TSS, you must have missed some a bit of my first post here. The EPs I was hoping to press are already available as free downloads at Bandcamp. Even the titles of both EPs ("Reasonably Priced" and "Only Nineteen-Ninety-Nine") are joking references to the fact that they're free downloads.
I sell CD-Rs from Kunaki (an on demand CD/DVD duplication service that really everyone making music or movies should utilize at some point - http://www.kunaki.com) for $4 plus $3 shipping, when the total cost of making a CD and shipping it is $5.30. So, after PayPal and Bandcamp fees, I'm lucky to make $1 when I sell a CD. They're also for sale from iTunes and such, but always at the lowest possible price I can set through the two different aggregators I've used. I've not made a dime from other digital download stores, because I really push the Bandcamp page first and Spotify second, figuring those are the most convenient for anyone that would even take the time to listen and I don't really give a shit if anyone pays for a download.
Getting my music out there or making money isn't the purpose at all in what I was pitching here. It was to achieve my dream of having it on vinyl. The idea of crowd-funding a release of this material on vinyl was more of a "Hey, is this even worth it?" than trying to make money. I was considering it a presale more than anything. I don't think my music is by any means the sonic equivalent of angels shitting gold. I would just like for it to be released on vinyl. That's all. If no one wants it on vinyl, they're more than welcome to go download it for free. I wasn't trying to say my music is worth $50, I was saying, "If you want a vinyl copy, this is what it will cost."
I also don't quite understand if you are so against the idea of crowdfunding, why that wasn't brought up before even recommending lathe cuts. But maybe I was just excited about an option for short runs I hadn't explored and missed that your tone was more along the lines of "Hey, don't go crowd-funding when you can just have a lathe cut made."
If it's that bad of an idea, then I won't do it. What I was asking in the beginning was if crowdfunding for a vinyl release is a good idea and I think the answer is a resounding "No." So, I'll probably scrap the idea of pressing already-released material unless there's actually a demand. Or maybe just plunk down the money to make a single cut for myself and just ask if anyone else wants one before I send the order.
But I'll probably come up with some way for the physical version of my next release to be a lathe cut or actual pressing, even if it's just a track or two and extra tracks as a download. There's a good chance I may title that release "Not Quite the Sonic Equivalent of Angels Shitting Gold," because that's too good not to use.
(And a sidebar: I was actually considering a cassette release at one point, since I actually still listen to cassettes quite a bit. I actually replaced the CD player in my car with a stock CD/tape combo deck, since I had a bunch of tapes around and much more durable than CDs when it comes to being tossed around in the car. Though most importantly, I wanted to listen to podcasts in the car, hate fiddling with FM transmitters and found cassette adapters to be the cheapest and easiest option for my shitty 10 year old Saturn.)
