It's still just local punk, right? Not sure how to put this, do the bands you work with really expect a bunch of sales? It's pretty much random luck for a small band to get noticed and hit it. Do you ever advertise on r/listentothis? I would be posting every single I helped release if I were you. If that's within subreddit rules.
It's the same problem there's always been with local music. People love it as long as they don't have to spend any money or put forth any effort into it. The amount of people who like what we do vs. the amount of people who actually support what we do is staggeringly different. I guess I was naive enough to think that maybe this wouldn't be the case.
I don't know. Maybe you're talking to the enemy, because I have a tiny budget but still like music so I steal a lot of it. I make an effort every once in a while when I notice a specifically local impoverished band to pay. I try to make up for this by spending money on going to shows, which unfortunately results in less direct cash for bands than does buying their cd online (I bet). It's all I can do. Anyway, you guys put shows on, it sounds like? People are tons more likely to pay for those than they are for album sales, right?