Well, if it’s a trilogy then we need to have three blog posts. Having written about the original album in the first post, and then brought you ‘bang bang’ up-to-date on what’s different for the vinyl debut, now it’s time to talk about costs.
This won’t be a long post, but it’s also a part of the process that very few people talk about. And with this being the most expensive album put out on Unspun Heroes by quite a long chalk, I think it needs to be addressed.
Pressing vinyl is not cheap – and for runs below 500 it’s even less so. As a physical medium, it involves a lot of energy and different materials to make. And if you want to do it well, then making sure what you put in is the best it can be not only takes the skills of a professional engineer to remaster old tapes and digital files, it also means having a lacquer cut well so that the stampers made by the pressing plant will transfer the grooves to the finished product.
Not everyone does this. Some will skip the mastering phase and use CD files in production. Some won’t bother re-doing the artwork, or adding commissioning new liner notes, or even bothering with an insert. Some of these albums are £26 retail or more. I could do things cheaper by cutting out things like inserts and dropping the paper quality, or not redoing the album artwork so it doesn’t look like a poorly photocopied facsimile.
Ultimately, if you’ve listened to an Unspun Heroes vinyl release you’ll know that I care a lot about making them sound and look amazing.
The Tracksuit Trilogy is a special case for me. It required a few days of the engineer’s time to get it sounding the best it could possibly be. And that don’t come cheap. It made the manufacturing cost more than double and I did have a little bit of a weep when I got the invoice. Yet, having listened to it (several times now) it is worth every penny. It’s like hearing a new version of the album.
I decided to pay for the extras out of my own pocket, too. There is almost no profit margin after payment processing costs and Bandcamp’s fees are taken out. I’m actually losing money on each sale really. But I don’t want pity – any and every sale of anything I offer on Bandcamp is more than enough!
You see, I ensure everyone gets paid – those who write liner notes, the designer, Anthony, who works tirelessly for hours making minor amends late in the day, the printers and pressing plant employees, and in this case the artist, Renee, who produced over 50 pieces of work from which myself and Davey had to select two – for the sleeve and poster (signed for preorders).
It cost £35 per unit to do all that. For some perspective, it usually costs about £16 per unit.
So, while I understand it’s a big ask, especially when you include international postage costs, also know that everything has been done to the highest level to ensure when it reaches you it’ll blow your socks off. The extras are my gift to you for shelling out a lot more than I’d like to charge. It’s a work of art as much as a product you can enjoy. Money is a weird subject to write about. And yet, rather than shy away from saying what it costs to bring an album to bear (on average, it’s about £6k) I think it’s important that you know someone has bothered to put in the effort to make something sound, look and feel amazing. Something to cherish. That’s the love I say sits at the core of what Unspun Heroes does. Every time I sell one, I know I’ve found someone else who understands that.