Music Trailblazers, Secret Stash Records Delivers Lost Recordings

Amongst the wreckage of the music industry, Secret Stash Records is emerging with most unique content that music lovers could ever hope for.  One album release at a time, they are quietly positioning themselves as THE tastemakers and visionaries of the once bloated and now decaying music industry.

Eric Foss and Cory Wong, hockey buddies and lifelong friends, have picked up where Prince and  Rhymesayers have left off and are driving their brand’s growth purely through international word-of-mouth (WOM) and  social networking communities.

They have carved out an micro-niche for themselves.  They release lost, obscure recordings that appeal to music die hards all over the world:

Exhibit A: Reggae session players from Jamaica doing an interpretation of iconic jazz album Kind of Blue in 1981

Exhibit B:  House funk band for porno production studio in Van Nuys in the mid 1970’s

“Our aim is to contribute to the vinyl and record collector communities in a positive way; locally and internationally.  People don’t know that the Twin Cities has a rich record collector scene that is supported by iconic record shops like Tree House and Sugar record stores,” Foss explained in our interview.   “From a business perspective, it’s a smart way to do things.  If we were to just pump out $hit and not support our local scene we wouldn’t last,” he added.

When asked how Secret Stash was promoting their brand, Foss replied, “Social Networking.  We’re heavy into connecting with people via YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.”  Though most of their marketing energy is placed in communicating with fans in said communities (with the help of the Kulture agency), they do get their fair share of publicity via traditional media channels in Europe and Russia.  This, in turn, fuels their inbound business development activities.

“We’ve got people calling us from the former USSR, London and other places wanting to know if we have an interest in releasing the lost and obscure master recordings they have tucked away in a vault or safe,” Foss revealed.  Apparently the content they’ve been given access to would blow a music lover’s mind.  A few of their confidential, upcoming projects blew mine.

As if reading my mind, Foss went on to clarify that because of all the content they’ve been granted exclusive access to represents many unique genres of music they decided to create different labels to accommodate each flavor of music.  “Secret Stash, on its own, became a funk, rare groove and soul brand.  We felt it would be insane to dilute that brand by releasing rare live recordings of punk performances from the UK.  So, we created the Re-Amp Records brand to release When the Punks Go Marching In,” he explained.

As a fan of music and as a brand specialist, I hope to see their individual brands flourish.  That’s a tall order, however.  Most companies can’t effectively manage a single brand; let alone many.  Additionally, I’m curious to observe how they fully leverage the world of social media.  As we’ve seen, posting tweets and Facebook messages fall on deaf ears for the strong majority of brands.  Competition for consumer bandwidth is fierce.  Let’s see if they can outsmart other record labels and create authentic, long lasting relationships with music lovers and record collectors.

The good news is that Eric Foss and Cory Wong sound like sharp guys and their brands generate effective video content for each of their releases.  I wish them the best of success.