We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alvin Pipkin Ii. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alvin below.

Alvin , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

I started as a Record Label “AÖIR RECORDS” (pronounced AIR RECORDS) and after signing my first artist, I discovered the real cost of running a record label. To overcome the expensive overhead the only solution was to model AÖIR RECORDS after the Big Three (Universal, Warner and Sony). The goal was to become a “One Stop Shop for Hip-Hop. I created a distribution division”AÖIR DISTRIBUTION” to distribute music and videos and “AÖIR PUBLISHING” to license and collect all potential royalties available.

This had many unforseen obstacles with conducting business in foreign countries directly. There are language barriers, you can not establish a business in some countries as an American company. I had to find organizations that were willing to communicate in English. Google translate became my best friend. Another hurdle continues to be depth of catalog without producing at least 10 releases per month to distribute doors will not open to give myself the opportunity to grow the company.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started as a Dj providing my services for a local bar “Gentleman Jim’s” in Vallejo, CA. I played music in their backroom for a friend’s going away party. I few weeks later the general manager called me, their Dj for the weekend cancelled. I was asked to fill in. I believed the bar retained their PA system after the remodel. Unfortunately they did not. I had to Dj with a laptop, Peavey PA speakers and a Mitsubishi house amplifier. I used the money I earned to buy my first Dj controller. Word got around that I had skills and the resident Djs would give me their weekends when they had more lucrative offers. Once I had all the equipment I needed to continue as a professional Dj I started bringing recording artist to perform when I booked a gig. This is when I realized recording artist needed help. So, I started working Artist showcases and eventually promoting the showcases too. I first signed “Monterfer” and began promoting live performances at the bars I was the Dj. But, it was “Shody Boe” aka “Shoddy Tha Artist” who got me up to my neck in the music industry. He walked across the entire city of Vallejo in the rain to get a record deal. Shody was the reason we had to expand our publishing from ASCAP and BMI to include SEASAC. Now AÖIR PUBLISHING is a publisher in Canada, South Africa, Ireland, Sweden, Spain and North America.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

With the goal of being a one stop shop, I had to learn to do everything myself. A friend started a music production company “The Shed Productions” he was part of a Dj crew “HTP Productions” founded my “Master P” group “The Untouchables” “Dj Grandmaster Scratch”. They taught me how to Dj and press up audio CDs. The Shed Productions had a Primera Bravo cd duplicator and pressed up my first 25 CDs to pass out at a live performance for AB The Blueprint. AB’s father is Rich Rap one half of the “Da Stooie Bros”, Baby Bash hypemen and co songwriter on some of his songs.

I was so impressed with the machine within a year I had two Primera Bravos. I started pressing up CDs for local recording artist, shows promoted by AÖIR RECORDS and Shoddy Tha Artist. With Shoddy having success selling his CDs hand to hand I was able to invest into a third duplicator Rimage Amigo II that could duplicate 300 CDs at a time.

Thinking I found a formula to success I quickly learned that technology is changing every year. And, you need money to keep up with the changes. I found it impossible to find repair technicians for equipment, the only option is to send it in to the manufacturer. Operating systems no longer offered support with Google to upgrade software. Computers even lost the ability to get support from Google. I have been through seven computers on this journey and need to purchase two more in the near future.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I started my business with my last check from UPS where I spent 22 years and a $800 dollar gift from my father. He did not understand what exactly I did in the music industry. My father is a credit card merchant, one night he was watching a “Dolly Parton” interview, he had tried to solicit her business via her theme park to process her credit card and debt card purchases. Dolly told the story how “Whitney Houston” covered her song “I Will Always Love You” and how she is set for life off that one song. My dad calls me in the middle of the night excited and asked me,” is that what you do?” I responded,”yes dad and then some!” The next day my called me and said meet me at the bank.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aoirdistribution.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aoirdistribution
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AOIRDISTRIBUTION
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoir-distribution-940819207
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@aoirdistribution
• Other: www.aoirpublishing.com
  https://youtube.com/@aoirrecords
  https://www.facebook.com/AOIRRECORDShttps://www.instagram.com/aoir_records