Essential Updates On All The Things, The Second House Crew Box Set Revealed, Plus so much more you need to know...
Hello everyone
So much to tell you, and to fit it all into one blog is going to be hard. So forgive me if I am a little abrupt! :)
In a nutshell then: The last 3 or 4 months I have been in a long battle with my old pressing plant that has gone like this:
Pressing Plant: Please pay for these records and we will press and deliever them..
Chris: Press and deliver the records and I will happily pay for them.
Pressing plant: Pay for them, and we will deliver them.
Chris: No, because I pay for them and then you don't deliver them.
2 weeks later:
Pressing Plant: Please pay for these records and we will press and deliever them..
Chris: Press and deliver the records and I will happily pay for them.
Pressing plant: Pay for them, and we will deliver them.
Chris: No, because I pay for them and then you don't deliver them.
It has been unpleasant (massive understatement).
But we seem to have sorted it out. So:
KF159 - Ray Keith - The Golden Years Box Set: 3 of the 5 records are pressed, the other two are being sent in the next few weeks, then we will pack and ship. We are hassling them daily about this.
KF186-190 - Dj Force & The Evolution - The Perfect Dream Box Set: Will be pressed in 3-4 weeks. I know this is very late, but still, we hope to have it in your hands by early November at the very latest. Its the best I could drag out of them.
KF230 - Dope Ammo and Moondance - Together Box Set: - We are told this is pressing the first week in December.
I am still trying to get the Mondance Box Set sped up and to us quicker than they have stated. I know if you have purchased that, or the Dj Force & Evolution box set, its been a horrible wait. But I have had to put the Ray Keith Box Set in front of those two simply because while both of those are 5-6 months late, the Ray keith set is now SIXTEEN months late.
Even so, I am on top of all three of these, hassling the plant, and telling them if they dont get these three box sets to me as promised to me, I will cancel them and take them elsewhere. While this is possible, I have been reluctant to do it because it would mean a recut and starting from scratch basically, so would have meant spring 2023 at the earliest. So. This is not the best news ever, but I do think these will be here as stated and at least we have a timescale now. I will update you as they come in. And as ever, deep and sincere thanks for your patience with this.
And I will also make sure every customer who had to wait for these gets some sort of gift or compensation or something to thank them for their patience.
Now, do you all remember in April this year we had had nothing for months, and then we got absolutely loads? Because it seems we have sorted the issues out, that whole craziness is going to happen again, only worse. Because as well as the box sets, I am informed that we are getting the Acen Dubplates (at fecking last), the Dj Solos, Nookie Box Set, and many, many others from MPO, our old pressing plant. A lot of long delayed releases. Some of them perhaps not so high profile as the ones meantioned, but still, there are new KFWs and Out of Romfords and JALs and others.
On top of that, I stiopped using the old plant a number of months ago, and now the new pressing plant is starting to deliver, so we are getting a ton of releases from them. It will seem like things have jumped the queue, but really, its two different queues for two different sets of releases, one much delays, and one on time, but both arriving withing the same few weeks.
And everything is basically expected "end of October / early November".
I am not going to list specific releases, because I have been let down too many times. But it is safe to say...yeah...a lot of releases are on their way. By my calculations, about 35,000 units including box sets and singles.
I will stagger the releases as best I can over the next 3-5 months, prioritising the most overdue. It is going to be a difficult few months of managing releases and, well, managing storage (I think I might be living in a vinyl fort)...but "too many records arriving" is certainly a much better problem to have than "no records arriving". Still, I thought I better give you a heads up.
In the meantime, I wanted to confirm to you all that we will have the incredible Shades Of Rhythm Box Set in stock next week, and that it will go for sale on Thursday the 6th of October at 7pm. We will only have 500 copies. A repress is possible, but unlikely given the current situation:
And also that we are likely to have the second House Crew Box Set early (what? early? Vinyl arriving early? do you rave sir? DO YOU?) and available in November, so we finally get to reveal it in all its glory...
Some of the other news is a little less fun. As you will all know, prices have gone up everywhere. Kniteforce is currently cheaper than almost every other label, even with VAT added on...but at some point this month, prices for singles will go up a little bit. It cannot be helped. We are paying 25% more for each record than we were a year ago, because vinyl, packaging, posting, printed parts and the cut have all risen in price.
Of course, VIP people still get 10% off of everything. So I strongly suggest that anyone who buys from us regularly but has NOT asked about being VIP, does so now. We award it based on orders made, so if you have made 3 or 4 orders, it is worth emailing me about it as its not an automatic thing, I have to do it manually. Include your user name, and email me here:
luna-c@kniteforcerevolution.com
Subject: Can I be a VIPer?
On top of that, because of the vast amount of vinyl we have coming in, we are going to restrict what we give to be distributed outside of our store. Simply put, we are going to try and sell every copy we get delivered directly to customers, rather than give it to a distributor to sell in other stores.
What else? Ah yes, we have moved our digital catalogue to a company that is way better than Labelworx. I wont go into specifics, but if you are a label and you use Labelworx for your digital distribution, I would be very careful.
Anyway, that move is why for a few weeks the KF catalogue disappeared from the digital stores and playlists. They came down from one company, and are being put up by another. Most should be back by now (each site takes its own time to re-upload their content). It is a mad way of doing things, but there it is. Our new digital distributor is Cygnus, who are superb, and because they have such a good set up, Kniteforce is going to massively expand its digital output. Once any vinyl is sold out and not going to be repressed, we are likely to make it available for digital distribution on our site, and then later worldwide. Not KFW mind, as that label is not for digital, and some things we cannot do because we do not have the right to do the digital copies, but...yeah.
So thats pretty much it. We have an absolutely crazy few months ahead of us it seems. But I really hope all the presold and delayed records will be delivered and everything will be in order by the end of the year. Thats the plan, stan...
Nice one,
Chris