Vinyl enthusiast Nick Mango recently shared some insights on releasing albums on vinyl including issues with preorders, the relationship between vinyl and digital releases and increasing the collectability of test presses. Given the fact that vinyl has returned as a specialty item, it's definitely worth considering putting out such a release if you've built a strong enough following that both fans and collectors would be interested.
Nick Mango is a vinyl collector and entrepreneur as well as the cofounder of "online store platform" Limited Pressing. He shared his thoughts about vinyl releases on his personal blog in a three part series.
Part 1 focuses on Presales with Mango digging into the reasons he feels small labels seek preorders of vinyl releases, primarily to ensure sales and/or to get money upfront to fund the releases. But he also points out that multiple problems may arise forcing a small label to push back the release date from preorders moving slowly to problems with the manufacturer. And, as more small labels without seed money or sufficient volume to impress manufacturers put out releases and encounter problems, this can sabotage collectors' willingness to preorder.
Mango also considers The Digital Release in Part 2 noting that collectors may not really want to play the album on vinyl but advocating against bundling the two together. Instead he advocates using the digital release to market the vinyl release and offers a couple of ways to approach that process.
In Part 3, Mango addresses the issue of Test Presses with pointers on increasing their collectability, from strictly limiting the amount to stamping and numbering them, and advocates for selling those as well.
Mango claims he's going to eventually discuss Kickstarter but, instead of waiting, I'll plan on using his thoughts as part of a post I'm planning on marketing with Kickstarter.
Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. He is currently relaunching Flux Research to pursue his long-standing obsession with web business models. To suggest music services and related topics for review at Hypebot, please contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
