Indie Pool

On October 1, 1996, after a summer of planning, Fish launched Indie Pool Ottawa while I launched Indie Pool Vancouver, helping bands manage their local CD retail consignments. Within months we knew we had something more. I left my Vancouver office to Joe, Fish left the Ottawa office to Todd, and we both moved to Toronto with big ambitions. From our Thorncliffe Park Drive apartment, we swore to improve the lives of independent artists. Today, as I reflect on 25 years and honour Fish's memory, the thing that I remember most is the great people I got to work with. From Fish all the way to the incomparable Nick today, it's been such a privilege to spend my days with and learning from so many wonderful people. We were constantly challenged, pushed to the brink, forced to adapt. Somehow, while everything around us changed or crumbled, we survived. It was an honour to face these exciting times with you all. Thank you for contributing your part to this story. Thank you for your energy, for your creativity, and for all the laughs. I hope your memories are as warm as mine and that you still carry around a little Indie Pool with you every day. Cheers to all the Poolers. xo Gregg

Big ups to Tyrone - the glorious winner to Indie Pool's first (and likely ever) guacamole tournament! (Not pictured: gold-plated avocado trophy)

Who's your bet for the Polaris Music Prize? The short list is in, as are all our predictions - some of us were WAY off - come see in the comments!

In honour of Polaris Music Prize, the Indie Pool office will be listening through all 40 of the long list releases this week (8 albums a day), and each of us will be drafting our own "Indie Poolaris" short list in the coming weeks. The entire team has always had fun reviewing and making our own short lists - so this year we thought we'd make it public!

Is there anyone you felt got snubbed from a Polaris nomination? Who's your bet for short list? Let us know!

It's ZJ's last day today, so we're sending our GM off the respectful way - with a burrito competition, of course! Stay tuned for the festivities.

Due to a transport truck taking out our power lines, we will be closed for the rest of the day. Sorry to anyone trying to reach us. Please standby for any updates, but we're likely back open 9am tomorrow.

It's wing day at the office! Four businesses pitted against their will, but the clear winner today was Duff's Famous Wings!

Hey America! Did you know that these days the US dollar is big and strong and our Canadian dollar is very weak? (Something about oil prices or something)

Indie Pool (www.indiepool.com) has been providing the tools musicians need since 1996. Things like short run and manufactured CDs, banners, stickers, buttons, lyric videos and more…

Now is the time to consider buying Canadian and saving yourself tons of money. Reach out to [email protected] anytime and we’ll show you what we mean.

Merry axemas from Indie Pool! (And thanks to BATL - batlgrounds.com for an awesome holiday party!)

This week we celebrated Indie Pool’s 18th anniversary! We can finally smoke and buy liquor (but only in Quebec, for now). To celebrate, here’s the music the office has listened to over the past year! Happy birthday to us!

indiepoolcanada Listen to music from indiepoolcanada’s library (129,249 tracks played). indiepoolcanada’s top artists: The Black Keys, Girl Talk, Band of Skulls. Get your own music profile at Last.fm, the world’s largest social music platform.

Indie Pool field trip!

The guys in Lightfall got their CD's in the "nick" of time! Get it? ...Nick is their rep's name. Thanks for the photo, Lightfall!