You’re in an exceedingly chipper mood, and the blaring of holiday music from department stores has, for now, the surprising effect of enhancing it. Not so fast, I say, because aside from the noxious and overlong family gatherings, there’s worse news today that may inspire and prolong the melancholy of many TMT readers, all the way into next year. Musically-inclined depressives, take heed:
Experimedia, the online experimental music store based in Ohio and run by Jeremy Bible, which saw its origins in 2000 as a weekly “experimental multimedia event” hosted in a now-shuttered Akron performance venue and morphed into its current form as shop/record label, will end (likely) all of its operations by the end of the 2014. In an announcement via Facebook, Bible leaves open the possibility of the label side continuing on a more “modest” level, but the general tone sounds reluctant, thanks to recent financial and administrative challenges.
And speaking of those latter challenges, though Experimedia’s accomplishments certainly extend outside the bounds of shorthand summary, it doesn’t take a gang of office assistants performing in-depth qualitative analyses to realize the secular Bible’s contributions to experimental music in general. A respectable label with dozens of international artists and a mail-order catalog that has regularly promoted the release of endorphins among the TMT staff… ‘tis a sad day indeed.
Some background info on Experimedia here and the full note from Bible below.
2014: THE FINAL YEAR
After much thought over the course of the past year I have decided that 2014 will be the last year of Experimedia. I am very proud of what I have built with the big 14 year experiment that has been Experimedia and thank you all for being a part of it but after an increasingly challenging year both financially and existentially I have decided it is time to transition into the next chapter of my all too short life. I do this with no regrets and no bitterness… strictly gratitude for the opportunity and experience. I’ve simply taken this as far as I can.
During the year ahead I will continue to operate the shop and work towards making a graceful exit, rather than continue to chase my tail until things reach total critical mass.
It has become impossible for me to micro manage all the details that are necessary to keep this running and I feel myself slowly but surely becoming less reliable when it comes to certain administrative aspects. I don’t want to be that guy when this is all said and done. I will of course continue to be involved in the music community as an artist and perhaps even still as a label on but on more modest levels. And perhaps I may be able to offer my services, skills and experiences to other shops and labels. I’ve had my day at this and feel it’s time to step aside and make a little extra room for others to step up and enjoy the experiences I have had the privilege of.
The truth is I miss the days when things were simple and did not bring the consistently increasing weight of more obligations than one person can possibly carry. I look forward to again being in a position where I can separate my passion for art and community from commerce and industry.
I hope for your continued support over the course of the year ahead so I can make this transition and tend to my obligations with honor and dignity… and you can continue to count on the excellent level of service you have come to know me for until the day the “doors” officially close. And you can surely count on some great sales during this time.
I will certainly have more to say on this over the course of the year ahead but for now duty calls.
Best wishes always,
Jeremy Bible
• Experimedia: http://experimedia.net