I never was one to buy a ton of records, but one of the reasons I have slacked off of my vinyl purchasing lately is that not everything I have been excited about has been released on that format. That may be a problem with a resolution, thanks to Bandcamp’s new vinyl service.

Today, we’re offering a first glimpse of an initiative from Bandcamp that aims to address these challenges. Our new vinyl pressing service streamlines the financing, production, and fulfillment of vinyl records. With no up-front investment, an artist or label can create a vinyl campaign and start taking orders almost immediately. Once they reach their minimum goal, we press their records and ship them to their fans.

For bands that can’t take the risk of pressing records without knowing the level of interest, this provides them a safe way to test the waters and give the fans what they want.

This is another reason I consider Bandcamp to be a tremendously valuable service and an innovator in a time of a lot of upheaval in the music industry.

(Of course, sold out prereleases are a completely separate problem.)