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Bandcamp to start pressing vinyl


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37 minutes ago, Rip said:

I feel like this might be a better link to lead with: https://daily.bandcamp.com/2019/04/17/create-vinyl-with-bandcamp/

Edited by bridley
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This seems like a pretty good idea to me. It makes sense to cut out crowdfunding middle men services when your platform is already based around “pay what you want”. 

 

I’d hope the cost for a plain black pressing would show a bit lower than the current demo campaigns. Although $28 isn’t unreasonable in Bandcamp land 

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11 hours ago, hexrecords said:

It seems to basically just be a brokerage service, of which there are many of those these days.  And if their 'manufacturing partner' is who I think it is than that makes bandcamp just a broker for another broker.  Too many middlemen.

My thoughts exactly. Their manufacturing partner is Pirates Press. One more middle man so bands can attempt to press records placing all the risk on the consumers.

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Not a bad concept. Total bummer that it's through Pirates Press. I don't know if they'll do drop-shipping, but if not the logistics involve so much waste - if a European band does this, will their records have to get shipped from the Czech Republic to California back to Europe? Maybe this program will eventually grow big enough that they can work with GZ directly, but ideally I'd love to see people stop using GZ altogether since their fancy splatters/splits that everyone loves sound like ass 100% of the time, and a lot of their solid colors are still pretty noisy. Why not go through a reliable US-based plant like Gotta Groove, or maybe even Third Man since their label just started putting their releases on Bandcamp. Think of the synergy!

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3 hours ago, daegor said:

Has anyone pledged to the four that they're starting with?  What's the deal, do they charge you right away?

I pledged to Mesarthim's new album. I was only charged a dollar for the digital copy of the album. If it makes it, I will be charged the remaining amount. If it doesn't, then I won't be charged, but I guess I got the album for $1?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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13 minutes ago, Billich0986 said:

I pledged to Mesarthim's new album. I was only charged a dollar for the digital copy of the album. If it makes it, I will be charged the remaining amount. If it doesn't, then I won't be charged, but I guess I got the album for $1?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That makes sense, Mesarthim has that album set at $1 for digital.  So whatever they have the digital set to is charged immediately.

 

I'm curious if once they reach 100% does everyone get charged and then everyone who purchases from that point pays upfront or do they wait until the end of the period before charging anybody regardless of passing 100%.

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21 hours ago, hexrecords said:

It seems to basically just be a brokerage service, of which there are many of those these days.  And if their 'manufacturing partner' is who I think it is than that makes bandcamp just a broker for another broker.  Too many middlemen.

Pirates Press posted earlier that they are partnering with them on it.

 

https://www.kqed.org/arts/13855266/bandcamp-announces-vinyl-service-partnering-with-pirates-press-in-emeryville?fbclid=IwAR0MWpFEonupJ95Z0jibesLZmBLa1PbMJBEXN67h16cM6mQi8lzwiUja75o

Edited by IanRees
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On 4/18/2019 at 9:56 PM, IanRees said:

Yeah, that's exactly who I was thinking was going to be the partner.  As much as I think Pirates/GZ does cool-looking records its' a situation of multiple middlemen in the process which increases costs overall.

 

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On 4/18/2019 at 4:34 PM, daegor said:

I'm curious if once they reach 100% does everyone get charged and then everyone who purchases from that point pays upfront or do they wait until the end of the period before charging anybody regardless of passing 100%.

So if you're still curious, the album I pledged towards hit it's goal, and I haven't been charged. I'll assume at this point that it'll run until the campaign is done, then everyone who pledged will be charged at that point.

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On 4/23/2019 at 7:20 AM, Billich0986 said:

So if you're still curious, the album I pledged towards hit it's goal, and I haven't been charged. I'll assume at this point that it'll run until the campaign is done, then everyone who pledged will be charged at that point.

Def keep us updated as to how this goes. I’m excited for this idea, even though cutting out the middleman always seems like the better option. With a middle man involved I feel more bands will be compelled to do self releases because of the added help or guide with the process.

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  • 1 year later...

This just opened up to another 10,000[!] artists. Still through Pirates Press, lots of details: 

 

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-vinyl-pressing-service

https://bandcamp.com/vinyl 

https://get.bandcamp.help/hc/en-us/articles/360035500754-What-is-Bandcamp-s-Vinyl-Pressing-Service-and-how-does-it-work-

 

My thoughts: this may sound elitist or gatekeep-y, but I worry that making this as simple as a checkbox on the Bandcamp backend takes vinyl further down the path of lifestyle accessory/fetish object/Funko Pop alternative. As that classic single-panel cartoon put it so well, the best things about vinyl are the impracticality and the expense. The current system where you have to pay upfront & navigate all the logistics with manufacturers obviously locks out a lot of smaller artists from being able to press LPs, but also likely leads many artists to say "you know what, this is a lot of work, is it worth it? I don't even own a turntable". Now artists can be totally insulated from not only the upfront costs, but also the planning and headaches required to execute a vision for a nice looking and sounding LP.  It creates a false sense of how easy it is to make vinyl, and I worry the result is going to be a lot of half-baked vinyl releases from artists that do it just because it would be cool to have, filling the backlogs at the pressing plants even further. And like I said initially in this thread, Pirates Press puts out generally low-quality vinyl, especially the splatters and swirls that people love so much, so at best these Bandcamp Vinyl releases are going to be fine. Sort of like how Teespring and the like are convenient ways to offer shirts, but then you get fewer people offering nicely screenprinted shirts that last longer than a few years.

Not to mention, from the screenshots I've seen, the prices are pretty substantially marked up compared even to what you would pay for an all-in-one package direct from Pirates. Obviously everyone loves Bandcamp because they're one of the only companies in the music industry that's not actively evil, but I think this is kinda wack all around.

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Nah I'm super down for this.  I'm really hoping that a lot of back catalogues get pressed because of this service.  I get you pay a premium and the quality isn't the best, but it's FINE especially if you just get black vinyl.

Out of any other crowd funded pressing options this seems to be the smoothest and most sustainable for everyone involved.

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1 hour ago, MyEnemy said:

Damn! That’s crazy. $15 a record is fuckin gnarly.

Yeah I looked into their model for it and $700 something of that is just fees to them which is super pricy. Plus for smaller bands 250 is a lot to try to push especially at higher price points. 

I worry this will lead to lots of $35-40 single LPs to turn profit. 

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3 hours ago, museummouth said:

I worry this will lead to lots of $35-40 single LPs to turn profit. 

I worry this will lead to a lot of ill-advised bands trying to sell $35-40 single LPs and finding you don’t just automatically sell out of a short run record like in the old days, especially when any old band can release vinyl and you’re all competing for the same audience.

Edited by unknown pleasures
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