I’m so late in writing this. Usually I write these in late March and post on 2 April, which is the official anniversary for starting Unspun Heroes. This year, though, I contracted a viral infection and spent just over a week in hospital followed by a week and a half of sleeping late and doing very little. I’m still recovering as May approaches, but this needs to be written so I’m sitting here at my desk and bashing out these words so that the past year is captured and the future can be mapped out.
If you’re interested in historical artefacts, you can read my Year One Retrospective back when it was all shiny and new, and catch up on the Year Two Retrospective when it was exciting and manic.
Right, without further ado, let’s crack on with Year Three.
Stay Healthy
I’ve mentioned above that this blog post has been held up by my being ill. However, there’s a broader story here that I want to address. I don’t talk about my personal health much, as it’s not related to Unspun Heroes, except in a recent email conversation I realised it was very much part of the origin story of this tiny record label project.
You can skip this ‘chapter’ if you don’t want to read some fairly rubbish info about the C-word.
The thought process began when people started posting about 2016 and what a shit show of a year it was for celebrity deaths. Bowie, Prince, Victoria Wood, and so so many more great names seemed to pass that year. It was also the year I was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer. Thankfully, after some major surgery and two years of treatment, I was declared to be cancer-free. Six years on, I was declared to be cured.
I was determined to do something that would leave a legacy of some sort. Not for bragging rights but a way to put something out in the world that might have a lasting impact to some people. That thing ended up being Unspun Heroes.
Around the same time as being freed from the perils of once nasty diagnosis I was given another one. This time a rare non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I don’t want to go into the details, but let’s just say my immune system likes to take a holiday most days and I’m on a variety of fairly nasty medications that make me incredibly tired and/or sick from the side effects. It’s manageable if I don’t overdo things, and with luck it won’t progress too quickly. However, it has had a detrimental effect on my ability to work these past two years. And it’s my earnings from my self-employed work that funds Unspun Heroes.
Turns out my health is very much linked to this project, whether I want to talk about it or not.
And that bit about not overdoing things? Reader, last year I overdid things.
Release The Good News
Okay, the scene is set. Against this backdrop, I did a lot of hard work in organising one of the most audacious releases I’ve ever attempted for The Experimental Pop Band. I had so many ideas when chatting to Davey Woodward that I really should have stepped away from it. These things came back to haunt me (although I wouldn’t change any of it).
One of the most difficult things with Unspun Heroes is it is just me. Simon. The person who does everything. And that person isn’t always very healthy. I think you can see why things ended up where they ended up.
However, despite all this, I pulled together a commissioned piece of art, a brand new piece of sleeve artwork, back and forth with a writer for new liner notes, paper printers, fabric printers, pressing plants, Davey himself (always a joy), a record label and their legal department, and the extensive mastering required to make the tracks sound great on vinyl. In short, I gave a lot of fucks about all the details – big and small – and created a new masterpiece of art to complement the art that I was already working with. Unfortunately, it cost a lot. Not taking into account my travel, the hours I put in, or other miscellaneous spending, the budget wasn’t just busted it was beaten into submission and left for dead in a dumpster behind a disused nightclub before being consigned to a shallow grave just off an obscure junction of a minor motorway. The upshot is that every sale loses me money.
All that said, The Tracksuit Trilogy by The Experimental Pop Band remains one of the best albums I’ve released so far. Even if I am constantly bombarded by people telling me it’s too expensive, some quite angrily suggesting I’m ripping them off.
I wrote three blog posts about the journey to bring this incredible album to vinyl for the first time. Part One talks about the album itself, while Part Two speaks to the new art and commissioned aspects of the release such as the bespoke riso print, and care label, which left Part Three to talk about the cost of doing it.
While I’d love to have sold more – or sell more – it’s almost enough that every single person who has bought one has emailed to me to say how amazing it is and that it’s worth every penny.
That takes me to late July 2025.
At this point I was already starting on the next release. Another one I was really excited to bring out for its vinyl debut. Living and Growing by The Felt Tips. I’d loved this album and the band’s singles for almost 15 years. Never managed to see them live, though. I’d written a blog post about this album and the band got in touch. Could we think about putting it out, they said. Easy answer.
And so, October’s release came about. It was a really full-on schedule that involved two gigs and a whole bunch of milestones that made it a little bit stressful. I was working on a huge piece of sustainability work for an entire industry (fashion, in case you cared) and on my evenings and weekends, and lunch breaks, I was organising stuff. I then drove to Scotland and back – twice – to get everything finished off and to see the band live in Glasgow.
While it was quite stressful, it was also brilliant fun. The band were just fucking ace humans from start to finish. I also got to commission my friend, Sean, of Hey Kids Rock ’n Roll fame. Every single piece of this release worked out exactly as I’d hoped. I am immensely proud of every album I’ve put out, but this one really brought a smile to my face from the moment I got a call with the band. It sounds amazing and the reviews really showed that together we’d excelled as a makeshift team. I also got to see them live twice, met some wonderful people along the way, and was showered with love by them and their friends and family.
By the time the year wrapped up, I was starting to feel the strain. I wasn’t well across most of December and January, so a needed a break. I made a decision that I would put out one album in 2026, to try and catch up on finding and delivering paid work and also to ensure I could afford to take a holiday. More on that release shortly.
Boxes, Boxes And More Boxes
Pressing and selling vinyl records means boxes. Lots of them. Each big box has three other boxes inside that contain the final records. Often I get a delivery of 10 or more boxes of vinyl which I have to haul in from the road to my house. Remember I tire easily and only have one lung to work with. It’s hard work. Enjoyable but hard.
Sales of all the releases have been good, but we haven’t sold out of anything. This is an issue. Why? Well, I pay everyone involved as soon as they’ve done their bit. Sometimes before. I put up a considerable amount of my own money. It’s quite a huge risk. The rewards come from selling every copy, so if I don’t sell every single copy then I don’t get my money back and there is no profit to share – or in my case, to put towards the next release.
Two releases are close to making a small profit. The third isn’t far off. One will never make me money. I’m playing the long game, which I knew would always be the case. However, I don’t have a warehouse (and I pay for a distributor to warehouse some copies). My home is filled with boxes inside boxes. And then there is the packaging required. Cardboard mailers of various types, envelopes, cards, ink stamps, tape… the list of things you need to ship stuff is mind-boggling. All of it takes up space.
Thankfully, my wife is very understanding.
Always Be Shipping At What Cost?
Now, I don’t want you to think that I’m not happy with Unspun Heroes. I love it. The money is not the motivating factor. There is no money in this game, particularly short-run vinyl releases that aren’t super expensive. I try my very best to keep prices low. Shipping is my biggest bugbear, because there is little I can do with that. However, I’ve been experimenting with a different provider and, well, I think I may soon be able to offer cheaper shipping to the US and Worldwide.
The EU remains a pain as some countries seem to add import and taxes even when it’s clear they’ve been paid, and Royal Mail makes that happen less often than others so it would be with caveats that I shift my shipping over to a new provider. If I do, that’ll probably be via Ampwall because of how they’re set up compared to the Unspun Heroes Bandcamp store.
As ever, anyone can get in touch and I will work out the most cost-effective way to ship to them. While I know it’s frustrating to be told you need to pay more for shipping than the album itself, I do not mark up the cost and I don’t include the cost of the ancillary items like mailers and tape, or the time it takes to haul parcels to the post office and queue up to send them.
What’s Coming Up?
Okay, this is the important part for many of you. When’s the next release?
This is a whole blog post in itself. I know what the release is. I wanted to press 500 copies, which would be a massive risk and probably the undoing of this whole venture (or the unspunning, if I can be allowed to invent the word!) and the end of this project. Instead I settled for a smaller run, but which increases the unit cost exponentially. Under 500 copies pressed not only invites a fee from the pressing plant, it makes the cost prohibitive for distribution.
This next release is to be a double album with a fancy pressing (marbled) in a gatefold sleeve. Already a bigger undertaking than any other Unspun Heroes release.
I’ve been very lucky that the label who put this music out have been super helpful. In fact, they’ve gone out of their way to remove as many barriers as possible. Sadly, at the time of writing there is one barrier than makes the reward so small it’s not worth doing. There is also a contractual element that increases the risk. Together they’ve made the release difficult to justify.
What does this mean?
I spent the time in hospital thinking about this. The easy decision is to stop. It’s been really good fun and I’ve brought five phenomenal albums out for their debut on vinyl. I can’t ignore the fact that finding albums that almost everyone doesn’t know and manufacturing it on a media that’s the most expensive on which to do it makes my business model dangerous. That’s always been the risk I’m willing to take. I bet on the long game. It’s the slow path that cares about the quality, the details and the end result. I’m still very good with that.
This new complication requires a rethink of how I finance releases. Certainly this next release.
I don’t have an answer to that. Can I find 150 people willing to pay for something that hasn’t even been manufactured? It’s a massive ask. I could do a ‘Kickstarter’ but I would lose 20% of the money raised in fees, making it more expensive and potentially loss-making before I even get to making the thing.
I’m working on some alternative ideas. Each has its pros and cons. What I’m trying to do is decrease the risk so that the final 80p per sale I’d likely make (yep, it’s that low) is worth it because I will have sold out (or got close to it and my upfront costs are covered).
I’ve also started looking at another release that I am more confident in. I can’t say what that is, but I’ll be having a meeting in early May about the possibility of licensing it from the artist. I think this might provide the catalyst for better sales. I will have an answer in May. Which brings me to my final thing to note about Year Three.
I’ve also got some ‘Unspundles’ available that mean you can walk away with two albums for what I think makes for a patently silly price. It’s like a sale but not one.
Oh, I also mentioned a zine some time back for Post 50 on this blog. I haven’t forgotten that, I just didn’t feel well or have the capacity to make it happen. I will do something but it’s not a priority right now.
Shout About It
I’m terrible at selling. I’m too nice. I don’t do enough promotion. I don’t hassle people at every opportunity. I don’t make videos and reels and ‘content’ that shouts at people across ‘every consumer journey touchpoint’. I know this.
PR is a difficult game. It costs. Sometimes about 15% of my overall budget. It often has very little effect on sales. In fact, reviews bring in more sales and all my reviews have been very positive. Yet, getting reviews is harder work – often I get told that a small reissue label isn’t going to sell magazines or bring eyeballs to a website. Not for artists that aren’t household names. There is also a lot of music being released that’s new and fresh and, well, there’s also another boxset from a massive worldwide superstar coming out.
I totally get that.
Over time I’ve seen sales increase. People often buy one album and come back for more. On many an occasion they’ve bought a copy of every release, or every special edition. I have a small and incredibly wonderful set of people who buy an Unspun Heroes release no matter what. I love this. I’m appreciative of anyone and everyone who buys, listens, shares and interacts with me. It’s always been about being part of a community than making a fortune shifting single discs in a cheap cardboard sleeve. It’s always been about caring about the music, having new liner notes written, quality inserts and decent mailers that protect the investment customers make.
That won’t change. It mustn’t. I might get more ‘salesman’ than I’d like to be now and again on my social media. I apologise now.
Looking Ahead
Aside from trying to work out what the next release will be and when, I’m thinking about new ways to finance this mad project. I’m open to conversations, for sure. Ideas, too. Maybe it is the end, but only when I’ve run out of possibilities – and there would be the likelihood that I’d resurrect things later anyway. This is the most fun I’ve had in a while. I’ve met some wonderful people, even if it’s only over email or via social media feeds. I would call many of these people friends.
I realise that large swathes of this post are a bit of a downer. But I think being transparent is the right way to go about it and, well, life isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. Sometimes it’s shit. Recognising that, and sharing the hurdles as much as the successes, shows I care. I hope so.
Finally, I want to thank The Experimental Pop Band and The Felt Tips for making Year Three of Unspun Heroes a success in so many ways. The fact that these people allowed some interloper to come in and take their art, trusted him to treat it well and never ask more of me than to get on with doing what I promised them I would. Which is, quite simply, to bring out their music on vinyl for the first time.
Thanks for reading.