The rising cost of new Vinyl

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Funky54, Oct 2, 2015.

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  1. Already did my research. I have even posted prices. You need to do research. With initial production costs in consideration, which is the majority of investment and manufacturing costs being a minor part no matter the format, when it costs $20K for production and with the minimum 1,000 unit manufacturing, a CD costs $1. and sells for $10., an LP costs $2.70 and sells for anywhere between sub-$20. to $40., remember production costs are the same, why are LP's so much more than CD's? As I stated, it all comes down to greed.
     
  2. Haven't I said that already??????????
     
  3. rockledge

    rockledge Forum Resident

    Location:
    right here
    Again with the imagination thing. Oy.
     
  4. rockledge

    rockledge Forum Resident

    Location:
    right here
    So who should take the hit? The songwriters? The artists? The labels personnel? The guy manning the cash register at the music store?

    No matter how old it is, it should cost what people are willing to pay for it.

    And as long as guys are forking over rich man bucks for records, those who make the records will be more than glad to keep selling them at that price.

    The consumer sets the price , by deciding to buy, or not.
     
    RobGordon35, Dusan and Jrr like this.
  5. E.Baba

    E.Baba Forum Resident

    The thread title said New Vinyl for a start.
    ...and anyway your universe 'right here' has much more crusty musty good gear than the sticks of country Australia obviously.
    Mate ...fifty cents to a buck...hahaha....not here. I wish.
     
  6. dharmabumstead

    dharmabumstead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pacific Northwest
    This. Very much.

    I'm really tired of paying premium for a new vinyl pressing of an album (or worse yet, a box set - I'm looking at you, Beatles stereo vinyl box set) and getting a crappy pressing that sounds worse than s $1 Easy Street sidewalk special. It shouldn't be the crapshoot that it is.
     
    RobGordon35 likes this.
  7. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Neil Young's new quadruple live albums going for $90.00 ...price of a plane ticket for some. :)
     
    RobGordon35 likes this.
  8. nicotinecaffeine

    nicotinecaffeine Forum Resident

    Location:
    Walton, KY
    $40 is too damn much for a copy from a regular batch and it will kill the market. If it can be done at $24 in the US or Europe and still be profitable, I don't want to read any crybaby-s*** about how $40 is justified. That sort of reasoning is nothing more than coddling the usual do-nothing/zero-work jackals with their hands in the cookie jar that wreck everything they touch.


    :cussing:
     
  9. rockledge

    rockledge Forum Resident

    Location:
    right here
    I should have noticed that you are in Australia. I have a friend there. He told me some time back that you guys have reasonable prices on everything but electronics. He said things like computers and air conditioners are expensive there. I suppose the same applies to music gear.
    I imagine that used vinyl there is not easy to come by.
    I am a fan of Tommy Emanuel, btw. And Maton guitars.
     
  10. rockledge

    rockledge Forum Resident

    Location:
    right here
    The cost is one of the reasons I view it as a passing fad.
    If vinyl was more consistent to what it was new prior to CDs, it might have a chance.
    But technology is going to decimate all physical media forms eventually, probably sooner than later. Vinyl will be first among the few remaining to go.
     
    RobGordon35 likes this.
  11. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    20% of album sales and growing exponentially over the past decade. new pressing plants are being made for the first time in decades(late 70's?).

    Physical sales are greater than the digital versions.
     
  12. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    Neil Young back catalogue is double the price of Jimi Hendrix back catalogue. Both have comparable packaging.

    Why is it hard to understand that some artists/labels are simply seeing if they can take an unusually large profit margin on vinyl?

    Maybe there is killer $1 out there, but you imply that the modest investment of time is not worth anything.
     
  13. E.Baba

    E.Baba Forum Resident

    I would say music gear even moreso since it's an even smaller market than A/C and PC.
    Speaking of smaller market, back in the pre CD days AU often just got a X gen copy tape to press records from cos it was an afterthought market. So even most of our '1st press' stuff won't be the best sounding. If I buy in from US or EU I can pretty much be sure to beat whatever AU press I already have, doesn't even need to be an early issue. If I'm paying to fly it around the world I'll try for the best I can find tho obviously.
    Yeah, we have some good stuff here.
     
  14. Gibson67

    Gibson67 Life is a Magical Mystery Tour enjoy the ride

    Location:
    Diss, UK
    Hi all

    Here in the UK I'd say the majority of new vinyl is retailed by small independent stores, with the exception of the large music retailer HMV who are really increasing there vinyl range. An LP retails for about £15.00 to £18.00, and a double LP is around £30.00.

    Having seen that the sales of vinyl is rising here in the UK at a heathy rate, the national supermarket chain Tesco has decided it would like a slice of the action, and is now stocking vinyl in its larger stores. A quick look at there pricing suggests that they are selling LP's around £5.00 cheaper on double LP's compared to there competitors. As a consumer I'm hoping this price drop will filter down to other retailers which can only be good news to me.
     
    Al_D likes this.
  15. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    Someone enquired in their local Tesco and it turned out that only the Milton Keynes store was stocking vinyl. Will have to visit the nearest superstore to verify if the trial has spread. I think prices are usually a little higher than you quote. I am surprised HMV are selling anything cheaper but their old formula did almost drive them out of business. Yet to find an HMV actually selling vinyl but must be up to a year since I last checked.
     
  16. Gibson67

    Gibson67 Life is a Magical Mystery Tour enjoy the ride

    Location:
    Diss, UK
    If you visit Tesco online it lists all their stores that will be like you rightly said be stocking vinyl on a trial basis, I think it's only the bigger Tesco Extra stores. As for HMV stocking vinyl, My local Bury St Edmunds branch is great, it now has a full length wall dedicated to vinyl.
     
  17. Squiggsy68

    Squiggsy68 Forum Resident

    Every HMV I've been to in the last year (my local one in Worthing, next nearest in Brighton, work trips in Manchester, Southend, leisure trips in Bristol - where they also have a good sized Fopp store, Tunbridge Wells) has had vinyl in stock. Actual amount varies by store - Brighton, Manchester and the Fopp in Bristol all had significant amounts of vinyl there.

    Having said that - I tend to pre-order most of my new releases from Resident (in Brighton), What Records (online store) and Amazon - so what I tend to pick up in HMV is either spur of the moment stuff or things that they have at a cheaper price than competitors. But it is there.
     
  18. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    My HMV has a huge amount of vinyl, and the prices compare quite well, often as cheap as Amazon or the local indies. Everytime I go in there are people browsing and buying as well.

    I was talking to a worker in a local indie as well and they told me that they had sold so much vinyl lately that they had run out of carrier bags for vinyl! And I saw an album I liked, but wasn't sure, there were about five copies, I went back two days later and they had sold them all.

    Vinyl is selling well but the labels need to be careful they don't kill it, which would be really stupid for them as it's one of the few ways of making real money nowadays. So they should not jack up prices just because they can, and concentrate on putting quality product out that is mastered and pressed really well. It's not brain science.
     
    AJK74 likes this.
  19. DeRosa

    DeRosa Vinyl Forever

    You researched the cost of manufacturing. What does your business expertise tell you about
    how much that product cost contributes to the total retail price? It looks to be 10% approximately
    for both vinyl and cd. The way you keep going on about "greed" it appears you don't understand
    that the difference between the retail price and the unit manufacturing cost is not profit.

    A simple example; if the store is marking up the price of the record from their wholesale purchase
    price of $15 to sell it for $30 retail, the difference isn't profit, its revenue. They have to pay all
    their store expenses with that money. Staff, rent, utilities, advertising, insurance, taxes. Retail stores aren't
    massively profitable, you don't see a lot of record store owners flying around in private jets.

    Your obsession with the manufacturing cost ignores the other 90% that goes into the retail price.
    This "greed" you keep referring to is more accurately described as a passion for music and to
    make a living from doing what they love, supporting the record business. If these people
    behind the vinyl resurgence were motivated solely by greed, they'd be in another business
    where they can make a far greater return on their investment.
     
    BNell likes this.
  20. DeRosa

    DeRosa Vinyl Forever

    Large profits compared to what? Cosmetics, apparel, financial services, or Coke?
     
  21. edb15

    edb15 Senior Member

    Location:
    new york
    The price comparisons being offered ignore a substantial distinction in the market between yesterday and today.

    When I started buying new vinyl in the mid-80s, evergreens were street price $3.69-$4.99 mostly (a few titles remained a full price). New releases were $5.99-$7.99 street (once in a while, for something like Pink Floyd, you had to go to $8.99).

    Today, new releases are $15-$30, and evergreens are about the same. Now you usually get better packaging with reissues today, but still, Who's Next was $3.69 in 1987 and now it's $25ish. Given that they've already paid to record it, that's a bigger increase than is being admitted.
     
  22. edb15

    edb15 Senior Member

    Location:
    new york
    On the other hand, when we start looking at the cost of LP and CD today, people are being unrealistic. Manufactured goods retail for roughly 7 times the cost to make. If it costs $2.70 per just to make the LP, plus you have to record it too, and (hopefully) master it, and then you multiply by 7 for the other costs, well things aren't so bad.

    As to CD, demand is falling quickly so there is a lot of surplus capacity and costs are very cheap. Now if CDs were being mastered reasonably, they would be a great medium, but they aren't, so they are a non-starter for any audiophile.
     
  23. edb15

    edb15 Senior Member

    Location:
    new york
    The funny thing is that price is the last factor to consider. While it's true that the growing vinyl market just wants vinyl period, no matter the provenance, in the future, people will want quality. $18 Rainbo or United pressings from digital will have little appeal in the future (and when those are $25 I'm really unhappy). But RTI, QRP, Pallas, and Optimal pressings with high end mastering--some of which are available at "normal" prices--will always be desirable, and generally cost only a little more than crap pressings.

    While street price on a reissue has gone from $5 to $20-25, generally with better packaging but not necessarily better audio, street price on a MoFi has gone from $15 to $30. In other words, the expensive stuff--when done well--is a bargain.
     
  24. edb15

    edb15 Senior Member

    Location:
    new york
    Another thing to consider--in the 90s/00s, labels like Matador priced their vinyl at cost, because they knew many of their best customers were LP fans. That switched to where vinyl is now a substantial part of the bottom line. The RIAA reports $149 million in vinyl revenue so far in 2015, vs. $725m from CD. That amount is greater than ad-supported streaming provides. Vinyl is no longer a vanity format for labels. So part of the price increase is fact that they actually need to turn a profit on it.
     
  25. Evan

    Evan Senior Member

    And when you consider most record shops appear to be Mom and Pop operations, their expenses can be a larger percentage than the big box stores especially if they have more than 50 full employees. But that is starting to get into economics and politics, so I will stop. I will say I have noticed more record store owners going out of business lately. Must be the costs of those private jets...
     
    DeRosa likes this.
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