The vinyl advocacy group speaks with optimism following the devastating blaze at Apollo Masters earlier this year.
The Vinyl Alliance, an advocacy group comprised of several industry organizations, issued an official response to the recent fire that destroyed Apollo Masters in California earlier this year. The incident raised concerns about the future of vinyl production as Apollo Masters was the primary source of a critical lacquer used in vinyl record creation. Still, the statement released by Vinyl Alliance is optimistic.
“There are already alternatives available,” says the group’s president Günter Loibl, “which will help bridge the shortage of lacquer discs. This can also be an opportunity to embrace new technologies and to strengthen collaboration within the industry.”
Within hours after the fire, Vinyl Alliance members got into contact with each other to discuss possible repercussions. Simultaneously, start-ups and individuals reached out to share their ideas. Soon it became clear that the impact on the industry will be limited in the long run as there are alternatives and options available to deal with the temporary shortage of lacquer discs:
MDC, the remaining manufacturer of lacquers, is rationing supply to satisfy the demand of as many customers as possible
Direct-to-Metal-Mastering (DMM) is a working alternative, which does not require a lacquer and is available worldwide
Several start-ups are planning to manufacture lacquers, and they are expected to enter the market in the coming months
New technologies such as HD Vinyl – a modern way to produce stampers without lacquers – are in development
Scott Hull, a mastering engineer in New York, remains calm: “For the time being we have to be more careful with how we use lacquers, but I doubt that the consumer will feel the shortage before our industry will come up with a solution.”
`Heinz Lichtenegger, CEO from Pro-Ject, believes in the future of vinyl: “Perhaps we can find a silver lining in this tragedy. Vinyl is an amazingly durable medium for music that has stood the test of time. We have seen cassettes, 8-Tracks, micro-cassette, reel to reel, Mini-Disc, LaserDisc, CED discs, etc. come and go, but the vinyl LP is more cherished than ever. It is a format important to the industry, to the artists, and to millions of fans! “
The main concern at this moment belongs to the employees of Apollo Masters. “They are the ones directly affected by this tragedy “, says Zack Tipton, CEO of Vinylize. “Our thoughts go out to them and their families.”
We will continue to cover the Apollo Masters fire and the vinyl industry’s response to its destruction in the coming weeks. Follow Haulix on Facebook and Twitter for more information.
Bandcamp is setting itself further apart from other streaming services with the reveal of a new way to fund and release vinyl.
Vinyl sales have surged in recent years, but cost of pressing remains high. Could Bandcamp’s new service be the solution DIY artists need?
Bandcamp has announced a new service that allows artists to launch crowdfunding campaigns for vinyl releases. Once a campaign reaches its minimum goal, Bandcamp will press and ship the vinyl record directly to fans, which saves artists time and lowers the risk involved in vinyl production. Artists will maintain full control of the record’s design as well as its price, though the cost will depend on the design, number of discs required, quality of sound, and other factors. The service—which aims to streamline the “financing, production, and fulfillment of vinyl records”—is set to launch for all artists and labels later this year.
The ‘Kickstarter for vinyl’ service was revealed by Bandcamp earlier this week. In the post, Bandcamp stated that sales of vinyl records on the service have grown 600% in the last five years, and every month another 3,500 unique vinyl albums are added to the site. While that figure is impressive, the announcement also says that only 9% of the albums with sales on Bandcamp in 2018 offered a vinyl version. The company hopes their new service will encourage more artists to explore vinyl pressing, as well as offer fans a chance to fund new pressings of records that may otherwise never be pressed again.
The reasons more DIY and independent artists don’t press vinyl are numerous, but cost is the biggest factor. A run of 500 records can easily costs thousands to press, and that isn’t accounting for postage to ship the albums to fans or the cost of packaging for those shipments. That price is too high for many artists, especially when it means taking a change that fans will actually buy the album once it is complete. Bandcamp’s service not only streamlines production and distribution, but it eliminates the risk factor entirely by funding production through fans. The worst that can happen is that a campaign does not raise the funds required for production, in which case an artist will have to rely on other means of getting physical media to fans.
Bandcamp launched its first brick and mortar store earlier this year. Whether or not releases funded through its new service will appear in the shop remains to be seen.
As I looked at the calendar earlier this week and noticed I am closer to turning 28 than I am to still being 26, it dawned on me that I have been purchasing music for over 15-years at this point. I don’t know if I can pinpoint the first release I convinced my parents to buy me when I was young, but there are several standouts that come to mind. There was the three copies of Blink-182’s Enema Of The State on cassette that I wore out while riding my bike through our small town, as well as a CD copy Backstreet Boys’ immensely popular album Millennium, which my parents drove to across state lines to buy me on release day. I could name several more instances, but I think you get the idea that buying physical copies of music is something that has mattered a great deal to me for a long time, and it continues to be important to me in 2015. I don’t buy nearly as many CDs or cassettes today as I did at the start of the new millennium, but I do buy vinyl on a regular basis. I also subscribe to Spotify, and I’m more than certain I will at least give Apple Music a try when it becomes available over the summer, but even if I love that new platform I will scan record stores, eBay, Discogs, and Amazon for great deals on physical product ever chance I get.
Just last week I was doing an interview with Modern Vinyl when they asked me a question I had heard a dozen or so times before. We were discussing comedy on vinyl at the time, and someone inquired as to why I buy music at all, let alone on a physical format like vinyl. In their mind, streaming services are cheaper, easier to access, and easier to share. They also take up a whole lot less space than a physical music collection. That person, who shall remained nameless for this post, was absolutely right. All of those facts about streaming are incredibly hard to argue with, especially if the main thing you’re looking for when considering how to consume music is convenience. Life doesn’t get much more convenient than having almost every song of the last hundred years at your fingertips, 24/7, for one low monthly rate. I’m not here to argue that point, and as I already stated above I use Spotify regularly, but even with the convenience offered by that service I still believe there is need for physical releases in my life, and the reason is, in a way, incredibly selfish.
I buy music because I want to one day be able to share the albums I love with my future children. If not with them, then at least with the person I marry and the friends we make together. If it helps the bands, great, but at the end of the day I buy music because I want to share that particular song or album with people I care about. You could argue that is something easily accomplished with streaming services, but I disagree. When someone links to an album on Spotify or Rdio it looks like every other release on the platform, and there is often very little, if any, album notes to be enjoyed. The music is simply presented, through digital stream, as if it were any other file that was double clicked.
To me, the best way to share and discover music is through the exchange and promotion of physical product. Sitting down with an album someone you care about loves so much they bought it and dedicated a place in their limited living space to keeping it safe for future generations to enjoy is a very special thing, and it’s something that is becoming increasingly rare in the digital age. I think you can learn more about a person from the albums they care enough about to own than you can from hours of conversation. Their physical music collection is an extension of themselves as it shows you what matters to them, what influences them, and what they hope to discover when seeking out new art. It tells you about the sounds they enjoy when happy, sad, angry, or a little bit of everything all rolled into one. It tells you what bands and musicians keep them company when everyone else is busy with something or someone else. It show you their safe zone.
The first vinyl I ever purchased was a dollar bin copy of Bob Seger’s ‘Live Bullet.’ I wasn’t a gigantic Seger fan at the time, but my dad told me that when he was young ‘Live Bullet’ was the first album he made a part of his own vinyl collection. By following in his footsteps to not only own the album on vinyl, but sit in my room doing little more than listening to it spin and moving only to flip sides, just as he did thirty years or more prior, made me feel a connection to my father and the way he saw the world as a young man I’m not sure I could have even begun to grasp if I just pulled up the album on my phone and let it play while going about my day. In fact, I know it wouldn’t have been the same, and while the album may have sounded just as good, if not better, I wouldn’t have felt the connection to my father I did while listening to Bob sing “Old Time Rock And Roll” live from Detroit in the early 1970s on vinyl. That’s not to say the experience wouldn’t have been good, as I’m sure the album plays just as well in its digital format, but the experience would not have been the same.
I have no idea where technology is headed or how it will impact the way people consume music, but as long as I am able to buy music in physical form I will continue to do so. The idea of sitting down with a fellow passionate music fan, digging through records and sharing the experiences that lead to an album joining a part of my personal collection is everything to me, and if I could do that with my own offspring it would be a dream come true. I want future generations to not only know of physical music, but cherish it. I want them to understand the indescribable level of joy one feels when seated in a room with nothing on except a record with the power to change their lives forever. That power is still present in hundreds, if not thousands of records releases annually, but until we as a culture learn to put down our distractions and focus solely on the music pouring through our speakers the ability to feel that power is going to be hard to come by. If you find it, don’t ever let it go.
James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
Comment below and let us know: Why do YOU buy vinyl?
