With this new process records are produced one at a time on-demand, available without a lead-time. Being made without pressing from a master, it is said to produce a better sound. Because there is no hot pressing process, and using an alternative to PVC, with no waste of surplus records, the production of hazardous chemicals is said to be nearly eliminated.
The process has been developed and patented by elasticStage, a startup, who are schedule to open their first record fulfillment centre in London in the fourth quarter of this year. The records are said to be competitive with conventional records in price.
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Here is a slide that elasticStage did as a part of their presentation to raise capital.
Another advantage to this low volume on-demand approach is that it costs less up front, without having to buy in volume, helping smaller and even perhaps a startup producer afford to make records, and ramp up production as demand increases.
ADDED : I like that there is a connection from Streaming services provided in elasticStage’s presentation slide.
Yeah, it occurred to me this is very much like on-demand book publishing too.
I wonder if you’ll be allowed to select by song to make a custom album. A Mix-Record. I don’t see why not. People could also then promote their own combinations, perhaps with music less known, and perhaps inaccessible before In vinyl.
There are some albums too, that i just wish I could remove a certain song.
One reason this sort of thing is cool is that it brings back the bygone phenomenon of recording a record for personal use (such as a gift). Most notably, Elvis walked in to Sun Records initially to make one for his mom. If we’re lucky there’ll be someone like Marion Keisker at the lathe spotting up-and-coming talents.
It is probably worth checking with the Lathe Trolls about this. Last time I checked in, they were cutting dubplates from old laserdiscs & CDs. I noped right out - didn’t need another intense hobby.
Are there any actual numbers on how much a single record would cost? On demand printing is a lot more expensive per unit in basically every industry (shirts, books etc.) if you need more than a few dozen copies, and if there’s only interest for a few dozen records point I kind of don’t understand why you’d need to put it on vinyl at all.
Like right now pressing 100-200 record costs 10-20 euros per item depending on the numbers and stuff like sleeves and extras. Will doing a small run with 4-color covers, dust jackets and inserts more affordable?
Depends on a few factors though - oftentimes it’s the tooling/setup that creates volume cost efficiency - but even then sometimes you need very big numbers for it to have a significant diffrence from a one-off. A recent example I came across was Eurorack faceplates - the company I found I would have need to order thousands for it to have a dent in the cost. The difference between 1 and 100 was negligable (I think there might not have even been a difference).
If a process like this can be done without the need for swapping plates etc. - laser printer style - then it could be fairly cost effective.
But yea I would expect it to make more sense for novelty, like printing your book.
I share the interest though, it would be very cool to have a future where we could just print our own vinyl in a cost effective way. Keep the music biz’s grubby DRM fingers off it though…
curious about the same. thinking back to being in bands where we’re like “we might as well press a thousand, because the minimum is 250 and that basically costs the same as a thousand…” and then sitting on hundreds of records for years. it would be much better to be able to just press 50 or 100 or whatever, as needed. if the band gets more successful, do a bigger run, etc…
Nowadays you absolutely can press 50 or 100 records and it’s a lot cheaper than 1000.
100 is my personal limit, pressing lower than that is just silly. I might do it at some point, make like an art edition with vinyl and some sort of handmade box for each, but it is silly.
it would be much better to be able to just press 50 or 100 or whatever, as needed. if the band gets more successful, do a bigger run, etc…