My good friends through music, I write this to you today to give you a few things to think about as it pertains to Vinyl Collective. I have planted a few seeds of ideas that are in my head and I wanted to put them together a bit more concisely. I will try to keep this short and simple:
1. Vinyl Collective 7″ series – I have been quietly talking to bands about doing a series of split 7″s called Under the Influence where each act does a cover of a song that has influenced what they do today. I had originally thought of doing something like the Fat Wreck 7″ of the month club, but I just am not dialed in with our pressing plant like Fat is with theirs and I don’t need more stress to meet a monthly deadline. Instead, we will do a new pre-order for each 7″. With luck, you will be interested enough to pick up the entire series. There are still a bunch of other things to figure out, but so far we have firm commitments to do splits with Chuck Ragan / Tim Barry, William Elliott Whitmore / Josh Small, Fake Problems / Look Mexico, Rocky Votolato / Chad Price (of Drag the River), O Pioneers! / New Bruises, Ben Nichols (of Lucero) / Jon Snodgrass (of Drag the River). I also have the following acts that are into the idea, but we are not yet sure who we are doing the flip side with: Cory Branan, Austin Lucas, Limbeck, Teenage Bottlerocket, LaGrecia, The Playing Favorites, Bomb the Music Industry (or Jeff from BTMI or both??), and I think that while hanging out with the American Steel guys in Vegas this weekend, I might have drunkenly got a verbal ok. Dont’ hold me on that one. I am not sure yet when all these records will come out, but I hope to get this rolling as soon as this summer. Stay tuned.
2. Side Label through the Message Board that I mentioned in a recent thread – I invariably get emails to put out certain records on vinyl, records that are truly great, but it always tends to be by a band that had broken up and therefore might be a risky thing to do. I was thinking that it would be really cool to start a series of LPs where we collectively decide records like this to put out and then release the record together. We could do on record a month where we press either 500 or 1,000 copies. We set up a pre-order where each single LP would cost $10. That $10 contribution will get you the rarest version of the vinyl. If we can get 300 people to contribute, that would come pretty close to covering a pressing. Each of those first 300 people would then be involved in a vote to pick the album. I realize that there is a good chance that you might end up with a record you don’t love. For example, if you love metal, you may end up with a punk record or vice versa but the record will be rare and would become good trading material down the road. It would be a fun process and my hope is that it would document some really great records on vinyl that might not normally see the light of day. With your help, we could come up with a cool way to find these records. We could have a nominating session which leads to certain individuals campaigning for certain titles and then those titles would go up for vote. Kind of like the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame where certain folks are nominated and then have to be voted in to make it. There would be a lot of details to work out, but it would be a great way to get some really great vinyl and be involved in more than just being the purchaser.
3. Invest in Vinyl Collective – I will only briefly touch on this. I feel like we have a really great business developing and I was trying to think of our next step and the bigger picture. I think that at some point in the near future, I am going to have to take a serious look at bringing on investors to raise enough capital to take this business in the direction I would like to see it go. I plan to work on a business plan that lays out where we are at, where I would like to see things, and what we will need to make this happen. I have a lot of things to figure out, but I think that offering all of you a piece of the business would be the best way to go. I have a lot of respect for each of you and have really appreciated the amount of support you have given us. I know that most of you care quite a bit about us which is really rare to see in this industry. I think that we have come a long way with our limited resources, but there comes a day when a business could benefit from outside help to reach that next level. I will talk about this more soon, but I wanted to get people thinking.
Please let me know what you think of these ideas.
January 28, 2008 
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