Our Vinyl Costs a Ton

[garethom]

When the average price of a 12" increased from £6 to £8 a while ago I ignored all the £8 releases and refused to spend that much on one plate; now paying that much seems normal. If the price goes up to £10 for 1-2 tracks I will not hesitate to switch to digital

Yeah, I buy less than half what I used to, partly cos of the stuff being released, but a big part is the price. Costing a tenner a time for a single plate + postage. Big up to the labels that are still charging £5.99 even when pressing less than other labels.

[chekov]

When the average price of a 12" increased from £6 to £8 a while ago I ignored all the £8 releases and refused to spend that much on one plate; now paying that much seems normal. If the price goes up to £10 for 1-2 tracks I will not hesitate to switch to digital

Yeah, I buy less than half what I used to, partly cos of the stuff being released, but a big part is the price. Costing a tenner a time for a single plate + postage. Big up to the labels that are still charging £5.99 even when pressing less than other labels.

amen to this...

pisses me off, especially when you're paying £8 for a record that's not even 180g

[nakedlunch]

but a little perspective here: that’s close to £30 for an album whose creator, by his own admission, barely bothered sequencing it.

This is where I lost interest , what does it matter how Zomby makes his tunes , I have seen releases on obscure labels like Nurse with Wound sell for hundreds and the music on the vinyl was just a 12min recording of a washing machine. The music is worth as much as someone prepared to pay for it , price isn't dictated by what hardware or process they use to make it.

especially when you're paying £8 for a record that's not even 180g

That shit doesn't matter , the weight of the vinyl has nothing to do with sound quality , it's merely something that people think. I personally would rather spend the extra cash on mastering , than heavier vinyl.

[jrkhnds]

heavier vinyl costs more in acquisition though. I guess that's what chekov was pointing at.

eu citizens get screwed big time by their VAT though. Switzerland has only 8%, 0% if I ship an order that's under 50CHF... lets me fit in an additional plate for every 5 I buy, so I won't complain.

[Raad]

Hey nakedlunch! I know you don't really have to reply to this or anything but why do you think the price of vinyl has increased by like 25% the last 1-2 years? Have pressing costs or any other label costs increased within that time frame? Or is it that sales are significantly down?

[Muncey]

When the average price of a 12" increased from £6 to £8 a while ago I ignored all the £8 releases and refused to spend that much on one plate; now paying that much seems normal. If the price goes up to £10 for 1-2 tracks I will not hesitate to switch to digital

Yeah, I buy less than half what I used to, partly cos of the stuff being released, but a big part is the price. Costing a tenner a time for a single plate + postage. Big up to the labels that are still charging £5.99 even when pressing less than other labels.

Yeah big up those guys. Find the Uprise releases a little cheeky, didn't clearly say that this picture disc was coming so released a white label single sided of Reflections. Fair enough if they made it clear the same song is coming out with a B side a month later but they didn't.. well the didn't make it clear, not until it sold out. Then £9 for the picture disc.

Love the music and understand people can't make a living off releasing vinyl anymore and I don't mind paying the premium but its the sneakiness of some labels. Not saying Uprise did it intentionally but it could be seen that way.

Limited one sided are becoming ridiculous, new floating points is £12.99.. for one tune. Okay its 12 minutes long but its still £12.99 for a single sided 12".

Its because they know they sell out, they sell out because they're promoted in a 'limited one per person' way that they sell out quick mostly to discogers hoping to double their money once they sell out.

[rorz9992]

When the average price of a 12" increased from £6 to £8 a while ago I ignored all the £8 releases and refused to spend that much on one plate; now paying that much seems normal. If the price goes up to £10 for 1-2 tracks I will not hesitate to switch to digital

Yeah, I buy less than half what I used to, partly cos of the stuff being released, but a big part is the price. Costing a tenner a time for a single plate + postage. Big up to the labels that are still charging £5.99 even when pressing less than other labels.

Yeah big up those guys. Find the Uprise releases a little cheeky, didn't clearly say that this picture disc was coming so released a white label single sided of Reflections. Fair enough if they made it clear the same song is coming out with a B side a month later but they didn't.. well the didn't make it clear, not until it sold out. Then £9 for the picture disc.

Love the music and understand people can't make a living off releasing vinyl anymore and I don't mind paying the premium but its the sneakiness of some labels. Not saying Uprise did it intentionally but it could be seen that way.

Limited one sided are becoming ridiculous, new floating points is £12.99.. for one tune. Okay its 12 minutes long but its still £12.99 for a single sided 12".

Its because they know they sell out, they sell out because they're promoted in a 'limited one per person' way that they sell out quick mostly to discogers hoping to double their money once they sell out.

Yeah that new Floating Points is a joke... I thought £8 for Natalia's Song was bad when that came out but this takes the piss.
No-one is taking the piss as much as Good Looking Records atm though lol

[jorge]

repress of black mahogani by moodymann costs 54 quid new!

I dont buy that many new vinly tbh just get old cheap ones on discogs. Most of the records were 8euros when I went to hardwax which is pretty good really, probably about 6 pounds

[garethom]

repress of black mahogani by moodymann costs 54 quid new!

I dont buy that many new vinly tbh just get old cheap ones on discogs. Most of the records were 8euros when I went to hardwax which is pretty good really, probably about 6 pounds

Yep, prices on hardwax are decent! TBF, if there's enough I want from there, I order from there, even with slightly extra shipping, it's usually cheap than other places.

[Raad]

When the average price of a 12" increased from £6 to £8 a while ago I ignored all the £8 releases and refused to spend that much on one plate; now paying that much seems normal. If the price goes up to £10 for 1-2 tracks I will not hesitate to switch to digital

Yeah, I buy less than half what I used to, partly cos of the stuff being released, but a big part is the price. Costing a tenner a time for a single plate + postage. Big up to the labels that are still charging £5.99 even when pressing less than other labels.

Yeah big up those guys. Find the Uprise releases a little cheeky, didn't clearly say that this picture disc was coming so released a white label single sided of Reflections. Fair enough if they made it clear the same song is coming out with a B side a month later but they didn't.. well the didn't make it clear, not until it sold out. Then £9 for the picture disc.

I'm 100% sure Seven announced all the details about that picture disc release before the white label of Reflections came out.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 668&type=1

[Muncey]

" The first release from the album UALPS1 will be on a full art work picture disk and will include the title track of the album Seven ft. Joe Raygun - Live From The Future and Wayfarer - Reflections. "

Actually the first release was a single sided white label, that wasn't mentioned anywhere and when it popped up there was nothing to say 'don't worry the picture disc is still coming'.. no info of a release with BOTH tunes anywhere apart from that original message which is wrong because nowhere did it mention a white label was coming first. Just caused confusion and there was no clear message before the white label to say the full art work is still on the cards for release.. the white label was promoted and nothing was said, it was promoted as very limited and it sold out in less than an hour, after that there was a message saying 'don't worry the picture disc is still coming'. I bet a lot of people brought it because they didn't want to find out later after it'd sold out that the white label had replaced the picture disc idea. Labels have problems all the time and it could have easily been that Seven couldn't release Live From The Future and it just made sense to do a single sided pressing.. it just wasn't clear what was going on.

Just find it odd that 1. the white label was even released to begin with. 2. it was released unannounced. 3. it wasn't clear until after it'd sold out that the picture disc was still coming.

I know I wasn't the only one confused by it, glad I held back in hope the picture disc was still coming.

BTW I'm not saying it was intentional, it would have sold out regardless so I'd be surprised if it was.. just saying those types of antics are becoming more popular.

[nakedlunch]

Hey nakedlunch! I know you don't really have to reply to this or anything but why do you think the price of vinyl has increased by like 25% the last 1-2 years? Have pressing costs or any other label costs increased within that time frame? Or is it that sales are significantly down?

Well we are all in the middle of a world wide recession , many people have no jobs , the people who have jobs are getting taxed more and paid less , so luxury products like vinyl will get cut back on.
Due to customers cutting back on vinyl ,sales are down , vinyl sales down mean shops , distro will bump the prices up , also the pressing plants have to pay more for resources because their suppliers have put prices up due to falling demand(material/production/electricity etc etc) so the pressing plants put their prices up , all this hit the person at the end of the chain(the vinyl buyer) in the pocket.

There is no conspiracy to rip punters off , the price people pay at the counter now is what it takes for every part of the chain to survive and make a profit.
I'll say one things for sure about the whole vinyl industry(pressing plants,distro,shops,labels,producers)no one is putting prices up and getting rich , prices going up is an attempt for each part of the chain to survive.

I personally don't do sleeves/180g vinyl or any gimmicky stuff in an effort to keep the price down , I do coloured vinyl as it costs the same as black vinyl.

[Raad]

Alright, cool. Thanks for answering!

[Be-1ne]

I think one of the big things in all of this is, the price of postage / delivery.

with the increase of people buying from the net and little shops declining people notice the price difference way more as the price of postage has increased a ridiculous amount. I know I've posted about this before, but paying 8£ for a 12" is something I was doing 20 years ago. Domestic 12"s have really not gone up in price all that much in relative terms over that period. I remember on average a UK 12" was around £4.99 back in 1997 (in an independent store) So for something to have increased by 2 or 3 pounds over that time I don't see as a big thing personally. But when I pay 7$ for a record and then add postage taking it up to a 10£ or more in some cases. That limit's what I'm going to buy. So blame the fucking postal services for being absolute cnuts!!! it shouldnt really cost more than a £1 to ship a record from a - b.

The difference is it has happened quickly. It wasn't a gradual increase in process by say 50p here and there 12"s went from 5.99 to 6/7.99. less shops / less distributors are all parts of the equation. Nobody is getting rich of this, most folk do it for the love of good music and records. Often at a personal cost. Personally I think digital releases are a complete rip off, I pay 4£ for an EP, I'd rather have spent an extra 4£ and have it on vinyl.

[jrkhnds]

dunno. shipping with Redeye seems very reasonable to me. but maybe that's because I don't have them ship a single record at a time...

when I look at my last few hauls, the average shipping cost per record amounts to approximately £1.15. and that's to Switzerland, mind you. domestic shipping is even cheaper.

[baddis98]

Hey nakedlunch! I know you don't really have to reply to this or anything but why do you think the price of vinyl has increased by like 25% the last 1-2 years? Have pressing costs or any other label costs increased within that time frame? Or is it that sales are significantly down?

Well we are all in the middle of a world wide recession , many people have no jobs , the people who have jobs are getting taxed more and paid less , so luxury products like vinyl will get cut back on.
Due to customers cutting back on vinyl ,sales are down , vinyl sales down mean shops , distro will bump the prices up , also the pressing plants have to pay more for resources because their suppliers have put prices up due to falling demand(material/production/electricity etc etc) so the pressing plants put their prices up , all this hit the person at the end of the chain(the vinyl buyer) in the pocket.

There is no conspiracy to rip punters off , the price people pay at the counter now is what it takes for every part of the chain to survive and make a profit.
I'll say one things for sure about the whole vinyl industry(pressing plants,distro,shops,labels,producers)no one is putting prices up and getting rich , prices going up is an attempt for each part of the chain to survive.

I personally don't do sleeves/180g vinyl or any gimmicky stuff in an effort to keep the price down , I do coloured vinyl as it costs the same as black vinyl.

how do you explain single sided records being sold for the same price or even more than a regular 12", though?

[Muncey]

Went to buy the new Uprise vinyl + The Bugs one but its £22 + delivery

[garethom]

Guess that's the crux of the issue. All the points my man up there raised about costs at each point going up aren't surprising, it's just about finding a balance between putting off loyal buyers but still covering your costs and turning a profit. Can't be easy.

[nakedlunch]

how do you explain single sided records being sold for the same price or even more than a regular 12", though?

Ask the people who put it out.

[Johnlenham]

Went to buy the new Uprise vinyl + The Bugs one but its £22 + delivery

The bugs one is atleast two records and has full artwork inside and out.

I paid £12 for the Floating points one. Part of me thought it would sell out fast, the other just really really liked the tune.
Maybe because it was made by a group of actual musicians with actual instruments VS One guy on his laptop has something to do with it? Nothing else they have put out this much. Still it did sting.

Postage is not really part of the reason, £3 to have something moved sometimes 300+ miles in sometimes less than a day is a pretty fair deal.