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Topic: [PIAS]

25th Dec 2020, 9:00 PM
	Lee Wrecker If you can't dig me, you can't dig nothin' Member since Nov 2013 2283 Points	Play It Again Sam [PIAS] or PIAS are all the same thing. The logo has the brackets and is commonly (but not always) used as the name of the company. The Wikipedia refers to the company as PIAS and the equally trustworthy Discogs uses the acronym with brackets [PIAS]. There are branches of this distribution company that occasionally masquerades as a label all over the world and they have offices in the EU, UK, USA and Australia. There primary function is global distribution of independent labels i.e. 4AD and Mute are part of their stable but they also have BMG Rights Management the international arm of BMG as well as Warp, Wiija, Sub Pop, Beggars Banquet, Rough Trade, XL and Sanctuary (et al). Their job is to distribute products on these labels internationally so our independent labels are not really quite as independent as we might like to think. How they do this is by releasing products on the PIAS label in territories where the original independent label has no distribution rights. For example a lot of 4AD, Beggars Banquet and Mute label product is released in the USA on the PIAS America label. This however, is not the case in Australia where distribution rights for those labels are tied to the EU rights (just like books EU and rest of the world except the USA and Japan) so here we will get the same product as is released in the UK or a locally produced version. My feeling is that the acronym with the brackets [PIAS] is the name of the label when it is used and sometimes PIAS followed by America, Australia, or any of a large number of European countries when it appears in those forms. The labels definitely should be combined along with Play It Again Sam which is also a label in its own right. It's quite a messy situation you've walked into here Judge. Check out these links and see what you think PIAS America, PIAS and their Wikipedia page. Hopefully, they may clear things up in your mind at least but what to do with the label/distributorship on 45 Worlds is an entirely different question. Muddy water so best of luck. Edited by Lee Wrecker on 25th Dec 2020, 9:13 PM