As I am looking forward to release my first EP (nobody asked for ) on bandcamp soon,
it was always one of my dreams to release also on physical media - but:
Pressed CDs start of at a number of about 200 copies (I’d be happy to sell ten copies or so )
Burned CDs start at 50copies (but I don’t like media that will be unusable within 10 years)
Produced cassettes start at 50 copies
Vinyl would not be interesting for a handful of copies anyway
In addition you have to get an approval by GEMA for legal reasoning in Germany (super annoying!)
I thought of a really small batch on cassette in my case in self-production as I own two really great Nakamichi Tapedecks.
Of course it’s not for making money, but rather the joy of listening to your music on a physical medium and offering cool merch.
Ary physical media a topic for you and your productions?
If you are just doing small quantities you could either do tapes yourself, print to order merch or there are also dubplate cutting services which are cut one by one by hand on vinyl. These cost around £15-20 in the UK from a few different places so you’ll need to be charging more than that to make your money back. They are made to order though so you could have them for sale at say £25-30 and then if anyone purchases then you place an order and stamp it or sign the vinyl and ship it to customer.
Overall though I’m seeing a drop in physical media support so I would definitely start small rather than produce 50 or 100 of something. Start with digital only, make some money and gain some followers with the goal to make something physical later in the future when it makes sense.
I’ve released a few things on cassette, and had tracks on a few collab/split/compilation vinyl releases. Both pretty fun media types.
I used to have fun with CD packaging, but that was over a decade ago, I don’t work in print anymore and CDs are kind of a dead medium these days anyway.
When download codes started being a thing I did a release that was just a figurine in a ziplock bag. Sold pretty well at gigs.
I’m not sure if I could sell enough to justify a solo vinyl release, but I can imagine doing a cassette again someday. Or, my idea for some kind of object with an SD card sealed inside that you have to irreparably break open in order to access. Maybe filled with some kind of goo so it’s also messy. Of course the item would come with a download code too so you don’t have to actually destroy the object in order to listen.
I have one EP on vinyl. Limited edition (1 copy). Cost me about €100.- including mastering and shipping. so I won’t think i will ever sell that one to anyone
Released this last year by a friends label. Guessing it sold 3 copies. Got a mono duplicator but never get around to make any new. Got 3 tapes on my bandcamp that is print on demand. No demand so its very chill.
I like to press up CDs via Atomic Disc, moreso as a helpful promo tool than something to make profit from. I also put QR codes on the back packaging to make it easier to find my music later. It also just gives the process more joy and meaning for me. You can get 50 CDs for about $120.
Its not my label so I dont really know but I guess he ordered blank cassettesleeves from somewhere and printed covers at home that he glued on the sleeves. You should look into lathecuts. The same label released an 8" at the same time as that tape. I think they sold them for around $15 so I guess it wasnt that expensive to press.
Edit: Looked at the wrong picture. On that one he made stamps somehow on blank sleeves.
) on bandcamp soon,
)
