Bandcamp's streamlined (& affordable) vinyl pressing service has arrived for all

Despite the pandemic, vinyl sales are booming all over the world. Last year, Bandcamp said that fans bought two million LPs through the site, double the year before, despite only 12% of the albums with sales on Bandcamp offering a vinyl version. Time to ramp that up!

In 2019, they began rolling out the Bandcamp Vinyl Pressing Service to a select group of artists and labels. The service was unique in that it eliminated the biggest risk with pressing vinyl: finances. Because producing vinyl is expensive, and therefore risky, with shipping and returns being an often painstaking process, it often didn’t make sense for artists to release on vinyl, despite the desire and growing demand. But Bandcamp’s service looked to change that via crowdfunding, allowing sellers to raise funds in 30 days via preorder to cover the production process. Essentially, orders are directly financed by the buyers. It further eliminates any hassle and streamlines the process with Bandcamp coordinating production, shipping the records, fulfilling digital and handling customer support.

The service also put creative control into the hands of the seller, leaving complete control in design and pricing with the producer, and Bandcamp taking no ownership of the record. It will also maximize chances by notifying followers anytime a new campaign is launched.

Essentially they’ve made it easy for a lot more people to start pressing records. And after 50 successful pilot projects and 13,000 records were shipped to fans in 65 countries, it was considered a success.

Now, they’re ready to offer vinyl pressing to the wider Bandcamp community and have enabled and sent invites to 10,000 more Bandcamp sellers, with further extension expected to continue throughout the year.

Head here to see some of the records made through the service and get started yourself.