It has come to my attention that the average price of a record has gone up incrementally in the last two to three years. We have seen Hot Topic, Shop Radio Cast, Music on Vinyl and other companies buy the rights to albums to get them produced on vinyl for the first time or reissued. With this buying and selling of rights to music the price of the product has increased via these outlets. In an example look at the recent reissues of Blink 182's catalogue or the reissues of some of the early Mars Volta records. These records when they initially came out were much cheaper than they are now. Which leads me to say that vinyl is a craze. That is why the prices are going up. People that understand supply and demand have taken the artist out of the equation and bought up the rights to their music to make a profit. After all we do live in a capitalist society.
I have a problem paying 31.99 for a record that can be manufactured for $12.25. I just do. I know that barely any of that ~200% profit is going to the artists that actually make the music. I understand that a record is something tangible and I do have to pay a premium for that at this point in time but where do we draw the line?
The numbers do not lie. There are many vinyl pressing plants located in the United States that have specials on vinyl production. But lets not even look at the specials. Lets max out the possible amount of money one company can spend on getting something pressed. Keep in mind these are big companies with a lot of money to spend and a lot of money to gain. After all we are still buying the releases aren't we? For the example I am using I am going through United Record Pressing, a plant in Nashville Tennessee that presses most, if not all of Jack White's crazy releases. I am on their 12" record cost calculator. The first thing I do is change from a single LP option to 2XLP option, then I change the amount of records from 500 to 1500, lets be realistic, if a business can't sell 1500 units of something it isn't worth their initial investment. We increase the number to 1500 units, and I am changing the weight of the record from standard vinyl to 180 gram audiophile vinyl. I change the option from sending in a CD to emailing in WAV files, because a click is simpler than mailing a CD and we want a higher quality mix don't we? The next step I complete is the colored vinyl portion, everyone loves colored vinyl so it has to be colored, all 1500 on a custom color because if it isn't unique we won't buy it. Then we go to the labels, we don't want one plain color label, we want the upgrade. 2 colors. Now most people who press records might get their own jackets but since we're a big business and we want a one stop shop we're going to get our jackets from URpressing too. PREMIUM gatefold jackets. We are going to have the nice people at URpressing insert the records into our jackets and also offer a digital download and have them shrink-wrap our release. Now the total cost for the business is 17,355.00 without shipping. Let's be super generous and add 1000$ for shipping. So we're at 18,355.00 for 1500 records. That's 12.24 per 2XLP set. How do we justify the markup to 31.99? I can see purchasing this record with all the premium upgrades for 24.99 because lets be honest. There are a lot of upgrades most that are not even used in current represses. Those Hot Topic Blink 182 records are not 180 gram vinyl so let's subtract the 2980.00 Brings the price per unit with shipping down to 10.25 a 2XLP set. But wait, we aren't getting digital downloads and they don't have to put the digital downloads into the sleeves either, let's remove that 490.00 and that gets us down to 9.92 per 2xLP. Oh my God! You're telling me these blink 182 reissues are not 2xLPs? My bad! Let's reduce it down to 1xLP and see the cost. Wow! That brings our cost down to 7.31. But they are charging 19.99 for these in the store.
Normal retail survives by marking things up 100% So let's do the normal retail thing and mark up our release 14.66. That seems like a VERY FAIR price for the album. Hell, I'd even go up to 17$ so they can recoup some of the expensive licensing costs. OMG How could I have forgotten, this particular press I was thinking about was actually 2700, not 1500. Let's change that. That brings our cost per album with the amazingly high quality jacket and the custom color down to 5.02 after shipping. They are selling this album at around 300% profit.
At least with the new Jimmy Eat World Reissues it's a little more tolerable. Those records are 180 gram color vinyl with gatefold jackets and they are double LPs. The cost can't be determined because we do not know how many they are actually pressing. If they are pressing something like 3000 of each, which wouldn't be outside of the realm of thinking, it would cost around 9$ per 2xLP with all the PREMIUM UPGRADES. List price 31.99. Still around a 200% profit margin.
Lets not forget, like all crazes we are taking something very cheap to produce and marking it up incredibly. Crazy bones, those were pieces of fucking plastic. Pokemon Cards, those we're pieces of cardboard with foil. Baseball cards just like Pokemon cards, some minus the foil. Vinyl records are just another craze. But I don't agree with Jason Tate. I don't feel okay paying 31.99 for an album. I feel okay paying 13-18$ and I can still do that with smaller labels like Red Scare, Asian Man, Dischord, Topshelf, and No Sleep (if I left you out I am sorry). I can still go to shows and pick up albums for 12$ from bands like Modern Baseball or The Hotelier. I can revel in the past when I bought 100$ worth of albums from Saddle Creek and I got a personal email from someone named Nate at the company thanking me for making such a big purchase. Or when my friend bought five or six albums from Red Scare and a special OOP surprise was included in her order.
People are good at manufacturing rarity, rarity sells, that's why presses /100 or /300 sell out in a few hours. But people still buy the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 26th press of an album. So I hope the craze dies out, but I also hope that vinyl stays around.
And just to let everyone know, when Shop Radio Cast or someone else represses Brand New's Deja Entendu /1500 on silver vinyl with a polaroid of Jesse's dick (hand numbered by Adam Lazarra (just playing dude)) I will still buy it for 100$. I'm just like everyone else that is feeding the craze. There are viable ways to keep cost of records down. I don't want fancy bullshit. I want a black 120-180 gram record that was mastered by someone who owns a fucking turntable.
Discoveries - UNFD Aus - Nebula Press - #108/150
Discoveries - UNFD Aus - White Press - 115/150
Singularity - UNFD Aus - Black Press /500 Signed Inner Cover - Signed Record
Singularity - UNFD Aus - Blue Pink Press /200
Singularity - UNFD Aus - Pink/Blue Press /200
Singularity - UNFD Aus - Clear/Black Press /100
Singularity - Rise US - Yellow White Press /700
Singularity - Rise US - Yellow/Purple/White /200
Worldeater - UNFD Aus - 7" Signed B Side
Rot 7" - RSD 2015 - /300
Singularity 2Lp Aus Press - 1st Splatter /250
Singularity 2Lp Aus Press - 2nd Splatter /250
My listener collection is finally complete. I just got tests of Return To Strugglevile, Wooden Heart, and Time Is A Machine. Listener is my favorite band so this is HUGE for me.
I was actually really hesitant to put them vertically on the casters but it's a lot more sturdy than I thought it would be. I figure if there's ever a fire I can just wheel the whole damn thing outside haha.
Here's what I'm using now. I loved them but the lady hates them but that's not the real issue. The issue is that the room is now so full that I have a couple more of those in the adjoining room. I need to fit it all in the one room and the only place to go is up. The cheapest and easiest solution for both of us is the Expedit system but of course that leaves me with well over 4000 7" that need things to hold them that look decent/presentable. That eliminates any free option like shoe boxes or priority mail boxes.
Big Country reacted to turnstiles in Jason Tate: "Yes, vinyl prices are going up. No, I don't feel bad."
Big Country got a reaction from mssskat184 in What Test Presses do you own?
Big Country got a reaction from Sounds of Subterrania in WTB: Listener - Return To Struggleville
Big Country got a reaction from somethingvinyl in PO: Listener Discography Represses (GERMANY)