photography of vinyl records on wooden surace

FAQ – Vinyl Records

Any recording can be distributed on vinyl records but some additional steps are required.

  1. Audio Mastering – A separate master recording should be produced if you plan to distribute on vinyl.  Two wav files are created, one for the A side, one for the B side.  A 12″ vinyl record at 33 1/3 rpm has a 22 minute per side run time, so you are limited to 44 minutes total on a 12″ LP record.
  2. Art work – For vinyl record jackets, labels, sleeves and inserts are designed.  Artwork, photography, song titles, lyrics, credits, color and B/W are all part of the process.
  3. Lacquer Masters – Made by cutting lacquer on a cutting lathe from the mastered audio tracks.  These form the basis for the mother daughter stampers.
  4. Metal Stamper – The lacquer master is then sprayed with tin chloride and silver, then nickle plated.  The stamper can be used to press 2000- 3000 vinyl records.
  5. Test Pressing – Once the metal stampers are made, the vinyl test pressing is done.  Generally the vinyl A and B sides are pressed onto two separate vinyl records. The test pressing is the last check before the record is mass produced.
  6. Pressing – Once the test pressing has been listened to and verified, the pressing starts.
  7. Packaging – The jackets are loaded with the record in a sleeve, inserts are added, and the entire album is shrink wrapped.  Promotional labels and bar code stickers are added.
  8. Distribution – Vinyl can’t be downloaded 🙂  traditional brick and mortar distribution, and clicks and mortar distribution is required.

Winding Way Records is able to have your music produced, pressed to vinyl record albums, and distributed to a network of up to 800 record stores nationwide.

In 2016, vinyl record sales outpaced on-demand, ad supported streaming services at $416 Million; a new 28 year high, or about 8% of total music revenue from all sources.  2018 was even better! The fans have fun spinning records, they get a tangible piece of art, and the Artists gets paid.

We are happy to support the following pressers:

Delays can occur when pressing vinyl records depending on production needs.

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