RA Interview: Is the dance music 12″ on the way out?

I recently had a chat with Resident Advisor on the current vinyl manufacturing situation, they used some of it in this article: https://ra.co/news/78699

Here’s the full interview:

RA: What are your thoughts on Facta’s tweet predicting the demise of the dance music 12”?

AE: I don’t know what level of insight he has into the current manufacturing situation so I don’t want to criticise him too much – I’m also a fan of his music – but I did think that tweet was pretty inaccurate. It’s simply not true that ‘everyone’ involved in vinyl production/distribution is saying singles/EPs aren’t financially viable anymore. Yes, prices have gone up over the past couple of years which may make smaller labels more cautious, but I definitely disagree with his prediction that dance 12″s pressed by independent labels will cease to exist by the end of the year. It just came across as hyperbolic doom-mongering, but I understand that these days you have to be a little creative with your rhetoric to get heard online 🙂

RA: It’s no secret that it’s a particularly turbulent time for labels selling vinyl at the moment–largely due to spiralling production costs. Do you believe that this is a temporary issue and things will improve?

AE: In a word, yes. We’ve had a couple of years where prices shot up because of material shortages due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, logistical issues due to the pandemic and customs complications due to the clusterfuck that is Brexit. It was like a perfect storm for a while. As a result, plants had to raise prices and gave priority to larger clients (ie. majors) that could be relied on to fill capacity at those higher rates. This obviously affected smaller indies who had to wait far longer than usual for their 300-500 copy pressings. The higher manufacturing costs eventually affected the entire chain from labels to punters so we’re at a point where we’re seeing 12″s selling for over £20! Madness.

So right now, yes, it’s pretty bad. However, over the past few months pressing capacity has been opening up everywhere. Those previous issues with materials, logistics etc. have been more or less ironed out. Most of the plants I’m working with are reducing their prices – some drastically – and all have slashed their waiting times. So while customers won’t go back to paying pre-2020 prices due to inflation, labels will have the opportunity to cut their own prices to distributors. In theory that should result in lower retail prices. So if the businesses involved want to remain competitive and long-lasting, it would be a good idea to make records available at a reasonable price again.

RA: The vinyl world is often described as an oversaturated market. With that in mind, would it be such a bad thing if labels began releasing less singles and EPs on vinyl?

AE: Personally, I believe it’s the major labels who are responsible for over-saturating the market with endless represses of unnecessary back-catalogue titles, most of which are records that have already been pressed in eye-watering quantities. They’re usually easy to come by on the second-hand market anyway. While we’re still in the current vinyl-revival bubble, I get that newcomers will usually go for what they know or have heard of, so it’s a no-brainer for the majors to crank out another easy seller. Personally, it would certainly not be a bad thing if we saw an end to those pointless big-name reissues as it’s already so frustrating for small labels waiting to put out new, interesting music or repress genuinely worthwhile legacy titles and get any kind of shelf-space or exposure. I also still believe there is a place for physical records, even in the era of convenient streaming, but I’d much rather see a diverse range of new releases hitting shelves rather than major label landfill.

RA: Some people have suggested that labels should sidestep distributors and go direct to pressing plants as a way of saving money. Is this a viable long-term solution? And how would the decline of distributors affect the dance music ecosystem?

AE: A lot, if not most, labels already deal directly with pressing plants or brokers on their behalf. I’d say that it’s pretty standard practice, unless you’re lucky enough to have a P&D deal with a distributor. What is more of a threat to distributors and shops currently is when labels sell directly to customers via their own online stores or platforms like Bandcamp instead of going via a distributor. Yes, it cuts out a lot of so-called ‘middle-men’ and may provide a small label with more money initially, but in the long-term it would be a massive loss if distributors and physical record shops closed down. They’re so important in helping get word out about new music and the shops themselves are vital hubs for people to discover records alongside like-minded people. So if labels continue to work with distributors and shops as well as selling D2C, I don’t see why that ecosystem shouldn’t remain sustainable. It’s just important to remember to help each other out and keep that framework intact, otherwise only those with financial clout will be able to get decent exposure.

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