Bandcamp has expanded the scope of its vinyl pressing service first trialed in 2020, allowing another 10,000 artists to take advantage.
As previously reported on Vinyl Chapters, Bandcamp launched a trial for a bespoke vinyl pressing service back in April 2019.
This pilot scheme allowed a small allocation of artists to try Bandcamp’s vinyl pressing service where fans could pledge to buy an artist’s music released on the vinyl format.
Working under a crowdfunding infrastructure, a minimum amount of records has to be pledged to be bought by fans. Once this target has been hit, Bandcamp then takes care of order fulfillment, production, and delivery. This forgoes the upfront costs that many new artists struggle with when selling their music on physical formats, as well as all the hassle of admin and production.
Having shipped over 13,000 records over the world during the initial scheme, Bandcamp have recently announced expanding the vinyl pressing service to more artists on the website. The scheme has now been made available to 10,000 more Bandcamp sellers and the website has pledged to open the option up to more members as the year continues.
Artists still get full creative control of their vinyl releases. They are assigned a Bandcamp team member to work with in uploading all necessary artwork, track listings and layouts for packaging, as well as being able to choose from a range of colours for the vinyl. The recent roll-out states that artists must hit a minimum of 250 sales before production and fulfillment can begin.
With recent news rekindling the struggle of newer musicians to make money on streaming services such as Spotify, Bandcamp has always touted itself as a place where artists have more opportunities to make a steady income from their music. More funds are directed to the artist with listens and purchases which helps up and coming acts grow and find their place in the industry.
‘Bandcamp Fridays’ is a further initiative the site offers to help artists, making sure that 100% of profits from sales go directly to artists on specially announced Fridays throughout the year.
The expanded vinyl pressing scheme offered by Bandcamp should help more musicians forgo the risk of printing vinyl and getting their music out to the masses. You can read more about the scheme over at the Bandcamp website.
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