[schrijver]

For me the trend of labels releasing vinyl-only limited edition feels quite elitist, i.e. if you’re somehow not ‘in the know’ than you don’t get to enjoy the music. I prefer labels offering the choice between a limited edition vinyl and an unlimited edition digital download. That way the people that care about owning and spinning the rare object still get that experience and those who discover the record two months later can still buy the digital version and experience it.

It happens all the time that I discover music on Bandcamp, and since I’m not a super connoisseur it has been released for some time and the vinyl has long since sold out, but I can buy the digital version and enjoy it and spin it at parties and thus share the experience.

[globular-toast]

Back in the day, it wasn't done due to elitism but rather necessity. Vinyl was the only distribution format for club tracks because of the unique way the DJ can physically manipulate the record for the purposes of beat matching, cutting and scratching. Since a mass production of vinyl incurs a large initial overhead lower quality "white labels" were produced in small numbers for newer releases.

Nowadays I'm sure it's just done for marketing purposes, though, as there's no reason not to release the track digitally.

[crtasm]

A lot of the releases I listen to are only sold as short runs of vinyl due to unlicensed samples.

[schrijver]

> Back in the day, it wasn't done due to elitism but rather necessity.

For sure. I should have mentioned the current trend, as vinyl-only labels are having something of a resurgence.