Digits...

The vinyl of unsuspected sounds has arrived here at the compound, and assembly and shipping will commence in the morning. As promised, and since this is a good cusp, here are all the numbers so far, with annotations where appropriate. I had meant for this to be a learning experience as much as anything else, and I think everyone that hasn't had vinyl pressed before will benefit from this information. (I no longer count myself among those sad individuals. Now I'm a different sort of sad individual.)

Since this is a compilation for charity (more on that at the end) with tracks submitted royalty free by all the artists involved, there is no cost in acquiring the music. The costs are 100% related to the production of the final product. So don't use this number and say "SEE THIS IS WHAT A RECORD COSTS TO MAKE!!!" If you're pressing someone eles's music, at least here in America (and most Western nations) you have to pay the statutory mechanical royalty at the bare minimum, so figure that in to your accounting. With that out of the way...

Mastering: $675. This included 5 hours of mastering at $125/hr, the digital master, the vinyl master, and one reference acetate.

500 Jackets: $1280. These were done by Stumptown Printers as true old-school offset, one color on recycled heavyweight dyed stock. This was a more expensive option; normal jackets would be about half this price.

500 Vinyl Records: $1261.48. The pressing was done at RTI in California, and the price included 5 test pressings, a small over-run (35 copies), plus shipping to Phoenix.

300 Vinyl Record Shipping Boxes: $242.83. I got these from U-Line. Betcha forgot about shipping 'em, didn't you? I didn't. This is a cost. Notice I only ordered 300.

Total Actual Cost Of Production For 500 Units: $3459.31

Now, with that out of the way, as you know I put them on sale as soon as I got the jackets, about 3 weeks ago. So pre-orders have been running for nearly a month. And here's the result. Note that figure does not include the Paypal fee or Bandcamp's fee. With my other sales, and Bandcamp's largess, they dropped their fee from 15% to 10% when we had taken in about $2200, so it's difficult to figure exactly, but best I can tell, I have received $2635.48. Also, the artists collectively ponied up $100 (or more in a couple cases) each to pre-buy copies for themselves, and that was another $700 in the kitty. So basically we're not even close to breaking even, technically, but in real dollars, figuring a slight overage on the S&H, we're in the black at this point, albeit barely.

Some notes on the sales: you'll notice that the average price paid for the vinyl is over $18. This number is skewed by three people who paid much more than the asking price. On the whole, the vast majority (I'd say around 90) paid the asking price for the vinyl. The average price paid for the digital only was just a touch south of $6.75.

You'll also see the two big peaks in the sales graph. The first one is my initial promotional push. The second peak is when Peter mentioned the album on Create Digital Music. I have done no promotion whatsoever beyond that. (I wanted to actually have the vinyl before I got carried away.)

So, long story short: it has, more or less, paid for itself, and at the end of the day I'll still have over a hundred units to get rid of, which are, at this point, the pure charitable donation. 100% of every sale from this point forward will go straight to charity. But it was a close thing.

Anyhow, I'll be packing and shipping for the next few days. This should be great fun. I hope this info will be useful to some future person considering this course of action.