Report: THE END RECORDS' Heavy Metal Makeover

March 21, 2007

David Whitford of Fortune Small Business magazine reports:

Never before in the history of the planet has there been so much music floating around, of all kinds and easily accessible. Thanks to iTunes and its cousins, from YouTube (great for live concert clips) and MySpace (unsigned bands) to satellite radio, Internet radio and the vast underworld of illegal file sharing — well, as Aretha almost said, What you want, baby, you got.

As a music lover, Andreas Katsambas, 35, can appreciate all that. He remembers what a struggle it was to get his fill of his favorites — PINK FLOYD, AC/DC and SLAYER, in that order — when he was growing up on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Which is why a part of him is just as thrilled with the modern digital cornucopia as the rest of us are. But as CEO of The End Records (theendrecords.com),a nine-year-old heavy-metal label in New York City, Katsambas fears for the life of his company.

On the face of it, you might think the guy's in pretty good shape. After launching in his bedroom in San Diego in 1999 and shifting operations to Salt Lake City in 2002, Katsambas moved this past summer to new headquarters in the trendy East Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn. (Incredibly, 13 of The End's 14 loyal employees followed.)

Sales in 2006 were $3.5 million, up 25 percent over the year before, and the company is profitable. In December, Katsambas signed a North America licensing agreement with celebrated Finnish monster-rockers LORDI, whose members dress as mummies and vampires. LORDI's "Hard Rock Hallelujah" took first prize at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, an annual pan-European jamboree that launched the careers of ABBA and CELINE DION.

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