Here are some insights with "Elastic Stage", a Vinyl on Demand Service that I used for my latest album. I shared these on Discord in another group I am member, but the thread content is vanishing fast and I wanted to keep this without further editing - its just pasted from the other forum.

First of all, Elastic Stage is a Distributor as far as I understood. The release gets a EAN number and the tracks get their own ISRC numbers, but you can put in existing numbers too so you can re-release older albums on ES.

The workflow is pretty straightforward - you enter Metadata, upload tracks and Artwork files, for these they offer easy Templates (Illustrator or PDF format). After that’s done, you create your artist page and a release page, this is a bit like every other online website editor, except it includes the vinyl offering automatically.

During the upload, you can choose between different formats (33 rpm / 45 rpm) and different features (with a booklet, for instance). They offer 3 fixed pricing tiers, for my album I have chosen the lowest tier as I don’t have a booklet or anything special. From the given price, you will keep a fixed amount - in my case, the Vinyl costs 26 CHF for consumer and I will keep 5 CHF per sold item. You can’t set your own pricing, this is fixed.

There is no minimum order. Each vinyl is produced only after ordered. That also means, the store front is the only way to sell it. They have some external store interfaces, but band camp is not amongst. I have configured a merch item on BC that I will manually put into the store as a fake order.

If you want to sell your Vinyl on Gigs or in record stores, you can order batches - 1 box contains 25 items and sells for 504 CHF (around 20 CHF per piece), which is actually the Elastic stage store price minus your earning of 5 CHF.

That said, you don’t pay anything at all. No fees, no setup. You will only earn money in case you sell a record.

When I compare it to the vinyl release I did last year by ordering a batch of 100 pcs that are collecting dust in the cellar now, this VOD method seems the better solution. Personally I think you need a HUGE fanbase to sell enough records to get some earnings from it.

I will put all my future albums on there now I think. There is no risk at all, some fans love to buy vinyl music, and Its a nice additional distribution channel.

Last word regarding quality: The record comes with a 4c printed outer sleeve, a 4c printed heavy inner sleeve (not comparable to the usual thin white paper sleeves) and 140g Vinyl. You can put up to 30 min on one side of a 33rpm record.