Rob Jones – Jealous Butcher Records

Rob Jones is the man behind Jealous Butcher Records, one of Portland’s most devoted labels. Rob talks about the label and the logistics of releasing vinyl records in today’s music world.

1. Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Can you explain how and why Jealous Butcher was conceived in the first place?

Jealous Butcher started life as band with 8 guitar players circa ‘90. We never practiced, ever, it was just an idea really, and when the time came for 2 of us to start a record label we stole the name, shhhhh… don’t tell! The “why” would be that we made music, we had friends that made music, we loved K records, Kill Rock Stars, homemade cassettes and punk rock in all it’s various forms and we felt like we needed to share what we had with the world, or at least people that shopped at House of Records and Green Noise in Eugene.

2. Jealous Butcher does vinyl only releases. Just to clarify to everyone reading, is doing only vinyl releases a labor of love or a stable business model?

Running a record label is a labor of love, always. The music business isn’t particularly stable, bands break up, records you think will do amazing don’t, or they come in after the tour is over, and then the band takes a hiatus, or sometimes the stars align and and the records arrive on time and the band goes on the road and they sell a bunch of copies and we all live happily ever after, and then we have a little bit of $$ so we put out more records! Weee!!!!

Also, to clarify, Jealous Butcher is not vinyl only, that’s just what we’ve been doing the most of lately. We still do CD’s every once in a while, but only because they are cheap and an easy thing for folks to sell on the road.

3. CD’s seem to be on their way out more and more. What do you think the possibilities of vinyl sales are if and when the CD finally stops being manufactured?

I think vinyl sales are pretty finite, there’s some room for growth, but, as much as I wish they would, they are not ever going to replace CD’s. People are going “paperless” with their music, and though there will always be a minority of the population that needs to have something physical to hold onto (me please), digital sales is the “growth market”. I think tying digital sales to vinyl as a business model is a way to support a superior physical product and still make enough money to stay somewhat afloat.

4. Is vinyl sales simply a marketing concept? Meaning, can vinyl become a standard media if it is marketed in that way?

Vinyl will not become a standard media again. It sounds awesome, it looks awesome, it’s fun to collect and trade with your friends, but the kids are just not going to trade in their iPods for turntables, and the kids are the ones who decide what the standard media is going to be.

5. For the band on a budget, would you suggest that they look into pressing vinyl over manufacturing CD’s?

No, not unless they are acutely aware that their audience comprises at least 250 vinyl fanatics. 500 copies of a record costs around $2000, 500 CD’s cost around $1000, or less depending on what kind of packaging you go with. The return is just greater on CD’s and it’s the most popular way to get music from the rock show to the laptop, which is what we are mostly trying to accomplish these days it seems.

6. Is there any information you wouldn’t mind giving about how to go about finding a vinyl manufacturer and what can be done to make it as low cost as possible?

There are many of them out there right now, they can all be located on the internets, and all of them are offering specials on a pretty regular basis. I would say to start with smaller pressings, 300-500 for an “unproven commodity” (band!). It may seem like a cheaper price per unit to get more made, but I’ve come to find that it’s better to sell through 300 and feel great about yourself (or only have 200 left) than to sell 300 and have 700 left, no matter how much cheaper that 700 were. I’m also a big fan of silkscreening or hand coloring your own sleeves. You can get blank 12″ jackets from many places and a 7″ sleeve is just a piece of paper folded in half and stuck in a plastic bag. Easy-peasy! Doing this saves printing costs, and gives you something that is (forgive me) special. Plus, it shows that you really mean it, because after you get past the first 100 prints you really gotta mean it to keep going!

PS. If you’re going to do it please give yourself 3 months between the time you place your order (ie. have everything done on your end) and when you MUST HAVE the records. Even if you do this you will still likely be cutting things really really close. Never take a pressing plant at their word when they say the turn around is 6 weeks, it’s not that they are bad people, they are all just naively optimistic, or have no sense of how time is actually measured, I have yet to figure out which.

7. What releases are on the way for Jealous Butcher?

Rose City LP by Viva Voce, includes 2 lovely bonus tracks. (that came out a few months back)
Double CD compilation of (mostly) Portland bands covering the best rock band in history
Hopefully a few more fun surprises I can’t really talk about yet… ; )

8. And finally, since people would want to know, how does someone get Jealous Butcher to release their vinyl?

Well, right now, they would need to be willing to front the $ for manufacturing as we’ve got our “assets” tied up in the projects I’ve noted above. We’d be happy to lend a hand though if we’re into what you’re up to!