Quick question re: 7"s in 2013

wascal

Wild Horses
I'm thinking about pressing a couple of limited edition releases in a few months and I've been playing with the idea of doing limited edition 7"s, maybe 100 copies of each.

Any of you who still play wax - would you play 7"s or are they too much of a ballache to mix?
 

Trillhouse

Well-known member
Depends on what kind of music you're putting out really.

Dance music and hip hop have generally always been a 12“ single market. Soul, funk, punk, indie, styles generally 7". Downtempo stuff can be either, depending on which market they're aiming for.

Obviously these aren't strict laws that can't be broken, but there's reasonable enough arguments for why it's like this. So if you wanted to do something different you can, but it may be detrimental to your sales. It could be as simple as, having one 7" in a bag of 40 12"s could help you standout, or it could leave your release at the bottom of the bag forgotten about.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah definitely go for it. Seven is a great format unless you're gonna release a really long tune that will sound shit on seven. It will be harder to mix I guess - what kind of thing is it? Will it be big hole or small hole?
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I always play 7"s - in fact, for people who play off vinyl but aren't dance music DJs, I'd say 7's are the format of choice, just by virtue of them being easier to carry. Plenty of things are easily available on LP but fetch big money as 45s due to DJs wanting them for the 45 box. Dance music is the exception though - from my understanding, it's a 12" market.

You could always have a look at a couple of the big online retailers and see what they are selling and where you fit in? Looking at Boomkat's Bestsellers page for this week, I can only see one 45. Doesn't mean you won't fit right in somewhere though.
 

Simon78

Well-known member
I buy the odd 7" by bands and have been getting a few old Dancehall 7"s recently as well. I only listen to them at home though and use CDJs if I play out.

I'd be surprised if you can break even with 100 units if you're selling them through a distributor. Probably just possible if you sold them all yourself? Not sure about 7" pressing prices though tbh.
 

wascal

Wild Horses
The general plan for the label is to release quality underground tunes that just come in, do their thing once spectacularly and then end within 4 minutes. I'm hoping the time constraints could make for some interesting / unusual / very direct tracks, and the format could make people take notice. I've got some of my favourite producers on board so I have faith that good music should come of this.

Also, if they don't sell then they should at least inject some life into charity shop 7" singles bins ;)

@ Trillhouse - The music is generally going to be on the 130 / jukey / grimey house / glitchy garage kind of tip. No fixed plans though past the first 4 releases.

@ Idlerich - It will be small hole, just to make cueing easier. Tempted to press a few large hole jukebox specials, but got to concentrate on actually selling the things first!

@Simon78 - Not going to use a distributor at first, planning on pressing 100 copies of each of the first 4 releases up front, then attempting to sell a few directly to shops in Bristol, London (and possibly Berlin) then selling the rest directly, 2 releases a month. Breaking even is just about do-able if all of them sell out, then each 7" would release digitally a month ' 6 weeks down the line.

If any of you label owning types can point out any major pitfalls with this plan please let me know ;)
 
D

droid

Guest
The obvious problem is with pressing/sound quality. A 7" would have to be at 45 to sound good, and at +3db, that gives you 4 minutes. -3db gives you 6 mins.

Obviously with a 12" at 45 you could go twice as long at louder volume and less degradation at the end of the side.
 

wascal

Wild Horses
Thats true about the track lengths / volumes. The main reason I've been thinking about going for 7"s is that the 4 minute track time would force producers to cut the crap and concentrate their tunes to the essentials. So no 3 minute drum loop intro's, no pointless 2nd drops, no 128 bar breakdowns - just 8/16 bars to mix in, then straight into the tune.

I love quick mixing when I DJ but I find that I end up only playing my favourite 2/3 minutes of most tunes I own and then mix out. This is fine on Traktor where you can skip around the track but I get frustrated playing tunes I love on vinyl as so many tracks outstay their welcome by a good 4 or 5 minutes.

Also I've been sent a quite a few 8 minute 'deep' house tunes lately and its all getting a bit prog rock and indulgent and tbh fck that noise - time for some awesome short tunes ;)
 
That style of music sounds like it's strictly for beatmix DJ's. Couldn't you just put a 4 minute track on 10" vinyl and widen the grooves to get louder sound quality. It would be much easier to mix with and the thicker plastic would make them less flimsy than seven inches. Plus if there's any space left over you could put a loop of sound effects (or whatever) in the run-out groove.
 

wascal

Wild Horses
I think thats a good call - 10"s it is then. Cheers for the input, its easy to go round in circles overthinking these things ;)
 

Trillhouse

Well-known member
I was about to say why not a 10".

They would fit your concept rather nicely. They're in between a 7 and a 12 (obviously), their short / small but easy the mix with, but they also have charm about them that gives them a kind of individual personality. I have thousands of 7s and 12" singles and lps, but I only have a handful of 10"s, some Carl Craig singles and a bunch of early dancehall and lovers rock eps and singles.

I imagine getting 7s pressed is a lot cheaper, plus you can go with a plain paper sleeve to cut costs further. But if cost is not such an issue and you want a kind of bespoke, limited, individual type thing, then I would consider 10"s.

-

Apart from that I like the concept. You're kind of trying to change how people Dj though, which will be a tough one if you're the only label doing it. As another poster pointed out upthread, Djs often make a choice, determined partly by what styles they play, to go with either 7s or 12s and then often stick to that religiously. Even scenes like juke/ghettotech where they're playing dance music and mixing rapidly between songs, they opt for 12s because they're easier to handle and it's just part of dance / hip hop culture to mix with 12s.

Good luck with it all. Always good to try something new IMHO.
 

wascal

Wild Horses
To be honest, I'd only be trying to change how 100 people DJ, and thats if I manage to sell them all ;)

I've looked up costs for 10"s and its not that much more than a run of 7"s. I'm expecting to make a slight loss on pressing these anyway and will hopefully break even on the digital long tail stuff or represses if the music is good enough.
 

Trillhouse

Well-known member
Jesus, I vaguely remember when i was a kid you would get Flexi discs as promotional items on stuff like your morning cereal. I also have some postcards form somewhere in Eastern Europe that have clear Flexi discs stuck over the picture side. Unfortunately the music is pretty terrible.

Those things where pretty common place. Can't imagine something like that these days. Fuck I sound old. :eek:
 

wascal

Wild Horses
Jesus, I vaguely remember when i was a kid you would get Flexi discs as promotional items on stuff like your morning cereal. I also have some postcards form somewhere in Eastern Europe that have clear Flexi discs stuck over the picture side. Unfortunately the music is pretty terrible.

Those things where pretty common place. Can't imagine something like that these days. Fuck I sound old. :eek:

I've only ever owned 2 - one from the Oink comic (home of Charlie Brooker's first writing gig) and a Manic Street Preachers album sampler from the NME in the early 90s. Both got trashed by poor attempts at scratching on my parents hifi standardly.
 
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