ABSTRACT
It is the label's responsibility to find a way to get the product to potential consumers. Music retailing has been plagued by price wars among merchants, which have had a direct and culminating effect upon the distributors. Distributors try to strike a balance between overselling their accounts and offering an undersupply. Distributors and sales personnel can often pressure dealers to buy more stock than they believe they can move as a result of internal or external pressures to move particular blocks of inventory or just inventory in general. Distributors are generally looking to get the longest possible terms on which to pay out on a disbursement schedule. Though not a common occurrence, sometimes smaller independent distribution operations have been known to employ less than ethical tactics in dealing with small indie labels. It is standard practice in the record industry for record companies to allow stores and distributors to return unsold records for credit against what they owe.
