Reissue record label

How difficult would it be to start a reissue record label?
There are tons of albums that I'd love to buy on vinyl, but they are either sold out, too expensive or were never even available on vinyl. I'm sure there are many people like me.
Are artists and their former labels usually easy to persuade? What percentage of the cut do they usually demand? How difficult is it to get online record stores to sell my reissue and what do they demand in exchange? What other legalities should I take into consideration?
The cost of the vinyl pressing itself isn't that high, I've checked. I have around 3k euros to spare and it almost seems to me like it should be feasible. Tell me why it isn't.

Some examples of what kind of records I'd be reissuing:
discogs.com/Tommy-Wright-III-On-The-Run/master/398481
discogs.com/Scientifik-Criminal/master/102607
discogs.com/Down-Ta-Erf-Down-Ta-Erf/release/7322809

bump

It would be such a shitshow to arrange, that it wouldn't be possible. Best you could do is contact the people who own the rights to the music to show them there is interest in a reissue.

Sorry, I don't think it's realistic. Pressing just 100 copies of a record on vinyl costs at least 900 euros.

That gives you 2k to license the album from the label that currently owns it AND to pay the rights to the artist. Probably not gonna happen. And with those albums you listed, it's probably so difficult to figure out who exactly owns everything.

Even if you somehow miraculously did all of the above, would it have even been worth it just to have a few obscure albums you want on vinyl?

for starters Tommy Wright III is on facebook so you could easily message him and see what he thinks.

>Pressing just 100 copies of a record on vinyl costs at least 900 euros.
No, not really. I found cheaper options on the internet.
>That gives you 2k to license the album from the label that currently owns it AND to pay the rights to the artist
Well yeah, I see what you mean. However, if it's an artist that hasn't released anything since 1998 and is broke af, then maybe he would agree to a percentage of the profit and not demand to be paid instantly?
I don't know shit about business 2bh, but I'm willing to learn.
Also, if the label that released the album is now defunct, does that mean that all the rights belong to the artist and I don't have to worry about anything else?
Yes, I am aware of that, but I want to figure everything out before I start contacting people.
But other labels somehow do it. Of course, they are already established in the business most of the time, but you gotta start somewhere.

You are BEYOND FUCKING STUPID

You have thousands of extra dollars and you want to not only buy fucking vinyl with it, you want to "start a reissue label". Holy shit how are you so retarded. Vinyl is obsolete and faggots like you with more money than sense are propping it up. You know who loves that? The millionaires in charge of the REAL record labels that you would have to license your stupid reissues from.

Go learn about vinyl and figure out why you're a mongoloid for wanting to not only continue buying it but actually have a vinyl label. Goddammit you're too fucking stupid.

I understand why you would think that vinyl is stupid, but I don't understand how you don't see the booming vinyl industry. People love vinyl.
I'm doing this because I like it, but it's not like I don't want to earn money.
>You have thousands of extra dollars
Yeah, 3 thousands to be exact. There is nothing I can do with them that would be meaningful.
Sure, I could have a holiday in Thailand, but is that really better than starting a label?

The vinyl industry is not booming. The record labels would love for that to actually be the case. Streaming is booming, vinyl is just the only form of physical media still selling in any large amount. Vinyl is obsolete and selling it just hurts everyone; who the fuck cares if "people love it", people are fucking ignorant and buy what their friends say is cool. Also, if you want to make money, selling vinyl on a small scale is exactly the wrong way to do it. As others have said, you would have to fork out more money than you understand for licensing.

How about saving to buy a house or a car or a new computer or a new phone or any other thing that would actually improve your life instead of sinking thousands into reissue black plastic discs.

i'm not sure there's a market for down ta erf on vinyl lol

I want to do something productive with that money. I can save 100 euros on a good month. 0 on a bad one.
I'm not gonna save up much more, so I might as well do something with it, and this is the best thing that came to my mind.
A limited to 300 reissue of "On The Run" would sell out fast as fuck. It's all a matter of logistics and how much Tommy Wright III would demand from me.

Why not? It's a great EP. The only problem is that a lot of people don't know about it, but that's kind of the thing I want to go for. Digging out old gems and reissuing them. I think it's all a matter of a few promo videos to show the people that it's some great music.

This is the opposite of doing something productive with thousands of dollars.

>It's going to cost at least $600 for 300 copies of just the record, on 180 gram vinyl
>Add in test pressing, setup costs, color printed jackets, shipping, etc
>Total is around $2500 to have 300 finished records in hand
>Licensing fees to original songwriters and record label - which still exists so they should be the ones making reissues - add in another couple thousand dollars

Okay so here we are with 300 of a product that can be sold for $20-$30 so you might be able to gross $6000 to $9000. Subtract the above fees and you're left with $1500 to $4500 and that is the absolute best case scenario which is highly unlikely. No songwriter or record label or publisher is going to let some dickweed out of no where make off with that much money off their artist.

tl;dr you're stupid

>reissues
Why for fucks sake. You know most reissues are ripped CD version pressed on vinyl right? They have no value plus most people look in thrift stores to buy records that 5 to 10 bucks and have no digital fuckery.

>3k to start a record label
You are retarded. Copyrights and all that shit are fucking expensive too. Making the platter to press the records is expensive as fuck as well.

There are so many labels that reissue shit but many fail because of quality issues. Music on Vinyl is one of them, they fucking used images from Google as covers and shitty rip CD versions to press.

If you wanna start a label find some artists and help them out, however thanks to Bandcamp it's easy for people to start with a fucking contract.

Why wouldn't the artist let me "make off" with that much money, if I pay them accordingly? They're literally doing nothing and receiving money. Especially someone that hasn't been active for over ten years and probably thinks that everyone had forgotten about him.

I didn't even intend to make money in the beggining. I want to make it a label with a somewhat known name, then I can start cashing in and reissuing albums of artists that have a name for themselves. Sure, I might need some more money than that, but if the first few releases go well, I can always take out a loan.
I know that vinyl has no benefits, etc etc. I am collector scum, just like many people who enjoy music.
Pressing the vinyl itself ain't all that expensive. I want to do everything properly, no pixelated covers and no mp3 quality audio.

Because you have to pay them up front, and probably royalties after the fact, and you can't afford it. No one in their right mind is going to agree to have some no-name "reissue label" put out their record under the promise that they'll see money from it later.

>they're literally doing nothing

nah they wrote fucking music, idiot. That's more work than you seem to understand. Maybe they don't want it reissued on a shitty no name label.

>pressing vinyl isn't expensive

Yes, it is. If you want audiophile quality pressings with high quality artwork and the whole shebang, you're going to be paying upwards of $10 a copy. That is bad economics, friend-o.

>all this negativity

sad

>people still buying vinyl

sadder

Oh come on. It's not like some of the 90s rappers that never saw commercial success are going to turn down free money. Yes, I know that they made the music, but they aren't doing anything with it anymore.
Yes, I understand most people would be put off by a no name label trying to rerelease their shit, but I'm sure there will be people who will agree to do it. I can make a name for my label through them.
Upwards of 10$ a copy? Yeah, ok, maybe if I'm making picture discs or something.

people spend their money on all sort of useless things, its how this world works

you need to get the actual masyers to do this, not just fuckin mp3s. you will not be stocked in any notable store, period, best you can hope for is a small distro or two. Vinyl pressing costs around 1.5k for a small run and takes up to a year.


this is why tapes are popular now

It's not fucking free money you sociopath. You're asking someone to let you, an unknown European, administrate something they worked really hard on and for practically zero money. How the fuck do you know how much they got out of those recordings?

>maybe if i'm making picture discs

Are you seriously this fucking stupid? Did you even read through the numbers I kindly posted for you? It's going to cost you over $3000 just to get the records in your hands and licensed from the artists and record labels. For 300 copies that's over $10 a copy. If you don't know how to do basic math maybe you should stay the fuck away from trying to sell people's music.

i read a few interview from people that run reissue labels so im no expert but from the interviews the main thing is always the copyright/legal issue. so maybe try to trackdown the actual artist etc.

also im not sure how big the record culture is among hip hop people. i mostly listen electronic and some reggae and theres more of a market for records than probably other genres. so thats probably something you have to keep in mind

Do I really need the masters? If the album was released on CD, won't the WAV files be enough?
I have connections and could get the a few music stores in my city to stock it. That wouldn't be enough though, I'd probably sell it on bandcamp or bigcartel too. Also, I've seen shitty bootlegs being sold at hhv.de. Maybe it would be possible to arrange something with them or someplace similar.
Inform me about the pressing costs. How small a run are we talking about? I've seen way lower prices for something like 300 copies.

I've considered tapes, too, but I think vinyl is way more appealing to the buyer, so they're more likely to buy a vinyl from an artists they haven't heard of before, rather than a cassette.

>Do I really need the masters?

nah

Cd mastering and vinyl mastering are two different shoes. You cant just press files that were mastered and mixed for digital release onto wax

I would try to offer them the best they could hope for. I'm not going to just say "lol i'm doing this thing heres 150 dollars" and run off.
And most of the time I know that they didn't make much of a profit because the record never sold more than 1000 copies or in some cases was never released.

Sorry, I thought you were saying that the production itself was going to cost 10 bucks a copy.

>what is record store day: the post

Sorry m8, but this is a real shitty idea. There is a colossal strain on the vinyl industry at the moment, so any plant of notable repute (ie. not a shitty chinese factory you find online who produce cheap products) charges an absolute fortune to the extent that many labels barely make any profit from records. Beyond that, you've got the issue of acquiring analogue masters to press (simply impossible in most cases, and if you think you can just use CD rips you're everything wrong with the industry today), as well as the rights and royalties (again, will probably cost you more than you could ever make from sales) and distribution (lel, have fun with that one with absolutely no contacts and no experience).

The people who have set up these kinds of things in the past and actually been successful (of whom there are very few) have themselves had decades of experience in the industry either in recording, production or distribution. I don't want to crush your dreams, but you're realistically more likely to make money buying a guitar and going round knocking on every door in LA hoping to find a coked-out label rep.

holy shit you are a retard

Yes, you need the masters, because you need to moster it FOR THE FUCKING FORMAT (which costs hundreds of dollars itself). For pressing costs, you have more than just the flat fucking run of records; manufacture the plate, test presses, sleeves, etc. A run of 100 costs about $1000. The ONLY way it is cheaper is if your stupid ass does lathes.

Next, shit the fuck up about "the buyer" and "the people". You have no buyer, and the people do not know about you. You can make all the promo videos you want, but since nobody knows about you they will be useless. A 300 copy run of a Tommy Wright III mixtape will not sell out, period.

nevermind the fact that the shit you're looking at is originally released (and likely recorded) on cassette

oh also people are way less fucking likely to buy a $20+ record of shit they don't know than a $3-6 tape you utter dipshit

Explain to me why a CD rip wouldn't do.
Other points taken.

Can't you remaster it without having the original masters?
And a run of 100 does not cost 1000$. I have no idea where you got that figure from.
Not gonna argue about the marketing, you're probably right about that.

>nevermind the fact that the shit you're looking at is originally released (and likely recorded) on cassette
Now you're just making yourself look stupid.
I'd hope not to price them that high.

>Yes, you need the masters, because you need to moster it FOR THE FUCKING FORMAT (which costs hundreds of dollars itself)

people reissue stuff from tape or vinyl releases obviously original masters would give the best quality but sometimes they are just not there anymore

I make music for a living. If you actually wamt to do a vinyl pressing right, you are looking at roughly $1k/100 copies.


You can't remaster something with the master, no, and you, an inexperienced dipshit euroteen, cannot master it yourself. that shit costs money.

most of those memphis mixtapes were indeed cassette releases, many of them recorded directly to cassette. even for the ones that weren't, the prospect of masters even existing is wishful thinking at best.

CD rips are digital files. If you're spending money to press digital files into vinyl, you're too stupid for words.

Like the other guy said, vinyl mastering is different. You can't take the low end frequencies, high end frequencies, and dB range of a CD and put it on a vinyl record, it can't physically be reproduced properly.

No, you cannot remaster without the original masters. This demonstrates that you have no idea what "mastering" is.

I have no fucking idea where you're coming up with your numbers, retard. Go find a quality record presser and I defy you to get a lower rate than that.

And no, you're looking stupid from post #1 friend-o.

I work with a print house that makes the LP jackets for a lot of major labels. Now a days, any 'famous' artist only orders 5k-10k LP units for new album releases. Any LP box sets seem to be under 5k units. However there are some 'cult classic' artists that bank on LP sales, tend to order 100k units/per year of their popular albums.

these aren't high numbers, but they have basically remained consistent for the past 10 years

Alright, then I'm not going to do it "right". Simply because I have not yet come across a vinyl pressing plant that charges that much. And if I can't find the original master, fuck it, it's not like anyone will notice. I'll get someone to remaster it from the CD rip for a few hundred anyways.
>If you're spending money to press digital files into vinyl, you're too stupid for words.
Isn't that most of new vinyl releases?

I am stupid btw, sub-100 IQ represent.

>if I can't find the original master, fuck it, it's not like anyone will notice

Fuck you. Seriously, eat shit and die. You're all that is wrong with the music industry. I hope you waste all your money on this idiotic idea and have none left over to eat.

>I'll get someone to remaster it from the CD rip

That is NOT REMASTERING. You do not understand what you're doing.

>Isn't that most of new vinyl releases?

Yes, my point stands

Whoa buddy, no need to get mad. This thread has taught me nothing but that that the best way of doing is half-assing the job.
Fuck it, I might release them unofficially too. What are the chances of a trans-atlantic lawsuit over 1000 dollars?

You always think of things like this to do then you have to sit back and ask yourself, why am I doing this?

You're a fucking retard if you think your idea will ever work, just give up now.

Yeah have fun getting any manufacturers to agree to that.

most if not all pressing plants require you to show proof that you have the rights to do it