Silent W. Productions

Silent W. Productions was a small indpendent record label out of Dundas, Ontario, Canada which released three 7" records in 1980 and 1981. Label founder James (Jamie) Taylor built the SWP label and independent distribution network on the foundation of the vinyl record mail order business of the same name that he had established in 1975. He describes the transition from vinyl mail order business to record label: "SWP started as a bit of a fluke in 1975. I had a friend who had a good sized record store. He offered to provide me with the latest releases and rarities at a really good price. I had no intention of setting up a physical store but thought mail-order would be a good way to go. Because this was pre-internet it was literally MAIL order. I had a mailing list and I think it was monthly I sent out a catalog flyer. I stressed 'service' and people were impressed and surprised with how soon after ordering theirs records arrived. Mainly I advertised in Student Newspapers at various universities. My target market was Canada but word-of-mouth brought me orders from all over the world. After a couple of years I had my first child and the record business went kinda dormant, until I felt my band was good enough to put out a record of our own. That's when I was inspired to change direction for SWP. It was still pre-internet so I distributed the records from a re-activated SWP mail-order business. Word-of-mouth was my most powerful advertising." The Silent W. Productions catalog numbers follow the pattern YYMM## (2 digit year, 2 digit month, catalog number).