Vinyl Popularity & Production

How does the uplift in the popularity of vinyl affect the promotion and marketing of music? Is the production of vinyl cost effective for unsigned artists?

Originally vinyl records on Gramophones were the only way of listening to music back in the 1930's however then came along CD's which were much more compact, cost effective and could hold more music on them. Technology has moved on even more the since then and now some of the most popular artists choose to release their music (sometimes solely) via download on services such as iTunes. In recent years however many bands and artists have gone back to the vinyl original, this begun in the early 2000's and today the vinyl revival has made the record the most popular it has ever been since the 80's with lots of record labels producing both CD's and vinyl. Last year in the UK alone 780,000 vinyl LP's were bought by the general public.

Example of how artists use coloured vinyl to sell copies of their
album by making it individual and unique.

The popularity of vinyl is mainly down to the record labels and artists themselves as a result of this the marketing of vinyl is crucial unsigned artists as it helps symbolise their individuality, this is down to the records unique look and sound which you do not get with CD's or downloads. A lot of people see this a a revival which both signed and unsigned bands have embraced often with these LP's being the headline of marketing/advertising for a new album. This brings music back to its core placing emphasise on the quality of sound and the album artwork to sell copies rather than simply downloading the song. Some bands/ artists such as The Peacocks sell both coloured and plain black vinyl to make it seem more appealing and giving the consumers a desire to own more and gain a collection i.e. buying record over CD's because they are 'off-the-wall' and different. Another sample of this is though picture disk vinyl's which again give the artists more freedom to design their own identity, rather than having a standard colour they could have it patterned or a logo representing
them.

Being an unsigned artist going straight to vinyl may not necessarily be cost cost effective to begin with as with genres such as Pop and R&B people may not be familiar with the idea of actual records meaning that initial sales may not be very high, although in some genres like Rockabilly or Punk these kind of audiences will be a lot more likely to purchase vinyl. In addition to converge with
modern technology artists will often give download cars with a vinyl pack to allow people to get an MP3 version of the album on their phones, this helps with sales as those who may not have a record player but still wish to buy/ collect the LP's as for example a piece of art or a rare one off from the artist.

By selling exclusively vinyl this can aid unsigned band as it means that fans have to go out and see them live or purchase a physical copy of the album as oppose to online downloads which can be easily pirated meaning that they could potentially lose out on record sales however this is also useful for bands which are signed to a record label as it will protect their content as well.

Costs of a standard 12 inch black vinyl starts at around £1200 for 1000 records this can be a significant amount of money for an unsigned artist since they will have no backing financially speaking from a record label. The price also increases dramatically if you were to chose either a picture disk or a coloured LP which unfortunately means that for an unsigned band it is likely to be much more cost effective to either sell downloads or a few CD's making sites such as iTunes and Spotify much more appealing. In addition getting companies to make vinyl can be a long process as oppose to simply uploading tracks for online. For making vinyl's it is quite a lengthy process, one average it takes 14-16 weeks for 1100 records , this is time which unsigned artists could be using to sell digital copies (at a much lower cost) and making money in other ways.

Overall it wouldn't seem to be cost effective for an unsigned artist to sell vinyl records and stick to CD's which are cheaper or digital downloads which are quicker and virtually free. However this is dependant on an artists popularity as unsigned as well as their following/ fanbase and genre.

Update: Since losing the record companies support The Peacocks have been on a similar track to how they were when they were signed however this is only due to their popularity of their tours when they were with 'People Like You Records' and becoming known that way their fanbase has continued. With touring everything is the same, they can still get concerts to play etc. however they face difficulty when it comes to releasing a new album because it is expensive to produce on formats such as vinyl (this problem also continues with promotion of the new album).