There’s something indescribably beautiful about seeing your work on the cover of a slab of 12” black vinyl. It’s a combination of the artwork real estate and the artefact itself. Have no delusions that I don’t think a lot of vinyl is nothing more than a cash-in opportunity/ego stroke and sounds like total arse, but if you take care and master for the format specifically - it can be stunning. Welcome to the we care a lot side of the fence, because here - we do. We care a LOT.
When I was a kid I’d buy a new album, clean any stray dust particles from it with that strange, red magic velvet-faced brush, zap it with a plastic anti-static gun that emitted a weird, cool stream of ions that you could feel with your hand from the needle in the end of it (also handy for zapping your mates with a mild electric shock) and record it to the chrome tape brand of choice (TDK or Maxell) on day one of its purchase - the record itself stored safely as if a mystical relic and the tape being run into the dirt until I needed to repeat the process. There’s a whole generation that knows what the chemical formula for Chromium Dioxide is, simply because of music whether they wanted to or not and almost failed chemistry in school.
Recently I see a lot of discussion about AI cover art and this brings me rushing right back to the time when I fell in love with music. After the sad news of her passing I was recently reminded of my mother’s Roberta Flack album with a cardboard fold-out piano lid as part of the packaging. To be completely honest, the gimmick lured me in, and otherwise it wasn’t show-stopping art visually, but still…I understood the effort that went into it, and that is something we miss today. A random AI generated picture is never going to have that gravitas, ever or motivate you to find out what is below the imagery. In a 12” x 12” format you can create something with depth, hide details in the picture, and it’s something you can appreciate entirely on its own. Cover art was already dying a death on cassette - look at anything from CBS - big block red letters on the spine, the cover art on the front and then a plain white J-card - ironic as CBS probably started the record cover as art movement by hiring an artist called Alex Steinweiss who made 2500 covers during his career, and CD, no matter how many panel fold-outs there were - was still stingy but to be honest, it wasn’t always a smooth ride, even if you were on vinyl. Why? Because suits suck, have limited long term vision and are tight-fisted.
Fast forward…a lot of years, and in the mid-2000’s for signed indie acts it was obligatory to put a single out on as many formats as possible including a small vinyl run - partly for the cool factor, partly to inflate sales numbers. As a producer I was always horrified hearing the work on 7” almost certainly mastered from the CD version - scratchy, distorted, really disappointing low-effort work by everyone involved with the pressing. These were not the records I always dreamed of making. Yes, it may BE on vinyl, but it may not be reaping the few potential benefits of being ON vinyl. Unfortunately, this is the level of not giving a f*** we reached as we rightfully lurched towards destruction of the record business as we knew it.
What we needed was less accountants - more obsessed music junkies and just perhaps, just perhaps art would have retained more perceived value than it has now. Now things have changed considerably, so WE have a responsibility to care and make an effort ourselves. Artists that argue about the cost or effort required to make cover art are the same the suits at CBS who decided to make a value-less plain J-card for every cassette release on the label - you’re hurting yourself. You can’t even take a photograph with the camera on your phone that is on your person 24/7 that might have some synergy with your music? If that’s holding you back, remember that meaning is usually assigned to art after the fact, so take that worry and throw it away. Think about Hypgnosis, Microdot, Peter Saville, Vaughan Oliver, Peter Black, Derek Riggs - father of a million Iron Maiden t-shirts, Storm Thorgerson - all of these people sold a lot of records without playing a single note.
While digital files might only have a jpeg embedded in the metadata, it still matters even if it only shows up as a Spotify cover on the player of your choice. One day someone might be listening to your song, look at the cover art and feel something emotional and lasting from the work you have created. At least give them the chance.
And if, IF you are going to put your music on vinyl, I beg you to do it properly from a sonic point of view. Get a real vinyl master done, keep the dynamics and at least give yourself the chance of experiencing sonic joy after the few seconds of crackle before the music starts.
As ever, if you need help turning your recordings into something you will be proud of forever, hit me up to talk about mixing your next record. Who knows, it may even end up on vinyl!
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