Why is vinyl cutting so expensive?

[The_House_Records]

Why is vinyl cutting so expensive? It seems if you are a skilled engineer you should be able to pull off a dub plate for the price of the blank you cut. Of course, you might need to bump up the money at ton that you sells the cuts for, so you can pay bills and whatnot. But is that the only reason why they are so expensive? Anti-static wax, and electricity needed to make the records can add cost, but not that much. I just don't see why there isn't a single company out there that is affordable to the point where small artists can profit significantly.

[Gridlock]

Honestly dude it's really the anti-static wax that makes cutting records so cost prohibitive. I mean really less than 20c for a blank 7" followed by hundreds of dollars worth of anti static wax! Mein Gott!

[ilium]

Sure the only cost involved is the blank and as gridlock mentions that anti-static wax

[dubcutter89]

anti-static wax that makes cutting records so cost prohibitive

true! that's why I switched to lacquer...haha

[The_House_Records]

Thanks, I had no idea!

[SueDenim]

if you are a skilled engineer you should be able to pull off a dub plate for the price of the blank you cut

But it costs a massive amount in investment up front to become that 'skilled engineer' in the first place, often years of trial and error on multiple pieces of kit which they have to buy and maintain.
Don't you think that they deserve to be paid well for the skills they've acquired especially if they want to make a profit?

That having been said, I'd try to talk to these companies about your plans.
If there are likely to be a reasonable amount of records to cut on a regular basis, then I'm sure most would offer a discount.

[The_House_Records]

I'm actually trying to sell records to artists.

[The_House_Records]

It seems to me like you could just use this anti-static gun: https://www.juno.co.uk/products/milty-zerostat-3-anti-static-pistol-for/299784-01/, along with a Aerostat PC Ionizing Air Blower and you would be just fine. Am I right, or would you still need anti-static wax?

[ilium]

It seems to me like you could just use this anti-static gun: https://www.juno.co.uk/products/milty-zerostat-3-anti-static-pistol-for/299784-01/, along with a Aerostat PC Ionizing Air Blower and you would be just fine. Am I right, or would you still need anti-static wax?

Sure.. it's a good thing you can build a decent lathe using a nail and household junk

[The_House_Records]

Thanks for sharing your setup. What I am asking for is a knowledgeable opinion about whether what I said has any potential for inexpensively solving the problem.

[Gridlock]

I mean anti static WHACKS you actually need to hire a mafia guy to kill it so yeah that can be pretty expensive I guess a gun might work though. I'll try to buy one before there illigal

[ilium]

Thanks for sharing your setup. What I am asking for is a knowledgeable opinion about whether what I said has any potential for inexpensively solving the problem.

Nah that's not my setup.. I'm not sure why the people here who have spent thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars on their setups aren't jumping at the chance to cut records for the cost of the blanks and anti-static wax.

So let's say you spent $3k on a VR setup .. I'm just pulling this number out of thin air..

If blanks cost $3 a piece and anti-static spray costs $3 and you only pay yourself $3 an hour then and you charge an extra $3 for overhead you'd have to cut 1000 records to come close to breaking even. Since time is linear then if you are cutting lp's then you should beable to cut at least one LP an hour and during a normal 40 hr week you should beable to cut 40-50 lps so in about 5 months the VR is paid for and you've earned $2400 w/o taxes.. yeah seems totally doable.. right? Of course this is not including other costs like power, internet, rent and backup cans of anti-static spray.

[piaptk]

Cost of gear
Cost of needles
Cost of blanks
Cost of blanks that are rejects
Cost of time
Cost of time cutting records that get rejected
Cost of blanks time, gear, needle, more time, etc spending YEARS AND YEARS making mistakes, learning the craft, blowing through thousands of discs trying to get good cuts.

And let's mention TIME again. Nobody wants to spend hours of time listening to the same crappy song/album and making records one at a time, in real time for a total stranger.

If you've invested anywhere near enough time and money to be decent, you want to make more money doing it than you would at Taco Bell.

If you need more reasons, just spend a couple hours going through the results that come up when you type "newbie" in the search field.

PS. Antistatic wax is water and a drop of dish soap. Gridlock cracks me up.

If you are an artist who wants to "profit significantly", then do what record cutters do. Spend years toiling in obscurity blowing tons of money at a hobby until you are good enough to COMMAND the price for your work like record cutters do. There isn't a record cutter on here who is decent who is hurting for business at the moment. THATS the main reason nobody wants to work for free. Because they don't have to.

This is the equivalent of someone saying "why won't Radiohead play my bar for super cheap so I can make a ton of money?"

[piaptk]

I'm actually trying to sell records to artists.

Then buy a lathe and BE THE GUY who sells them for the cost of the Blank and anti-static wax. It's obviously an untapped market and I'm sure you'd have a TON of takers.

[Gridlock]

Why did the lathe troll chicken cross the roAD

[piaptk]

Obviously a B side somewhere in that punch line.

[Gridlock]

Aside from the Beside, the Seaside will Decide.

[concretecowboy71]

What kind of "vinyl cutting" are you speaking of? One-off dubs? Plastic? Low run lathe cut records? Professional Disc cutting for vinyl record replication?

The cost of producing a master for vinyl production is currently TOO LOW with some cutters willing to undercut others with the offer of cheap sides. A lacquer disc alone for one side of a record now cost around 40 dollars. A Neumann lathe is currently worth abut 60-100k dollars.

You do the math and ask again if 150-200 per side is too much?

[Xertz]

I was asking about dubs.

[piaptk]

Looks like you just outed yourself Otto. But I would imagine you are starting to answer your own question... especially once you dig into that Recordio.