July 2, 2000: Solyd Records announces Online-Distribution

Hi, everyone!

You are receiving this letter because you were once (and some of you - more than once!) careless enough to express interest in Russian music in general and SoLyd Records and/or Sonore Records releases in particular.

You have done it through the wonderful avantart site, and I'm very grateful to Connie Mueller-Goedecke who is doing the magnificent job of helping all of us who is interested in good music. Connie, we love you!

I thank everyone who has written to me. I answered some of your letters, unfortunately there are much, much more that I could't find time to answer. I ask your forgiveness, I hope this letter will bring you some good news.

Up to this time the task of sending you the CDs you requested out of Russia was a hard one. Don't ask me why - please, just believe me. Do you think any self-respecting record company would miss so many potential buyers?

But - unbelievable as it may seem - the situation, we hope, is about to change drastically. In the first half of July (July the 10th is the officially anounced date, July the 15th is what I would bet on) a new site is launched - compactdisc.ru. It is supposed to be the biggest, the most comprehensive - and the cheapest - Russian CDs site. They will have all SOLYD Records, all SONORE Records and all LONG ARMS Records releases that are still in print. They are going to accept credit cards (and maybe some other forms of payment, I don't know for sure) and they will be sending the CDs worldwide.

Is there a catch? Of course, there is.
For some time - till the beginning of October at least, I suppose - the site will be only in Russian. (You can still browse through the catalogue and at least look at the cover scans, though).
BUT those of you who don't know Russian, - you can send your orders to me (just like you did before) and I will pass your orders and requests to them (and unlike me they WILL answer you, I promise).

If you have written to me with requests before and I haven't answered and haven't sent you the CDs you wanted, will you be so kind as to repeat your orders so I could pass them to the compactdisc.ru. Some of you could be tired of waiting and/or lost interest in the CDs you hoped to receive weeks or even months ago. And we wouldn't want you to have an unpleasant surprise of having to pay for the CDs you lost interested in, would we?

I ask you to tell the wonderful news to all your friends. The compactdisc.ru guys desperately need all the support we can give them.

Once again, thank you all for your interest and help.

All the best,
Andrei Gavrilov,
SoLyd Records