Why vinyl is growing

Plus, TikTok artist accounts + vinyl-as-a-service

Author

Rob Abelow
December 02, 2023

Hello, artists & builders.

Vinyl keeps growing. Today, we’ll take a look at why, and what it means for the future of music sales.

Inside Issue #24

💡 Idea: Unpacking vinyl’s resurgence
🛠️ Tools: An all-in-one vinyl service
🤔 Breakdown: TikTok adds artist accounts

PS: We’re working on a beta of a direct-to-fan agency for artists. If you’re interested in joining or finding out more, please join the waitlist.

Vinyl's Resurgence is Wild

Have you ever seen a chart look like this?

1. On top of the world
2. Drops by 99.5%
3. Left for dead for 20 years

Then?

Up 8400% over 17 years of consecutive growth!

And no signs of slowing down - doubling in just the last 2 years.

The kicker?

What's happening?

Here's how I look at it:

→ Vinyl's 1st phase was about consumption.
→ Vinyl's resurgence is about collection.

It's about fandom.

Ownership.
Permanence.
Ritual.

It's about a deeper experience in the artist's world.

People are looking for this - and they’re not getting it from streaming. It requires a complimentary, non-disposable format.

1 Vinyl LP = 1 Unit of Fandom

What is the digital equivalent?

We increasingly live in immersive, online worlds.

→ 70 million kids are on Roblox every day, and
→ They spend 19 hours per week there on average

That’s 64 billion hours a year.

Digital formats for fandom present huge opportunity.

And vinyl has it’s issues

It's expensive to make & ship
It's terrible for the environment
It requires high minimums

While some of this friction is a feature, not a bug..

It’s not ideal for niche artists or an increasingly spread out, global audience.

A digital unit of fandom

This is probably the best argument for on-chain music, even if most fans wouldn’t realize it.

Some are already tackling it (on & off-chain):

Sound → Collectible songs
Serenade → Digital Pressings
Relics → Wearable Roblox music
Medallion → Artist clubs selling collectibles
IYK, Berify + Tribly → Bridge physical items to digital

Or, perhaps it’s something we haven’t even seen yet.

— Rob

📚️ My 3 Favorites Takes This Week


⚒️ NEW TOOLS

Plant to Turntable Vinyl

Pressly is a new vinyl-as-a-service plant offering a seamless, all-in-one service for artists at any level.

Design, create, warehouse, fund & sell vinyl all in one place.

🤏 Low Minimum: Start with 100 units
💨 Quick Turnaround: Vinyl in 8-10 weeks
🗣️ Dedicated Teams: Production + support
📦️ Logistics: Shipping + fulfillment, sorted
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Crowdpress: Pre-launch with a crowdfund
🛒 Direct Sales: On Pressly or your Shopify

Choose a crowdpress and once your project hits its goal, Pressly will create, distribute, and collect payment.

Timely Solution: With CD Baby stepping back from warehousing & shipping artist products, Pressly comes in as a fresh, new option.

🧠 A streamlined system that simplifies the vinyl process. 



🔧 THAT HELPS

TikTok Adds Artist Accounts

TikTok have made Artist Accounts available to any musician. And they come with new tools to engage your audience:

  1. MUSIC TAB: Your music catalog sits as a tab on your profile that auto-adds new music as its released. Pin your 3 focus tracks to the top.

  2. NEW RELEASE: Highlight new tracks with a tag up to 2 weeks before & 30 days after release.

  3. CLAIM THE TOP SOUND: Pin your videos to the top of the sound detail page. They’ll get a “By artist” tag on them - driving people back to you.

  4. OFFICIAL ARTIST BADGE: Get an Artist’ label on your profile.

Discovery → Streaming: This all works well with the recently launched 1-click Add to Music App for users.

→ Discover a jam
→ Hit the new 'Add Song' button
→ Choose Spotify, Apple, or Amazon Music

The song auto-saves into your liked tracks. (Clearly this will be a TikTok Music push in the near future).

TikTok is making it easier to go from discovery to artist.

🧰 Use all the tools to get people closer & into your context.

Catch you next time.

- Rob