Traditional Vinyl, CDs, and Cassettes

1) Consider Your Objective

Think about the objective of your traditional merch offering. What do you hope to achieve through physical? How will your release be funded? Can your fanbase support a full physical release? Outline your goals and strategy.

2) Determine Funding

PRE-FUNDED – You release can be fully pre-funded by the artist or a sponsor, where you pay for all product ahead of release. Then you will rely on sales to recoup the initial funds.

PREORDER CAMPAIGN – Funding can also take the pre-order campaign approach. Preorder vinyl, CD and cassette pressings can be subject to meeting an order threshold during the preorder campaign. If preorder thresholds are not met within an approved timeframe, a variant of the product will be considered. Order fulfillment can take at least 6 to 12 months for some preorder campaigns.

2) Audio Assets

Some formats like vinyl require special mastering. This is different from the standard mastering that is done for streaming or digital downloads. Vinyl mastering has specific characteristics to allow for the medium. Have you had your songs mastered for the medium? Let us know.

3) Artwork Assets

Each physical format requires different packaging and the artwork is unique to both that packaging and the vendor we choose for production. Do you have a designer ready to prepare your artwork? Are you allowing for proper copyright statements and sales UPC / EAN barcodes? Here are some common templates we use, but each case is determined once we review your request.

Download Vinyl Artwork Templates
Use the “LazerSteel Vinyl Templates“

Download Cassette Artwork Templates
Use the “Short Run Cassette Templates“

4) Manufacturing

There will be options to consider for physical releases. For vinyl, there are gatefold and sleeve options for packaging. There are also color variations to choose. For CDs, there are digipaks, booklets, clear back cases. For cassettes, there are j-card inserts and cassette color considerations. All the options cary the overall cost and are dependent on the vendor used to manufacture your merch.

5) Other Preparation

Other preparation considerations include obtaining proper mechanical licenses (if you’ve released with another label for instance), artwork clearances (if you’ve used artwork that is not yours), copyright licenses (if your are including a cover song), distribution and marketing plan agreements, and more.

6) Request a Consultation

Lazersteel Records is the RetroSynth partner for traditional merch. To find out more and to request a traditional merch product consultation, (1) complete the Traditional Merch Consultation Request online Google form OR (2) download the Traditional Merch Consultation Request plain text sheet and send completed info to Jeff Gross at lazersteelrecords@hotmail.com.

Complete the Online Form Download the Plain Text Sheet