Did you arrive late to the Amon Tobin party, only to realize your new favorite artist’s seminal records are out of print on vinyl? FACT is reporting that Beat Delete, a new project backed by Ninja Tune Records, is looking to help you out of your very specific conundrum. Following the now-ubiquitous Kickstarter model, Ninja Tune is putting up select out-of-print records for the crowdsourcing treatment. If enough people pre-order the yet-to-be-reissued slab of vinyl in question, the label will repress the piece with the security of knowing the discs will already have new homes to call their own.
While the majority of albums available for pre-purchase are from the Ninja Tune catalog, like-minded labels such as Domino, Beggars Archive, and Big Dada have joined the fun with a handful of releases, allowing the small but dedicated fan bases for individual artists and records to dictate the reissue process instead of relying on the often unreliable whims of the unwashed masses. This process could also help shine some light on a label’s back catalog, which might contain some gems of which newer fans are unaware.
In a world where it’s increasingly difficult to predict what’s going to sell, let alone keep an ‘independent’ operation afloat financially, it’s definitely worth trying any model that might ensure income and increase overall awareness (with very little input or risk on the part of the participants). Look for more labels to join this bandwagon soon, or for the public to adopt the model all on their own, demanding via pre-order that records be reissues for their consumption. Power to the people!
• Beat Delete: http://www.beatdelete.com
• Ninja Tune: http://ninjatune.net
