29/07/2021
Dear community, I write this statement with a bit of a heavy-heart. After launching Flying Vinyl six years ago and becoming a platform that has helped almost 400 artists onto vinyl via our incredible global community of new-music enthusiasts, I do not believe we are in a position to continue running Flying Vinyl in its current format.
Over the last year we’ve seen lead-times in manufacturing records spiral from 6-weeks to 9 months at most major factories. This has been as a result of problems related to the pandemic, Brexit and shortages in raw material supplies that are affecting the entire industry currently.
We have also seen the price of vinyl rise by around 30% in the last year alone. This has meant that since the start of 2021 it’s become increasingly difficult to ship issues of Flying Vinyl on schedule. Personally, I don’t feel OK about that.
The reality is that our previous methods of working simply will not work with the current landscape and it’s going to be in excess of 12 months before we see anything that looks like normality. So, the July edition will be the last edition of Flying Vinyl in its 7 inch boxset format.
In the next couple of days your subscription will be paused and we’ll be taking a break from shipping product until January 2022 whereby Flying Vinyl will be relaunched as a single monthly 12” compilation LP featuring the same great new music with artwork made in collaboration with incredible designers.
This isn’t a decision we’ve taken lightly. Flying Vinyl was my start, and although there were other things I’d done before this, for me this was the first time I felt that I was having true impact on culture, and so much good that’s happened in my life has happened because so many of you took a leap-of-faith on what we were doing here all those years ago.
The good news is that we won’t be increasing prices for the new concept and we believe this will allow us to weather the storm that’s happening right now to continue bringing you the best new music.
Right now, you do not need to do anything, your subscription will be closed and we’ll be in touch in the coming months with details of the restart in January and anything you need to do to ensure you're ready for the first edition.
Once again I wanted to say a massive thank-you for all of the support over the last 18 months, we ultimately wouldn’t have been able to get through the pandemic without it and to quote Bowie: “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring…”.
Craig x
