Hello CD of The Month Club - Company History

Company History

John Flansburgh founded the Hello CD of the Month Club with Marjorie Galen in 1993 as a way to provide an outlet for his solo material — Hello issued four Mono Puff releases, as well as two EPs by Flansburgh's bandmate John Linnell — while also providing a platform for both established musicians signed to other labels and new artists. Galen and Flansburgh originally intended Hello to be a standard independent label. However, this was not financially plausible, so Hello adopted a subscription model instead. Although Flansburgh and Galen had to seek out artists for Hello's first year of operation, by 1994, musicians were contacting the label themselves. In its first year, the label faced difficulties with understaffing.

Flansburgh has stated that the purpose of Hello was to produce and distribute music projects cheaply for the artist and the consumer. Hello only produced as many discs as the number of subscribers. It did not achieve outstanding financial success; however, Flansburgh reported that the label was in the black. Proceeds from They Might Be Giants' 1985 Demo Tape, an optional addition to 1994 subscriptions, were donated to the People With AIDS Coalition.

The label dissolved after its 1996 subscription year due to a level of demand that the small label could no longer service. Some members did not receive the final 1996 releases till May of 1997. For a brief time afterward, the Hello back catalogue was still available for purchase. Over the span of Hello's existence, it issued releases from thirty-four different artists.