Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
For nearly two decades, the vinyl revival has been driven from the top down: collectors rediscovering old classics, audiophiles rebuilding collections, major labels mining their catalogs, and — in recent years — blockbuster artists selling multiple variants of the same album to highly engaged superfans. Altogether, they transformed vinyl from a format that was all but dead into a billion-dollar business again.
But after spending nearly 40 years working with independent artists at Disc Makers , I believe the next phase of vinyl growth is going to come from somewhere very different: emerging artists and local music scenes.
Let me be clear about what I mean by “emerging artists.” I’m talking about the massive and growing universe of self-releasing musicians distributing their music through platforms like DistroKid, CD Baby, and TuneCore — a massive ecosystem now generating millions of digital releases each year.
For years, many of these artists continued releasing physical media in small quantities to sell at shows, even as the broader music industry moved fully digital. The format they chose, overwhelmingly, was CDs .
For most of vinyl’s revival, these artists have been on the outside looking in. They desperately wanted to get their music out on vinyl , but they simply couldn’t afford it.
That is finally starting to change.
Affordable, accessible vinyl records
Over the past few years, something important has happened: vinyl has become financially accessible to a far broader universe of independent artists. And while the units these DIY artists move may never rival those of superstar releases, their impact on the overall vinyl ecosystem may ultimately prove outsized, opening up an entirely new category of vinyl buyer in the process.
As has been well documented — and as some of us lived through in real time — the early years of vinyl’s comeback were fueled largely by crate diggers, collectors, DJs, and music fans rediscovering the ritual and permanence of records. Then came the catalog boom: classic albums reissued on heavyweight vinyl, deluxe editions , colored variants, boxed sets.
More recently, the format has been propelled by superstar releases and fan-driven collecting behavior. That drove massive unit growth, concentrated among a relatively small number of megahit titles. Recent Luminate data suggests that much of today’s vinyl market is driven by blockbuster releases and collectible variants aimed at superfans. Meanwhile, the RIAA reports that vinyl revenues surpassed $1 billion last year, for the first time since the 1980s.
That’s an extraordinary success story — albeit a relatively concentrated one. The bulk of vinyl sales still come from a fairly small number of titles.
But the economics that kept small artists out of vinyl are finally changing in their favor.
The economics of vinyl manufacturing
Disc Makers has been at the forefront of the shift in vinyl economics. We’ve invested heavily in bringing key parts of the vinyl manufacturing process in-house so that pressing runs as low as 100 units could finally become economically viable for independent artists.
Traditionally, vinyl manufacturing economics favored large orders. During the early years of the vinyl revival, demand outstripped capacity — there simply were not enough presses to manufacture all the records labels wanted to release. Because of that imbalance, pressing plants demanded runs of 1,000 units or more, quantities that were simply too large and expensive for most independent artists aspiring to release their own music on vinyl.
Even after minimum order quantities gradually fell to 300 copies, many smaller artists still couldn’t make the math work. The setup costs were just too high: lacquer cutting, electroplating, stampers, jackets, labels, and all the other steps required before the first record could even be pressed.
But artists really wanted their music on vinyl — if only they could test the market with a small order that wouldn’t put them in the poorhouse: 100 records.
At Disc Makers, we got those calls and emails daily. “Can you do 100?” But without our own cutting lathe or jacket production, we simply couldn’t make the pricing work for the huge independent artist market we served.
So few years ago, we got to work in earnest. We figured out how to manufacture our own record jackets, eliminating one of the biggest cost centers. We invested in a rebuilt, vintage 1955 Neumann lacquer cutting lathe and our own stamper making equipment. After plenty of trial and error, we learned how to print record labels economically in small quantities — all specifically to reduce setup costs and make short-run vinyl manufacturing viable.
The goal was straightforward: offer 100 professionally manufactured records for under $1,000.
And it was that price point that changed the equation completely.
An emerging artist selling vinyl at a show for $25 — or even $20 — can now test the market with 100 records, make money on every sale, and build from there. Vinyl stopped being a luxury product reserved for established acts. It became an achievable — and profitable — merchandise item for weekend-warrior bands, touring independents, niche genres, local scenes, and first-time artists.
What followed reinforced our belief that a large underserved market existed.
Since 2023, Disc Makers’ vinyl revenues have quadrupled. This year our vinyl revenues will equal what Disc Makers was generating during the vinyl heyday of the mid-1980s when records were still the dominant commercial music format – while the number of unique vinyl titles we help manufacture is more than five times higher.
Same vinyl revenues as the 1980s. Five times the number of releases.
In the ‘80s, vinyl revenue was concentrated among a relatively small number of commercially viable releases. Today, similar revenue levels are increasingly being generated across a vastly larger and more decentralized universe of artists.
Yes, the average order sizes are much smaller. But I believe the future of vinyl growth may not come primarily from dramatically higher unit sales per title. It will come from a dramatically larger universe of artists participating in the format.
The future of vinyl growth
Picture it: More records, from more artists, serving more communities — and introducing an entirely new generation of music fans to the experience of vinyl.
That creates a very different kind of market than one built primarily around blockbuster releases and collector variants. Independent artists have always been the research-and-development wing of the music industry: they build local scenes, cultivate direct fan relationships, and create genres before the mainstream notices them.
And physical media you will target plays a uniquely powerful role in that relationship.
A vinyl record is not passive consumption. It is a tangible connection between artist and fan. That vinyl purchase demonstrates fandom. Own that record, and you are part of a tribe. No saved album on Spotify does that — and it never will.
Vinyl culture was never built solely by blockbuster releases. It was built in local record stores, independent venues, college radio stations, punk scenes, dance clubs, and communities of fans discovering music person to person.
This is especially important in an era when music itself increasingly feels intangible — streamed , shuffled, algorithmically surfaced, and infinitely disposable.
The next great vinyl boom will not look like the last one. It will not be driven primarily by audiophiles rebuilding classic-rock collections or by megastars releasing six colored variants of the same album.
It will come from hundreds of smaller scenes happening simultaneously. It’ll be punk bands selling records after their sets, indie singer-songwriters pressing their first LPs, local metal bands funding tours through merch sales, jazz artists creating numbered limited editions for dedicated fans, and regional hip-hop artists building direct relationships with audiences.
Vinyl traditionalists may scoff at the idea that opening the market to thousands of new titles by unknown artists could strengthen the format. I believe the opposite is true. Because in an era when anyone can upload a song to a streaming platform in minutes, artists choosing to press vinyl are demonstrating a much deeper commitment to their music and their audience.
Every young fan who buys their first LP directly from a local band is a potential vinyl buyer for life. And that may ultimately matter more to the long-term health of the format than any deluxe reissue or collectible variant ever could.
Ready to press your record?
Real artists release physical albums, and at Disc Makers, your music is our business. It’s finally affordable for indie artists to press their own LPs. Get an instant quote !
Tony van Veen
Tony van Veen is the CEO of DIY Media Group, the parent company of Disc Makers and BookBaby. As a college student, he played in indie bands, created his own LPs, cassettes, and t-shirts, and sold them at shows. Today, he collects CDs, vinyl LPs, and concert t-shirts to support the artists he loves.
Read more More articles by Tony van Veen