Why Physical Promotion, Release Formats Are Still Important

Living in the age we are, many musicians may be tempted to invest their time and money solely in digital promotion, but eschewing more archaic forms of promotion like vinyls, shirts, and stickers in favor of targeted social media ads and playlist promotion can sometimes backfire. Here we look at…

Dublin Vinyl Adds Direct-To-Fan Service For Artists, Labels

Record pressing plant Dublin Vinyl has launched a direct-to-fan service for independent labels and artists. Dublin Vinyl now offers vinyl manufacturing right through to fulfillment, has begun accepting orders directly from artist or label’s e-commerce sites including Bandcamp, Shopify, Woocommerce and Big Cartel, and shipping them directly EU based fans….

BUSINESS OF INDIE: Why Downtown Bought CD Baby • Vinyl vs Mother Earth • Canada’s Indie Awards • More

In this week’s edition of the Business Of Indie, Downtown music’s CEO speaks out on why they acquired CD Baby, confronting the environmental impacts of vinyl records, Canada’s 2019 Indie Music Award winners and more. Like Hypebot’s More News section, The Business Of Indie is nestled under its own Indie…

Death Of The Album [Alex Heiche]

It seems the music format of generations is finally on its deathbed. Whether in the form of 8-tracks, cassettes, or vinyl, the album has seen its share of changes, but none more disruptive or deadly than the rise of streaming and playlist culture. _________________________ Guest post by Alex Heiche, CEO…

Garth Brooks Just Pre-Sold 1 Million $130 Vinyl Box Sets

Garth Brooks has pre-sold a record one million vinyl albums of his $130 box set “Legacy Collection.” In March, Brooks sold over 420,000 in just 18 hours. There was initially a 24 hour window to sell the allotted number of boxed sets, but they were gone in just over 12…

Record Store Day Drove 827,000 In Vinyl Albums Sales, 72% Came From Indie Stores

Record Store Day 2019 drove another record year of vinyl sales. 827,000 vinyl albums sold in the U.S. during the week ending April 18, according to Nielsen Music. That’s a Record Store Day week record and the third-largest sales week for vinyl albums since Nielsen began tracking sales in 1991….

Bandcamp Adds No-Risk Vinyl Pressing via Pirate Press

Bandcamp is expanding its commitment to vinyl with a new offering that eliminates upfront costs for artists and labels. Vinyl on the popular independent music destination has grown 600% in the last 5 years, with 3,500 unique vinyl albums added to the site each month. The new service eliminates all…

Why Buy Disc Makers When CD Sales Are In Free Fall?

[UPDATED] While CD Baby and related digital properties were bought last week by Downtown Music for a reported $200 million, its physical good companies Disc Makers, BookBaby and Merchly were not a part of the deal. Now a newly created entity led by company executives, DIY Media Group, has acquired…

Advice To Labels: When Reissuing Vinyl, Take The Extra Step

The resurgence of vinyl has breathed new life into a number formerly overlooked albums, bringing hitherto forgotten artists out of the woodwork. When it comes to these fresh pressings, however, it’s important that labels take the time (and money) to invest in top notch audio quality. ___________________________ Guest post by…

How To Prepare For A Post-Album Music Industry [Keith Jopling Of MIDiA]

The album is not dead, but it is fading away; and stats shared by MIDiA analyst Keith Jopling confirm the trend. Adults that claim to listen to whole albums monthly, stands at just 16% according to Q4 ‘18 data from MIDiA, a drop from 22% in the previous quarter. ______________________________…