Artist Advice Column: Pressing Your Music To Vinyl Pt. 2
Pressing your music onto vinyl can be a milestone for any artist — especially a DJ. It creates a tactile bond between you and your consumers and allows vinyl DJs to play your music. The vinyl revolution is here to stay and pressing your music can be a great avenue to make a little money and give your fans a better way to appreciate your music. We started looking at how to press your music onto vinyl last week and continue now with more advice on what to think about before making that big decision.
- Beware of Delays:
Delays are an inevitable part of the process. Delays pressing vinyl are quite common in a current market where suppliers are not rising up fast enough to meet increased demand and backlogs can be common. Make sure you give yourself enough time to get your vinyl pressed and shipped to yourself or whoever is handling order fulfillment. This goes back to timing and understanding when to make your order based on consumer demand.
- Cost:
The cost of pressing vinyl can be quite expensive. You can get a quote from United Records Pressing to get an approximate idea of how much it will cost, but minimum for about 100 black vinyl records will be a little over $1,000. There are plenty of other costs to consider as well. You will pay more for colored vinyl, additional test pressings, shipping, art and sleeves. You have to pay designers for art and writers if you want special notes on the sleeve. Vinyl requires a big budget, so make sure you have the cash on hand to handle bulk purchases, plus storage costs and shipping. This will then help you decide how much you want to price the vinyl. Take into account shipping and local taxes, which could depend on the state or country.
- Number
How many records you order will impact your cost. If you think you can sell 500 records, go ahead and order them. However, if you aren’t certain of your market, go on the lower side because it is better to sell out than have hundreds of records in boxes taking up space in your small apartment.
Some plants will require a minimum order, like 50 to 100, because their margins go up the more they can scale production. Cutting and pressing 10 records is not worth their time, unless you want to pay a premium for that. But for commercial sales, expect to order a large batch.
