The new service allows artists to press vinyl with no financial risk.
Bandcamp is getting into the vinyl pressing business with the launch of a new crowdfunding service aimed at making it easier for artists to release their music on wax.
The service will operate a similar model to crowdfunding services like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, allowing artists to launch a campaign to raise money to release their music on vinyl once a minimum goal has been reached. Bandcamp’s service will also handle pressing and shipping.
“The new service eliminates risk, since fans’ orders finance the pressing, rather than the artist or label,” Bandcamp says. “It eliminates hassle, since we press the records, print the packaging, and ship to fans (and fulfill digital too).”
Bandcamp also says that the service will allow “complete control” over design and pricing, with the company taking “no ownership” over the record. The company is also using a manufacturing partner with “over 60 years experience” in the vinyl pressing business.
Bandcamp’s service isn’t the first vinyl crowdfunding service – Qrates operates on a similar model. However, a lot of independent musicians already use Bandcamp to sell digital and physical music, so it’s in a good position to become the market leader for vinyl crowdfunding in a very short space of time.
Bandcamp’s vinyl crowdfunding service will launch fully to all artists and labels later this year, but has already soft launched with four pilot campaigns, including a vinyl version of Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery composer Jim Guthrie’s latest video game soundtrack, Below.
The new service is part of a wider move from Bandcamp into the physical space. Earlier this year it opened a bricks and mortar store in Oakland selling a selection of the vinyl already sold through the site.
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