lightbulbs dispatch – March 15, 2025
lightbulbs dispatch – March 15, 2025
Hey it's Brandon. Hope your creative journey is going well on this fine Saturday.
I didn't write much this week, but I did finally have a bit of time last weekend to get back into some merch explorations. I made a few new t-shirt designs (nothing terribly exciting, but still new!).
I also dug back into Elastic Stage, a really interesting service I was recommended a few months ago for on-demand CD and vinyl manufacturing, and wrote a bit on my experience so far:
On Elastic Stage
A couple months ago I tried out Elastic Stage for on-demand vinyl manufacturing. The results were fine, but not what I was looking for:
- Cutting up a 50+ minute concept albums to fit on a single LP is hard and detracts from the experience
- Digital masters sound off to me on vinyl, definitely warrants a warmer remaster if you’re serious about it
- Artwork was not as high quality as I’d hoped
- Minimum sell price of $28 for this was not worth it imo
I’m trying them out for CDs now. I can see this working better: digital format, lower price point, easy process. If the artwork quality isn’t 👌 it may not matter as much on the smaller scale of a CD digipak.
I won’t profit much off them, but I don’t feel like a big CD manufacturing process with up-front $$ and if this is a suitable alternative, then great. Physical media for me and my (scant) fans.
I ordered a test print of a deluxe edition I spun up for RUINED CASTLE, will report back when it arrives. If this works, then I’ll have CDs available for all my albums (including SOLO PIANO and REMIXED CASTLE) in the near future.
Hope you enjoy and/or find useful. Appreciate you 🙏
Talk soon ✌️Brandon