The Goo 1
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d, so we took what worked well from those experiences and built alternative solutions for the bits that didn’t. How does an artist or label begin working with you? You’ve dealt with people at every level of the industry. Chris Keena: When labels or artists get in touch, we respond straight away. We talk through everything, from the artist’s metadata, to gauge potential sales in the coming months, to pre–sale events, to stock for merch stands. Then we cover all the colour options, print specs and anything else they need. We send over a quote, and once that’s approved, the job is live. It should take no more than eight weeks to have an LP ready, sometimes faster. The idea is to have a six–week pre–order window between the manufacturing start date and the album’s release. So, the artist or label needs to have their artwork and masters ready so we can move fast. From there, we help develop the album campaign, whether it’s direct–to–consumer only or a combined online and retail strategy. If it’s going into retail, we tap into our network of over 40 Irish record shops, you might have seen the map on our Instagram. These are experts at selling, marketing, and running events for new releases. So, it’s very much a collaborative effort? Chris: Exactly. We can help organise in–store events, or gigs in nearby venues coordinated with retailers. Each campaign runs for about eight weeks, with the pre–sale going live roughly six weeks before release. The two weeks prior to that are spent finalising plans, and once the campaign starts, we keep it active with regular content drops. And you also offer marketing support? Chris: Yes, ahead of pre–sales, we invite bands to the factory to create content. That could be performing tracks for YouTube, signing records, taking promo photos, or hearing their album for the first time on vinyl. Retailers can share this content too, and we stagger clips to match campaign milestones, like single releases or tour announcements. From September, we’ll be hosting livestreams and listening parties here in the factory, linked directly to the artist’s store for pre–orders. Demand from these events can even lead to extra pressings, which we can turn around within a week. From a sustainability perspective, keeping everything in–house must make a big difference? Chris: Absolutely. By pressing, fulfilling, distributing and hosting promo events all under one roof, we cut down the carbon footprint dramatically. To our knowledge, no other manufacturing plant in Europe offers all of this as part of the service. It’s almost like you’re running a record label yourselves. Chris: It’s a scaled–back version of full label services. We can register albums for the charts at the start of the process, and we’re licensed to report Irish–registered sales from the artist’s store to the charts at the end. We fulfil all Irish and international orders to land on release day. 17 We’re led by the artist’s ambitions. We look at their metrics, gig history, upcoming shows, ticket or merch bundles, genuine follower counts, to estimate the right pressing quantities and scale the campaign accordingly. We’ll advise where we can, but ultimately the artist decides what suits them best. We recently managed campaigns for Soda Blonde and Cry Before Dawn that used all these additional services. The content we created in–house went down really well, retailers got behind it, venues sold out, and both EPs secured strong chart positions. Hopefully, this is just the start. Anthem Vinyl can be found on Instagram @anthemvinyl or contacted directly on 087 799 0394.