'Hare within the hour.

Wilco's manager, Tony Margarita, and Jeff Tweedy have run this band to near perfection. Never labeled a "sell out," they've built a fairly massive business, having little trouble selling out 8,000 seat venues the world over, while averaging somewhere in the range of 300,000 records sold per release. On the touring alone, let's assume that the band collects 50% of gross receipts (I'm guessing they collect more). At the Berkeley show alone, that's approximately $160,000 to the band. Granted, they have to pay out all sorts of folks, but that's still a mighty nice night. From calendar April 2009 - March 2010, Wilco played 99 shows. Based on their normal touring schedule, that seems a bit under par. However, if you take that Berkeley night (I know they don't regularly play 8,000 seat venues, but they're somewhere in that range, and given only 99 dates, well, just let it go) and do some fancy multiplication, we're looking at $15,840,00 annually. I don't have much experience in finance or accounting, but those look like pretty big numbers to me. Add in the 288 tote bags that I've purchased, and that's a fine dime.

Why have I tossed out these completely-made-up figures? I can't really say. Maybe I'm proud of what Wilco's been able to accomplish. How many bands are able to maintain their credibility, not compromise their art, yet still have hugely successful careers? Not many. And yes, I'll forgive Jeff and Co. for the VW commercials. I'm all for artists licensing their music nowadays, but I used to love the tune "The Thanks I Get" and I now can't hear a note without a visual of that hipster tapping on his Jetta console.

If they are indeed moving on from Nonesuch, at least from an outsider's perspective, it seemed like a nice ride. Nonesuch is one of the best labels in the world and I'm sure Wilco served them well. And if you're not familiar with the Nonesuch catalog, if you head to the label site and just pick a record at random, it will more than likely be pretty great.