Joyrex Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Bandcamp has launched an initiative (think Kickstarter for vinyl) that raises funds for vinyl editions of an artists' work: https://bandcamp.com/vinyl According to Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/18/bandcamp-kickstarter-for-vinyl/ Bandcamp is launching a Kickstarter-style vinyl crowdfunding service for artists. Once a musician's campaign hits its funding goal, Bandcamp will press the records, print the packaging, and handle shipping to boot. Artists will be able to set the price of their release and have full control of its design. Bandcamp's first four vinyl campaigns include Jim Guthrie's soundtrack for rogue-like indie game Below, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah's Ancestral Recall, Juliette Jade's Constellation, and Mesarthim's Ghost Condensate. Vinyl crowdfunding will open to all artists and labels later this year. Bandcamp says it "streamlines the financing, production, and fulfillment of vinyl records." The service marks Bandcamp's latest step into the realm of physical music sales, following the opening of its first record store in Oakland, California in February. It's also a shrewd business move: while streaming may have killed off the CD, it's reinforced the growth of vinyl. According to the RIAA, vinyl enjoyed a 7.2 percent increase to 16.7 million units in 2018, raking in more than $419 million in revenue. That's music to the ears of the indie artist struggling with below-par streaming royalty payments. Plus, nothing screams cool like a limited edition vinyl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diatoms Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 hmmm..... should I? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadameChaos Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuatxuk Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Sounds like another option for those using qrates and other kick-starters. Smart move. Bridges the gap for artists who can't muster 250-500 sales for a 12" but want to go beyond say, a 50-100 run of cassettes or CDRs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 I seem to remember there being another company a year or so ago doing this... EDIT: Might've been http://vinylised.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriorion Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Christ. did this a while back for his first "Curio" compilation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Christ. did this a while back for his first "Curio" compilation.Aha, that's who I used the service with. Just checked my receipt and apparently it was https://www.diggersfactory.com/ who did it. So looks like there's quit a few companies doing this sort of thing now ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronical Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Any of you know a service around the UK/Germany that prints 10-20/30 copies with an affordable price? either tape or wax? working on an album sorta thing for friends and want to know the best quality/price option around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising for burgers Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 vinyl no-risk as in, no-scratch? that i would pay to see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyrex Posted April 18, 2019 Author Share Posted April 18, 2019 vinyl no-risk as in, no-scratch? that i would pay to see... No (financial) risk to the artist... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soloman Tump Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Smart move indeed, and a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising for burgers Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 vinyl no-risk as in, no-scratch? that i would pay to see...No (financial) risk to the artist... i was having a laugh, lad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lada Laika Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 Yeah this is an exciting move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amen Warrior Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 Surely it's gonna jam up pressing plants and generally reduce quality of records? Don't wanna be too cynical, it's a great idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitchroast Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 better to clog up pressing plants with bandcamp artist pressings than record store day reissues of rolling stones Colored LPs i guess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxien Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 re: last two posts, I don't think Bandcamp would be starting this up unless they've got some solid partners lined up on the production side who can handle the possible rush of pressings...at the end of the day, just because they're ordered and campaign is okayed doesn't mean it has to be complete anytime soon, many 'kickstarter' style things have a very long wait time built in from the start, and vinyl buyers are used to that already in some respects. and 100% agree that Bandcamp artist pressings vs RSD bullshit is a good thing...but at the same time, anyone can sign up on Bandcamp. bigger artists/labels (not the huge ones likely but just bigger than 'tiny' labels) could just direct some releases through Bandcamp for particular vinyl or something, and that could actually take a little air away from the truly smaller/independent releases...but that's more of a worst-case-scenario worry. hoping this will be good for artists/fans (even tho i'm not really into vinyl myself) :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limo Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 So is Bandcamp going to take care of mastering? From what I understand you can't simply slap any digital file onto vinyl and expect it to work. Stereo image has to be in order and dynamic range has to be very carefully controlled to avoid the needle jumping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitchroast Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 probably not. they're probably doing exactly what you're saying you shouldn't do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 3six definitely raised some legit concerns on his twitter: So @Bandcamp is introducing a vinyl service for artists. Sounds good on paper, but there's some fundamental challenges they need to address. I'm gonna list a few here in a thread and welcome commentary: 1) Not all pressing plants are equal. QA is EVERYTHING. The more work plants take on, the more this is thrown out the window. I saw it directly with MPO. 4 month lead times and crap sounding records. I stopped using them as a result. Which plant is BC using? 2) Vinyl needs specific mastering for the format to sound decent and/or not melt the stylus. Phase issues, mono-bass, sibilance etc.. It all needs to be taken into account to make a record sound decent. They need to make this clear. Music MUST be mastered properly. 3) Knowing who is cutting the records and allowing specific requests is also essential. I don't like giving my music to strangers with unclear credentials, to cut my record. I want to know who it is, what their experience is, and also be able to speak to them directly. 4) What's the artists cut of all this? If Bandcamp is handling everything their end (and it seems they are) then artists will probably earn very little per-record sold. It's basic numbers really. Manufacturing + fulfillment cut deep into the wallet. 5) Packaging! Who is printing the sleeves? How is it printed? Have you made it clear to the artists that a crappy flat .jpg is NOT an acceptable printing source? What about bleed space? CMYK gamut issues? Specific color profiles? Etc... 6) As-per above, this kind of thing needs actual Graphic Designers to be done properly. Musicians with zero-experience with design software WILL NOT be able to do the job properly. It's extremely technical and requires experience/assistance from the printer. Fuckups cost money! 7) How much control does the artist/label have in setting sales prices, quantity, etc..? Who decides how much will be made? What happens to the unsold units if more records are pressed than needed? Who pays for returns, damages etc? 8) It doesn't cost $10,000 to press a record lol. If it did though, 99.9% of artists on your platform are not going to be able to crowd-fund that sort of money. Ever. In which case, how does this help adding more vinyl to your platform? People who can already afford it? 9) We've seen services like QRATES offer this in the past and quality has often been abysmal, for the reasons above. If peoples first impressions of vinyl came from them, they'd never buy a record again. How will Bandcamp be different? 10) Lastly, for music fans: Would you really trust buying vinyl from an artist, who lacks the skills to do all this themselves? Also, you're buying blind! The artist/label has no input in this after manufacturing begins. You could be buying a junk product. Not ideal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enthusiast Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 Any of you know a service around the UK/Germany that prints 10-20/30 copies with an affordable price? either tape or wax? working on an album sorta thing for friends and want to know the best quality/price option around I don't know of any pressing plant that does a minimum order as low as that. The lowest I know of in Europe is 100 copies (Rand Muzik in Germany offer this with a surcharge), but many only advertise their minimum order amount as 250-300. There are places that do lathe cut short runs, but the cost per unit is quite high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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