UPDATE:
In just 3 days of the project being live, we've reached 3% of the goal needed to hit our goal of raising $7,700 by April 1st. That being said, it's still an uphill battle from here on out.

We need about 300 backers total to make this happen, so while there's still a ways to go, it's not an insurmountable number of people, given the reach of modern social platforms and forums like this one!

If you want a cool vinyl and more importantly, want to support a modern surf band who's really trying to get off the ground and make something from nothing, make a pledge today!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wipedout/nyc-surf-band-wiped-out-vinyl-project?ref=cvms9u

I'm a little perplexed that you are advertising a vocal song to the Surf Guitar forum. And one lacking a nice surfy solo at that.

nosprings wrote:

I like the idea although I'm a little perplexed where the goal amount is coming from. Who are you looking to press the vinyl through? From my research, a run of 300 7 inches w/ full artwork runs at most $2,000. Are you including some distribution/promotion costs in there? Even then, the extra $6k doesn't add up to me. Best of luck to you/your band!

Hey! Thanks for checking it out! I was also shocked how fast the total number racked up once I started doing the math.

You're right about initial costs starting around $2k. There's also the shipping cost from the manufacturer to me, Shipping materials including 300x 7 inch mailers, tape, labels, and postage for 300 individual shipments to be sent out (about $2.89 per record if sent media mail), on top of that there are hefty Kickstarter fees and income taxes to be paid on top of all of that. I did build in about a $5/record profit, so if I sold all 300, I'd make about $1,500 profit total.

Toneschaser wrote:

Best of luck with your venture! I'm afraid that this may be a tough crowd to hit up, as most of us are struggling to finance our own groups at this time.

Vinyl releases are definitely cool. I really like the idea of someone coming across one of my records in a used bin 60 years from now, and taking it home for their own rare surf collection!

Don't lose faith in the community if you don't meet your goal, things are tough for many folks!

Hey Brother, thanks so much! Yeah I def won't lose faith in this community regardless. I know we're all out here doing our best! I know this project was a bit of a long shot given the high cost. That being said, the band does have 6 songs available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, BandCamp, and every other major streaming platform for free. I hope you'll take some time to check it out anyway! Really appreciate it dude!

The_Cholla wrote:

Man, I agree with one of the comment that you set the bar too high with the funding goal. If that was for the full process of recording in a studio + pressing, that would seem more reasonable. We paid ~2000$ for 250 LPs of our latest album, shipping included. And lost money with it, that we compensated with CD sales and shows. 26$ for a 7" is very steep, especially for a new band. There are a lot of surf/instro bands out there, and many release vinyl records, it's not so unusual. Just my two cents, good luck with that anyway.

Yeah I hear you man! Idk, this is my first time trying to do it at tthis scale. I suppose I wasn't trying to lose money on it, it seems like that shouldn't be the only way to get it done. I released a short run of about 20 vinyls earlier this year and just barely broke even on it. Idk maybe I should just stick to digital releases with this band. Anyway, thanks for checking it out and hopefully you won't give up this band based on what may have been a misstep with vinyl production.

The_Cholla wrote:

Yeah of course the idea is not to lose money on a release Our goal is to at least break even, we just want to share our music, we're not professionals. What I meant is that it's not on vinyls that we break even, more on CD/digital sales. You need a large amount of vinyls to make a pressing really worthwhile financially, and we don't sell enough for that. But this won't prevent us to release vinyls for our next album ! Hope you find a way to make your project happen, cheers man

Yep, I totally agree. I want to release vinyls just because it's cool! It's certainly not the most economically sound solution for releasing music in 2021. Like I said, even if this project fails, I hope to make Wiped Out a big part of the surf scene and this community in the future! At the end of the day I'm obviously not in it for the money, but I do hope the music can be shared and appreciated in whatever form that takes.

nosprings wrote:

I think the misstep is more in trying to sell every copy of the record through this Kickstarter. If you need 300 backers to sell 300 records, you're really asking for preorders for the entire stock rather than trying to finance the pressing. And if the profit margin you set brings the final cost higher than most are willing to pay for a 7 inch, then you might have to adjust expectations.

A fundraising goal of $3,000 with $15 dollar minimum pledges would only need 200 backers, so you still have a third of your records left over for future shows, to sell to fans later, stock local record stores, etc. At $6.70 a record + $0.70 a mailer + $2.90 shipping media mail, that's $4.70 profit (subtract some for the shipping costs from manufacturer and Kickstarter fees.) It'll be less than your initial profit goal, but you'd likely have a much easier time actually getting the records pressed and even breaking even while still having stock left.

Additionally, Bandcamp has started a Kickstarter-like record pressing service. They handle mastering, pressing, shipping, and customer service, and you can press more without a fundraiser after the initial goal is met. Could be something to look into before you get completely discouraged from pressing vinyl.

Don't get me wrong, it's a bummer to realize how difficult making decent money off of physical media is. Record sales haven't been really profitable since Elvis. The main income source really is playing live shows, which is on hiatus for a while (at least for me in CA, maybe not in other states.)

Yeah, I def didn't want the minimum pledge to be quite that high when I started this. Also, I don't think I was able to find mailers quite as cheap as you mentioned above. I had found something like this (https://www.amazon.com/45RPM-Vinyl-Record-Shipping-Mailers/dp/B00D23Q600/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=7+inch+vinyl+mailer+qty+100&qid=1615487653&sr=8-1). Right now, I'm only seeing the 25 count, for $1.43 each on Amazon, but I had found a 100 count for a bit less per unit.

The other thing that really shot the individual pledge value up was when I considered that money deposited in my account from a successfully funded Kickstarter would have to be filed as part of my income in 2021. Now, obviously taxes and the percentage you'll have to fork over to the government at the end of the year can vary greatly depending on your other income and what tax bracket you fall into, but can be as high as 35%-40%.

Regardless of all that though, there certainly is probably different ways to skin a cat here and you're probably right that some kind of partially funded effort may have made more sense if it meant actually being able to fund the pressing and get the individual pledges to a lower number. Although, I'm still about 190 backers short of even your reduced model of 200 at $15 each, so that's why I'm not sure if it's worth it really at all.

Maybe the move is to just self fund a more affordable short run and press 20-30 and just try to break even (which is what I have been doing). But I figured, maybe there's members of the community out there who will help support this and get it to a place I didn't think was possible. We'll see where it ends up, but if it doesn't get funded, you live and you learn I guess! Either way, what do you think of the tunes?!

DeathTide wrote:

If the income has “matching expenses” you don’t have to report it. If your rent is $1000 and you split it with your roommate, you don’t have to mention the additional $500/ mo income. Just be sure you can document the expenses.

Yeah for sure, I guess it's just being safe in case some of the expenses aren't deductible for whatever reason. Either way, probably a moot point at the rate my Kickstarter is going!

nosprings wrote:

I was taking the mailer price from this site with 400 qty. Here's a link to even cheaper mailers though in many cases you get what you pay for.

Thanks brother, these are good prices! I'll keep this in mind if the Kickstarter funds or if I do another short run.