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Who buys 7″s now? Punks and purists, perhaps. I’ve never been a 7″ guy myself – I prefer albums – but I appreciate its romance. It’s more punk than metal; you see kids at hardcore shows clutching little square sleeves bought with lunch money. At their best, 7″s aren’t junk food, but snapshots. They capture young bands putting something, anything down on wax; bands doing favors between full-lengths for friends; bands having fun with friends, one to a side.
Disfear – Fear and Trembling (excerpt)Doomriders – Crooked Path (excerpt)
Disfear and Doomriders have snapped a Polaroid of their recent joint European tour. It finds Disfear at their peak. “Fear and Trembling” is as epic as d-beat gets, urgently contracting and expanding. Doomriders’ offering isn’t their best, but it’s most welcome. It’s been over three years since their mammoth debut, Black Thunder. Some splits and live records have emerged since, but “Crooked Path” really whets the appetite for more. That Thin Lizzy-gone-hardcore sound is in full bloom, draping plangent bends over rough-and-tumble drums. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve listened to it. That’s exactly what a 7″ should do – zero in on individual tunes.
Like all Deathwish vinyl releases now, this split includes a free download code for the MP3’s. It also comes in a variety of vinyl colors, as well as a special European edition from Disfear.
Buy:
Deathwish
Aw, man, Disfear? Doomriders? Colored vinyl? Cosmo, you totally had me! SO I clicked over to the website to place my order. I was ready to go. I was actually excited about getting this record and then…and then… eight dollars and five cents for shipping.
Look, I know fuel costs are sending shipping costs way way up. I have a job that depends on the shipping industry. I process freight invoices three times a week. But still, it does seem a bit excessive for the only available shipping option to be eight dollars.
This, of course, got me thinking about the business models for industry reform Invisible Oranges has been presenting of late, and while I absolutely prefer the physical artifact, thirteen dollars for two songs is somewhat excessive even for a vinyl nerd like me.
I understand that I am complaining to you about something over which you have no control. Most of it’s just the “you kids get off my lawn” instinct, I guess, but I do think that it’s something to consider in the hypothetical “label reforms”.
Having said all of that, the excerpts you posted sound really good.
Robert – I just made a hypothetical purchase of the 7″ and got a shipping charge similar to yours. I agree, it’s absurd. I’ve emailed Deathwish to see what they have to say.
At least they offer shipping to you guys. I likewise put in a hypothetical order and they were “unable to calculate shipping costs” to Canada. Ridiculous.
Hey Guys
After reading this I logged on and tried to order the item. Sure enough, the UPS option was the only thing to pop up. I told my coworkers that handle the e-store maintenance to check up on it. I’m sure it will be fixed soon. I know we have been having server issues as of late, that could have something to do with the glitches.
Thanks for bringing it up, we obviously do not charge $8 for USPS shipping… We charge what the post office charges for postage…no huge mark ups with us.
I will post something when it’s fixed!
-Nicole
Update!!
The reason why this is happening is because the USPS server is down. Apparently that affects us directly…
So, I would check back later today/tomorrow. Hopefully they will get their stuff figured out!
Thanks for being patient
-Nicole
It’s fixed! Record ordered!
Great communication ^^.
This sounds great. I may just treat myself to a Christmas present.
I release my own albums, and my most recent one is on vinyl. It’s 140 gram, which is a bit heavier than regular weight vinyl.
By the time I calculate shipping into my end price (I absorb any extras for shipping in solid cardboard sleeves that don’t bend in the mail), it’s usually about 10 bucks to ship to the US. It costs me about $10 per unit, after mastering, plating, pressing, ink/ sleeves and sealing them up. So charging $20 (including shipping and handling), I don’t actually clear any money, but I calculate the shipping costs in there so that people aren’t like, “10 bucks for shipping!?”.
I have to balance it with what my conscience will allow me to charge–25 dollars, after shipping, is just not something that i’d want fans to pay. So really, I have to lose money. $10 per unit basic costs doesn’t even factor in the time that it cost me, as an engineer/ producer, for equipment, maintenance and ideally paying myself an end wage for my time through sales, like other bands in the past that had producers doing work on spec for them.
Let me say this–vinyl may be on a resurgence, but no bands are making money off of it after shipping. If they are, it’s because the fans are paying that premium for shipping. At RTI, they won’t even take on new clients because they were (last I talked to them) 500,000 records in backorder, AND they couldn’t find colored pellets.
April Golden at Golden Mastering told me that vinyl plants are being overrun, because the gov’t won’t allow new pressing plants to be opened, because the plating process isn’t environmentally friendly.
Not only that, but oil is a component of the vinyl, and when oil was as high as it was, record pressing takes a hit, because petroleum is needed to make it.
A long post, but hopefully I could shed some light on the record pressing/ releasing costs dichotomy.
Also, seeing as that the physical distribution industry is going down the toilet for releases physically being in your favorite store, we are all seeing the price that it costs to ship out individual orders.
Distro, as a whole in the past, would ship out multiple releases for stocking at certain places. This is because you save on paperwork, shipping supplies and handling, and maybe a bit of weight, considering that there is a certain weight limit that you can get away with until the cost rises over a certain KG weight.
When you ship out individual orders, that takes more shipping supplies, more handling (driving each order to the post office or waiting a few days for a few other orders to ship out with it as well, to save on gas), more paperwork, more everything. More time.
Like I say, I take this hit because i’m not in this for the money and can write off my own time as an engineer/ producer. But other bands and labels aren’t so lucky, they have to actually be able to make a bit of money off of it, and I agree….when one sees the shipping bill, it’s like, “!?”.
I’ve said this here before on IO, but the two real hidden killers in releasing albums are shipping and ink. It cost me $600 bucks (not includin to be printed with CMYK color printing, and it cost me $700 bucks to ship back 400 albums from United Pressing in Nashville. I nearly shit when I heard that shipping total. “?!”. I thought it was overnight UPS delivery or something. It wasn’t! It was regular mail. Then there was customs fees and stuff, I think that was $80 bucks.
Thanks, Ryan, for the insider info. I wonder if labels, who perhaps have more money than individual artists, can do business in high enough volumes to drive down per unit costs.
No problem! I know that business online is a really, really tough struggle. There’s alot of bands, there’s alot of labels.