Welcome to Darla Records' musical paradise home to a community of peace loving music lovers.
1. Info for mail order customers.
2. Info for Artists submitting material for release consideration.
3. Info for labels submitting material for distribution consideration.
4. Info for retail and distriburor customers.
5. Info for press and radio
6. Advertising on darla.com
1. INFO FOR MAIL ORDER CUSTOMERS:
Mail order shipping happens within 24 to 48 hours of your order:
Is your order for a pre-order item? Please check top of item description before contacting us to ask.
For all available titles, we ship your order within 24 to 48 hours. Orders received on a Saturday or Sunday ship on Monday. Things may take longer if we've sold through stock of an item and must hold an order until we get stock back in. This wait is usually no longer than 1-2 weeks but it can take longer if a supplier doesn't ship right away. Sometimes, if we are sold out of an item that may not be back in right away, we will credit you and send your order w/o said item. In this case please check the web site for availability and re-order the item next time.
You may order items both available now and forthcoming (pre-order) together. For USA customers only, we will ship the item(s) available now immediately and the forthcoming/pre-order item(s) as soon as they become available, *with a limit of 2 shipments per order*. Split shipments will be sent via Media Mail only, unless additional cost for Priority is paid. We will hold shipments to outside the USA until all items in an order are available.
My order hasn't shown up. What should I do?:
Is your order for a pre-order item? Please check top of item description before contacting us to ask. Please make sure you have included all necessary and correct info. Sometimes people forget to put their name, street address, etc. in their order. Please call us at (760) 631-1731 or email orders@darla.com *only* after a reasonable period of time has passed, you've checked with your local post office, and you think your order may have gone missing. If your order has gone lost, don't worry. We will follow up on any inquiries and replace any order missing in transit, *excluding* those shown as delivered by the carrier and those with an incorrect address as provided on the order. Please do not make knee jerk assumptions that your friends at Darla have flaked on your order and need your abuse to solve a problem. We have feelings too.
Cancellations:
Please make your request to orders@darla.com. We can cancel any order not yet shipped, however, you must accept the payment processor's fee (about 2.5%) should you choose to cancel an order for reasons other than item availability.
Damage / Returns:
Damaged items must be reported within 48 hours of receipt to be eligible for refund or replacement.
We do not accept returns on vinyl LP items as these are fragile items and subject to damage in shipping/handling. Returns of CD items are at our discretion, with prior approval.
Mail order payment:
CREDIT CARDS: We accept Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Minimum amount for orders paid by credit card is $4.95.
IF YOU DON'T WANT TO ORDER ON-LINE (CREDIT CARD CUSTOMERS): When ordering via email or fax you must include ALL of the following information: 1) Name & address. 2) Credit card number and expiration date plus CVC code. 3) Email or phone number so we can contact you if necessary. You'd be surprised how often people forget one of these key ingredients.
CALIFORNIANS: You are obligated to add the appropriate 8.75% sales tax to your subtotal.
Call (760) 631-1731
Monday-Friday
9am-5pm Pacific Standard Time
CHECK, CASH or MONEY ORDER: Send your order and alternates with a check, concealed cash or Money Order, payable in US Dollars only to:
Darla Records Mail Order
2107 Camino Cantera, Vista, CA 92084 USA
Questions about ordering?
email: orders@darla.com
2. INFO FOR ARTISTS SUBMITTING MATERIAL FOR RELEASE CONSIDERATION:
Demo submission policy: Yes, we do accept unsolicited demos for release consideration. Please send demos to: Darla, 2107 Camino Cantera, Vista, CA 92084 USA. You may also email mp3s or direct us to your myspace by contacting james@darla.com. We receive a lot of submissions. All are reviewed. If we can sell your stuff we will. However, please don't call us unless you're Neil Young or Paul McCartney. We'll call you if we're interested.
3. INFO FOR LABELS WHO WANT DISTRIBUTION (physical and digital):
We offer a Most Favored Nations physical product distribution agreement. This means you know you have the very best distribution terms available. All of the Darla family of exclusively distributed labels work within our MFN terms agreement. Via this agreement we work on an exclusive basis within a select territory, ie: The World, North America + Asia, North America only, US only, and on the following terms. a) Darla is your exclusive distributor in the territory. All retail inquiries within the territory are directed to Darla. b) Darla provides Label quarterly statements and payments. Returns, if any, can be done on a twice annual basis by request. Darla pays shipping on all international orders. US labels must pay shipping on their orders as this is now a standard required by all US distributors across the board. Darla pays for shipping of returns of all distributed labels.
If you are a small label with a small catalog and limited distribution Darla may elect to distribute your titles on a non-exclusive basis and on 60 day invoice terms. You provide an invoice with the shipment and Darla provides payment 60 days after the date the order is received. This, however, this is an exception. Of 250+ distributed labels only two (2) are non-exclusive.
Darla sells direct to retailers in the US, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the occasional EU retailer and US one stop distributor AEC. All retailers are able to source your titles via a distribution channel that suits them.
SELL DOWNLOADS via Darla.com:
Darla can sell downloads via the Darla.com shop on standard 70/30 owner/shop terms. We have a MFN agreement for this service too. Payment for this service is also provided quarterly.
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION:
Darla offers digital distribution to label partners via The Orchard. Darla/The Orchard offers complete digital distribution to all reliable services globally. You may exclude territories or services with whom you have pre-existing agreements. You have access to the The Orchard workstation. Payment for this service is also provided quarterly. Darla provides UPC, ISRC (if needed) without charge and does download/upload work as part of our distribution service.
HOW TO PROPERLY SELL PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL PRODUCT:
Please provide all your forthcoming release information as far in advance as possible. Eight weeks is ideal as it gives wholesale and retail customers enough time to get the info into their database, solicit their customers properly and collect as many pre-orders as possible. Four weeks is acceptable and standard. We do of course accept new release info with less set-up time, however, anything short of four weeks is selling me, you and the artist you work for short. It is most strongly recommended that you always allow as much pre-sale solicitation time as possible.
Please provide all of the following forthcoming release info. We will not enter any new release info into our database or begin solicitation work on your release without all info including cover art provided all together in one email. No one likes to have to spend extra time going back and forth to ask for missing pieces sp please provide your forthcoming release information completely, as far in advance as possible and all together in one email. You will absolutely sell more records just by adhering to this practice.
1. Artist name
2. Title
3. Format(s) (ie download, CD, LP, 7", etc.)
4. Label name
5. Catalog number
6. Barcode number (Absolutely essential. Your product will not be sold on Amazon or most other essential retail sites without a barcode)
6. Distributor wholesale price per each physical format
8. Release date (Release date is the date your new release product is available for sale in stores. It is not the date you ship it to your distributor. Darla must have your new release product in our warehouse at least three weeks in advance of release date, minimum, in order to have it in stores on release date)
9. Description and press quotes
10. Cover image as 300 dpi, 3000 x 3000, square, rgb, jpeg
11. Track list in US title case - Please use capitalization. Google US title case if you don't know it. Essential.
12. .wav or CD audio
13. ISRC numbers.
14. Genre(s)
Darla provides UPC, ISRC (if needed) and download/upload work as part of digital distribution service.
By providing all of your forthcoming release info completely and well in advance you will have greater initial orders and wider distribution. This is because the more time you allow Darla to do pre-sale solicitation, the more distributor and retailer customers thoughout the supply chain will have time to do solicitation and therefore more customers will find out about your release. This results in better sales than "available now". Distributors and retailers may not order a new release, especially a smaller artist release on a smaller label, when solicited as "available now" without any set-up/solicitation time allowed. We all need time to pre-sell and collect as many pre-orders as possible. You simply must allow time for your release info to be disseminated, ingested and seen throughout the supply chain. This is something so many independent labels fail to do. It is essential to your success.
Darla must have your new release product in our warehouse three weeks in advance of release date. This is common practice across the board. We ship distributors as much as two weeks in advance of release date. They must have product in time to get it to their customers in time for release date. We also ship all direct ordering retailers as much as a week early. Again, release date is the date your new release product is available for sale in stores. It is not the date you ship it to your distributor!
Please mail advance copies of your forthcoming releases to Darla/address.
Please don't be discouraged if we don't choose to order the first release you offer. We may very well be interested in you next release. Please keep in touch.
We are not bound by genre or style. We're more interested in the individual merits of the Artist.
What price do I sell my records to Darla at?
We only buy at lowest distributor wholesale price. That means the same price you sell to all other wholesale distributors. First and foremost our business is selling wholesale direct to retailers in the USA, Japan, Southeast Asia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and elsewhere.
You choose your own price. We can provide recommendations on price based on the market. We feel it's our job to get you the most dollars per unit. At the same time we want the price to allow as much of your product to sell as fast as possible. We have a standard mark-up percentage on top of whatever you charge us, no matter what list/suggested retail price you are claiming for an item. A good rule of thumb to consider is to use the following equation: Wholesale Price = 1/2 List Price. This means that whatever set price you use to sell to distributors should be about 1/2 of what you would like to see it priced in the store. A $14.98 list price CD is usually sold to distributors for $7.50, for example.
Invoicing:
You must include an invoice with each shipment. Your invoice must have all of the following info:
1. Label name
2. Address
3. Phone number
4. email
5. Artist name
6. Title
7. Cat#
8. Price per unit
9. Name of person or entity to whom Darla should make payment to.
We CANNOT AND WILL NOT PAY YOU without an invoice.
How to ship your Darla orders:
Domestic: UPS GROUND, overseas: UPS EXPRESS is our preferred method. Once you ship an order please email a copy of the invoice and let us know how you shipped the order and when (what date) the order was shipped. Please provide a tracking number.
It is essential that you ship your goods to us so that we will receive them on time. If you're on the West Coast, it takes 1-5 days or more for your records to get here. If you're in the Midwest, 3-4 days, or East Coast 4-5 days. Please consider this when planning your ship dates. If we receive records late, we will be less able to sell them and will be more likely to return records to you. Check UPS shipping transit times.
If you choose to use another intermediary service, WE CAN ONLY PAY YOU FOR PUBLISHED UPS SHIPPING CHARGES, ie. what UPS would have charged you had you shipped the package directly with them.
Please double box and/or pad your goods very well. Please use plenty of packing tape. Please take all precautions to avoid damage in shipping.
Ship with invoice to:
Darla
2107 Camino Cantera
Vista, CA 92084
Ph. (760) 631-1731
Payment:
We pay on standard quarterly consignment terms. That means we pay you for what has sold every three months from the date we first received your product, not quarterly by the calendar. We may occassionaly provide statements and payments more frequently than quarterly if needed. Some labels request a statement at 45 or 60 days because they have a big artist accounting or project to finance. We're happy to oblige. If needed please ask Chandra: chandra@darla.com. She does accounting.
4. INFO FOR RETAIL AND DISTRIBUTOR CUSTOMERS:
All new domestic retail customer orders must be paid either in advance with credit card or UPS c.o.d. All overseas retail customers must pay in advance of shipping with credit card, PayPal, or IMO. Terms are offered at our discretion.
Our weekly new release newsletter goes out via email every Friday evening to retailers, distributors and mail order customers. Retailers and distributors may also receive individual new release one sheets for priority releases. We have no printed catalog. Our web site, www.darla.com, is our catalog.
Retailers and distributors may access darla.com with wholesale pricing displayed. To get a link to register an account and see wholesale pricing, recieve our weekly new release newsletter and have access to download a list of all exclusive in excel please contact James: james@darla.com or Chandra: chandra@darla.com.
Returns policy:
All exclusive label CDs are returnable (Please use the Darla exclusives catalog excel download available on the page you land on after logging in to your account for reference. The *Exclusive Labels* pull-down menu on the front page is also a good quick reference).
No vinyl is returnable.
We may accept returns of non-exclusively distributed product but only at our discretion.
We will not accept return requests of more than 40% of stock ordered within any six month period. We're not a lending library.
We will not accept returns of goods not originally sold to you by Darla.
We charge a $1.00 per unit refurbishing fee for any returns received in less than 100% saleable condition.
All returns must be authorized with a written RETURN AUTHORIZATION and RA NUMBER from Darla. An RA# will only be issued from a written Return Authorization Request submitted by the customer. A copy of your Darla issued RA should be included in the box with your return when you ship it. RA#'s are good for only 30 days from issuance. After 30 days they will be canceled. Any goods returned on a cancelled RA will be returned at customer expense. Shipping must be paid by the customer for both inbound and rejected returns.
Credit will only be given on items returned in original salable condition. That means that you may only return items to us in exactly the same shape as you received them. We will not accept stickered items, written on items, damaged items, cracked cases, bin worn items or anything of that sort. If it arrived at your door in shrink wrap, then it needs to come back in our original shrink wrap. If you have a sticker goo problem purchase Goo Gone and remove the goo.
Customers may only deduct credit upon the timely issuance of a CREDIT MEMO from Darla.
5. INFO FOR PRESS AND RADIO:
All Darla label release press and radio promotion is done in-house. To obtain CD play copies or downloads please contact James Agren: james@darla.
We offer college radio wholesale pricing on all titles offered by Darla. To get login info so you can shop the www.darla.com with wholesale pricing, please email your request and all station info to James: james@darla.com
6. Advertising on darla.com
If you would like a banner advertisement to help promote a record or another website, please contact james@darla.com for more information.
