Sell your music on vinyl in 5 easy steps

Sell Your Music On Vinyl In 5 Easy Steps

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Vinyl records are hot in the music industry. 

Everyday more music fans are hearing and loving the unique sound of vinyl music. 

In the age of virtual everything some music fans want the physical feeling of a real record. 

This is a huge opportunity for independent artists. You can take advantage of vinyl’s growing popularity.

Selling your music isn’t about jumping on the bandwagon. 

Independent Artist music on vinyl

It’s about giving your fans a new way to connect with you and your music. 

This guide will walk you through the steps to create and get your vinyl to your fans.

I will break down it all from getting your music right to getting your vinyl sold.

Let’s get it!

Get your music ready for vinyl

Creating Vinyl of your music starts with the music.

How your music is mixed, mastered, and exported affect the Vinyl process.

When mixing and mastering your music for Vinyl, bass and low level sounds affect the sound.

Your song on vinyl will have more bass than its digital wav or mp3.

You or your mix engineers should mix your songs with less bass than usual.

This helps to make sure the bass isn’t out of control when listened to on vinyl.

mixing and mastering a song for vinyl

The vinyl version of your song will have less of the low level details.

quiet ambiance effects and low level sounds from analog gear or plugins will change.

Depending on your song this could affect how it feels. 

I tell you this so you are aware of these issues but some artists don’t make changes for vinyl.

The vinyl version sometimes can be different because you press it as is.

Independent music artist music playing on vinyl

This can give your fans a different listening experience and can be a good thing.

It’s up to you to decide if you want to make adjustments for vinyl or not.

File type and length 

The file types to use for best results are a mp3 at 320kbps or a wav at 44.1 or higher.

The length of your music has to be 20 minutes or less.

That means all the songs for your album or ep have to be no more than 20 minutes.

If your music is longer than that, you will need to have more than one vinyl made per project.

Create your cover

The cover for your vinyl is important. 

The music listeners that buy vinyl are usually collectors.

They value the look of the cover as much as the music.

Smart independent artists realize and take advantage of this.

You could use the same cover as the project’s digital version.

That would be ok but doing something new and unique will give it more value.

Independent artist vinyl cover

Your fans will perceive it as something more than your song on vinyl. 

A new cover can make it a rare collectors item. This could also make people want to pay more.

You can create a new cover yourself or hire someone. 

Getting a visual artist to capture your music is a good idea.

Whatever you decide to do, keep in mind to use a high resolution file.

You want at least a 2048 x 2048 jpeg or png file.

Using vinylify to create your vinyl 

Vinylify is a service you can use to create your vinyl.

You will upload your music and cover art and they will create the vinyl. 

It cost about $108 per vinyl. It will also take 4-5 weeks to receive your vinyl.

You will want to account for both the cost and time when selling your vinyl. 

You definitely will want to charge more than $108 for your vinyl.

Fan buying a independent artist vinyl

A new cover can help with getting fans to pay the steep price.

Since it takes 4-5 weeks you wouldn’t want to have fans waiting that long.

You have a couple options to help them avoid the wait.

First is to offer the vinyl as a pre order. Instead of selling it as immediately available this can get you more time from fans.

You can announce a pre order months ahead and have the release date for later.

Once the pre orders are in you can then use that money to create the vinyl.

Vinlylify will ship it to anywhere in the world. 

If you time everything right your fans can receive them around the release date.

Fan ordering independent artist vinyl online

Your second option is to create the vinyl and have them shipped to you.

This will allow you to sell them whenever you want.

The risk with this option is having a bunch of vinyl no one buys. 

If you have fans that you know will buy, this option can work well. You will have to consider the extra shipping cost into your price. 

Learn how to get fans that will buy your vinyl.

Choosing a platform to sell your vinyl on

Bandcamp

Bandcamp is free to sign up for and a lot of independent artists use it.

You can sell your vinyl and digital version of your music.

The great thing about Bandcamp other than it being free is the algorithm. 

The more sales you get the more likely your music will be recommended. 

Keep in mind that Bandcamp takes a percentage of every sale.

Create vinyl with Bandcamp

Website

independent artist website

Selling on a website gives you more control.

You can design it to match your brand and use more marketing strategies. 

Unlike Bandcamp your own website sales are all yours.

You also can do things like email capture pop ups or abandoned cart emails.

I would recommend using WordPress to build your website.

It’s easy to use and there are thousands of plugins to do anything you can imagine.

The fastest and cheapest hosting for WordPress is A2 host.

Strategies for selling vinyl

Selling your fans something that cost over $100 takes some strategy.

Independent artist marketing strategy

Posting a link to it isn’t gonna cut it.

You need your fans to understand how valuable it is.

Create content showing what went into making the vinyl and cover.

Make it a big deal. Once you have people’s attention try these marketing tips.

limit the number available

If your fan base knows that there is only a certain number ever created.

They will be more likely to buy.

Do a Giveaway 

You can run a contest for one of your fans to win a copy.

You can also tie in the limited quantity aspect with this.

Announce your giveaway of one copy but also mention that only x number will exist.

winner of a independent artist giveaway

People will enter the contest but only one will win.

The ones that don’t win but want one will buy a copy.

Get more music promotion strategies now

Using email marketing 

Email is the best way to sell anything to your fans.

Since social media limits your reach. Email gives you a direct connection to your fans.

If you tried to run a contest on social media only a fraction of your fans see it.

email from a independent artist email marketing

Doing the same thing through email will allow every fan on your list to know.

You should have a link to join your email list on your profile. If you don’t start now!

Here’s the reason why: 50% of people said they buy something through email once a month.

That one purchase could be your vinyl!

If you’re new to email try Aweber

It’s free and easy to use.

Can you make money selling vinyls?

You can make a lot of money selling vinyl.

Earlier we discussed selling the vinyl for over $100.

Money from a independent artist selling their vinyl to fans.

The type of fan that spends that much will usually spend more over time.

If you can get 5 sales you will make a lot more than 5 streams of a song.

Selling anything is better than streams but most artists only think about spotify. 

Learn how to sell directly to fans and not depend on streams.

Conclusion 

Selling your music on vinyl can be easy and worth the investment. 

With a good plan and strategy it’s possible. 

I hope you can use these tips to make a lot of money. Send me an email and let me know your results. 

Anything is possible with your music and never give up.


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