Comments on: Record Labels Keep Finding New Ways To Fuck You

By: B. Parker

B. Parker — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:35:00 +0000

Yea, $2.20(180G HQ) at RTI to press a record. Then you have to have jackets printed, artwork done, lacquers created for the records to even be pressed and shipping for all of this. Depending on the band-label contract, the label may even pay for recording and mastering. Yes it seems that $25 for a single record is a bit expensive. “Consumers can decide for themselves if they want one copy of a record or eight.” A record labels job is to sell record, if they don’t sell records they can’t put more out simple as that. Don’t like it don’t buy it.

By: Evan

Evan — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:34:00 +0000

It costs roughly $2.20 to press one record (180G HQ) at RTI. If Matador is charging $25 for a Cat Power record, I’d like to know the breakdown of incurred fees to see how much they’re actually profiting on each unit sold. That’s all.

By: whalebiologist

whalebiologist — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:57:00 +0000

You seem to be missing the point yourself.

"Consumers can decide for themselves if they want one copy of a record or eight."

Again, no one is forcing you. Of course a label will press eight different colours if they can sell them. A record label sells records.

I can't believe you went after the Mission of Burma reissues. Have you held those in your hands? It feels like a baby. Remastered. Extra tracks. Huge inserts. DVD. Download code.

By: Evan

Evan — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:01:00 +0000

A lot of you seem to be missing the point.

Temporary Residence has pressed to high quality vinyl for YEARS, and they're still only charging $12 for a single LP and $15 for a 2xLP. They've just very recently gotten into the whole 2x180 gram LP + CD "set" mentality, and some of their prices are a bit absurd (30-40), but their prices for straight HQ LP+CD combos are still more fairly priced than Southern Lord and Hydra Heads.

Matador, on the other hand, completely bungles their vinyl pressings, and always has (I just yesterday had a conversation with someone who worked for Matador for almost 8 years). Their prices are exorbitantly high, even as oil prices rise and costs rise for production and artwork and packaging. Just look at what you get for your money with a Matador record vs. a Temporary Residence or Touch & Go record. T&G provides customers with download codes (or CDs, if you buy a Shellac record) for $12-15, and with TRL you get a CD and LP for $12-18. Matador gives nothing. I think that say something about how they value their customers less than they value the almighty dollar.

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:05:00 +0000

Seriously? The run-up in oil alone has resulted in significant price increases. Anybody who makes a point of buying up every pressing of every Southern Lord album either has enough disposable income to do that or will soon die penniless in a gutter. I don’t get the mentality of people sometimes; in a day and age where physical music products are disappearing altogether, it’s not a matter of gouging. Nobody’s got a gun to your head. Consumers can decided for themselves if they want one copy of a record or eight. I only own multiple copies of one album, but it’s one of my all-time favourites and has a lot of sentimental value for me.

People aren’t as dumb, shallow, or vacuous as you seem to think.

By: MXV

MXV — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:55:00 +0000

While I do find it irritating when a new release comes out on multiple colors simultaneously, I don't agree with a lot of what you wrote here.

EVERYTHING costs more these days, a lot of it related to the fact that the price of oil and gas has tripled in the past few years. This has caused everything to go up. The price of manufacturing and printing and shipping, etc has all been driven up in the past couple years. Labels cant' afford to press up small or large amounts of vinyl and sell a LP for 8 bucks anymore in most cases.

If an LP comes out and it costs me $15 bucks but comes with a code to also download the MP3s for my iPod, I think that is a good deal because I get the best of both worlds - vinyl and music to listen to outside the home on a portable device and I don't have to buy the thing twice.

I have a label myself and do work for a couple of other labels and I can tell you between what they pay me for doing the layouts, then printing, mastering, pressing, shipping, etc, their markup to distributors isn't making them buckets of cash. They make a little bit, which usually goes back into the label.

Vinyl is on the upswing but still most of these labels are only selling somewhere between 500 - a few thousand copies of any given release and since CD sales are WAY down, it's not like the profits from that are supporting taking a loss on vinyl anymore like it did 10 years ago. As much as it pains me to dig deeper in the wallet, the prices had to go up.

I do wish labels like Hydrahead would stick to 1 color of vinyl at a time when they put out something new though. Then if it sells through press it again on another color instead of making 4+ at once.