Thanks for this video breaking down the current costs! In 2010 I financed a vinyl record for an R&B band out of Chicago called The Right Now. At the time the band was touring extensively around their debut album Carry Me Home, and selling many copies of it on CD, to the point that it looked like it might be worthwhile to work a deal where I paid for the pressing of a vinyl version and then split the profits with the band. In the final analysis this didn't pan out the way we had hoped, but I don't have any regrets because I learned a lot, and have been able to pass along what I learned to other bands I know. Back in 2010, we worked with United Record Pressing in Nashville, which was pretty much the go-to for turnkey manufacturing. The upshot of working with URP was they have an in-house record distribution arm, so if a band has a record made there, you can work a deal with their distribution arm to promote and sell the record to record stores, which was a pretty great way to get the record out in addition to the merch table for the band. Also, you can participate in Record Store Day through them. The manager and guitarist, and primary songwriter for the band, my wife and I decided to make the record mastering a road trip, so we drove to Memphis to go to Ardent to have the legendary Larry Nix cut the lacquers. This was $250 total at the time, vs. $300 total to have URP do it. That was an amazing experience and Larry gave us a tour of Ardent and regaled us with stories about Big Star recording there. With lacquers securely in hand, we drove to Nashville to drop the lacquers off at URP. They had a deal where if you dropped the lacquers off, they'd include mp3 dropcards, so we did that. I think they had a deal on shrinkwrap as well. We decided to do 500 copies, with 50 for promotion/personal copies. This was our first mistake, based on the CD sales, we thought that we could move a lot of LP's through the merch table, the website and through distribution. 500 gave us a price point that was desirable. The most expensive part of this at the time was manufacturing the jackets. URP and Pirates Press both offered jacket manufacturing, but it wasn't done in house, and was really pricey. We opted to work with Dorado to manufacture the jackets using artwork that was considered for the CD, but not chosen so we had a unique cover for the release. But it was still just under $1000 for 550 jackets. Based on what you showed, having VMP do the jackets is a much better available option today. After all costs including shipping the final record, shipping the jackets from Dorado to URP and having them insert the records into our jackets, the cost for 550 records was $4.80, so really not much less than today, so that tells me that the record manufacturing has gained some efficiencies since 2010. We were charging $12 per LP back then. If you can get full-manufactured records done for under $6 and you can easily charge $20-$25 that's pretty good if you're an artist who has enough of a following that people will pay for physical media. One shortsight I had was that it never occurred to me that the band would be working on a new album. So, by the time we had the records completed in September of 2010, the CD had been around for over a year, and within a year and a half the band would record and release their second album, which they paid for themselves. They were already playing the new songs and when their record came out it was competing with the first album on the merch table. And, people would often ask which record to buy, and the band would be most proud of the latest album (of course). By the third album in 2017, they weren't selling copies of the first album on vinyl and by 2020 the band had broken up. The band made me whole on my original investment, which was very generous. But, still a really great experience. I learned a lot, and have been happy to pass along what I learned to other bands.

Ty for highlighting this topic, I have been curious about the financial metrics of vinyl records since returning in the last yr or so. The difference between the production cost and the retail I am sure varies wildly across artists, labels, and 3rd party licensees.

The upfront cost although not impossible to raise is still tough for a lot of artists trying to self promote. This is why so many artists run a go fund me or something like that to raise the money to make the records according to how many will actually sell. As far as the large record companies go they lower their cost by volume. Thanks for making this video!

Thank you David. I found this segment both educational and extremely engaging. I often wondered about the cost of producing a vinyl record. After watching your fascinating video, I now have an understanding of what goes into it and the various options and costs. Much appreciated.

It’s ironic that audiophiles are so against the use of audio files. (My apologies, it had to be said…)

Outstanding David! The most informative KZfaq channel I’ve found!

great topic. I am putting out a 12" EP next month from a old NY Punk Rock friend of mine. We used Gotta Groove. Jack Endino mastered to file, 500 Black Vinyl $2060, Test Cuts via email $50, 1000 Full color labels $100, Rice Paper Inners $75, Direct to Board Print Single Pocket Jackets UV High Gloss $645, Download code package $200, Shrink wrap/sticker assembly $214. Came to $3350, $6.69 per 12", 1/2 paid upfront.

Looking at the cost of the raw vinyl itself, that can vary quite a bit as there are multiple quality of mixes of vinyl available. No matter what vinyl mix is chosen, it all costs just pennies for the material itself. That's the cheap part. Then there is the overhead, the costs of having a place to make records and the equipment necessary. Most pressing companies have chosen to obtain used equipment and refurbish it. Remember, something is new only once and can never be brought back up to new quality again. This and in-experienced personnel operating the equipment is probably the main reasons that so many defective pressings are made. As an example, I found out from someone at Acoustic Sounds that they had a 16% defect rate of a supposed 5K production run(estimated as there are probably copies sitting sealed on the shelves of collectors) of the first UHQR record that was pressed at QRP, Analogue Productions UHQR-0001. This was a very expensive learning experience for Acoustic Sounds and they still don't get it right sometimes. I think the record manufacturing industry has more returns and defective manufacture now than, we'll say, in the 1960's. The returns are driven by the cost of buying records now. Inflation aside, when you spend the big bucks on a new album you are probably a little more picky about what you receive. I return more records now than I did in the 1960's. I have always been very picky about the records I buy and even when they cost around $3. for a single LP in the 1960's and 1970's, I would return them if there was even a slight flaw. That's why so many of my old records are still pristine. I would even exchange 7" 45rpm singles if I didn't like their condition and they only cost $1 or less. That being said and with the costs of making a record from the beginning to the store shelves, when their are single LP's which are prices new for over $100., there still are plenty of new audiophils ones for under $30., some somebody's making a killing. With the higher prices, I expect more and what I buy better be perfect or it's going back!

Excellent video! I have wondered about this myself! Love the channel!

Nice breakdown

Great video! Mr. Pete-------> aging hippie

Now if only I could buy musical talent and a voice…..or maybe with today’s artists that’s not really important anymore.

Meanwhile, just around the corner from where all of us live, or say in Darryl Hall’s home Digital Recording studio, a group of twenty something’s can Record, Mix, and Release Hi-Res Music to iTunes and elsewhere at a mere fraction of the cost!! This is a great video Dave, good work…. And it proves what I’ve been saying as others have for several years now, they Vinyl is both a ripoff and extremely wasteful Format in 2024. And it especially a ripoff for young adults getting into HiFI Music Playback. It’s as seriously laughable when I see something that looks like a console inside the Starship Enterprise, costing 20,000 or more that had one purpose, to keep the stylus from picking up any unwanted vibrations while spinning a round platter, as it is insulting. If a medium takes a 20,000 piece of equipment to sound it’s best…it’s not cost effective. And that’s not including the $12,000 Cartridge!!!

Now we know why we have shit mastered vinyl. People just send a file and move on

Good luck starting a project with Vinyl Media Pressing (VMP) now though. It will most likely never press a single record considering the CEO and CFO of VMP were fired and sued for mismanagement of funds in trying to get it running and what's more, they lost their one and only client, which was going to be VMP.