Wow, This Has Been AMAZING! Acen Box Set updates!
Hi Everyone,
So I wanted to do a small blog post about the MASSIVE Acen box set, and answer some questions and things.
I say “massive” box set because as well as being big in size and content, it is already the biggest seller since we restarted doing vinyl! Which is jaw droppingly amazing. Neither Acen or I or the KF council can quite believe it. We watched the initial orders crash the website, and freaked out. Then we watched them pour in at an almost alarming rate, and freaked out some more. And really, we are still freaking out. We have had magazines emailing us and shops and distributors contacting us and the orders have slowed down but continue at an absurd pace. It is truly incredible. I mean, this release? It deserves it because Trip To the Moon is one of the best old skool rave EPs ever, no question. But I have been in this industry a long time. What deserves to sell and what actually sells rarely lines up. So it is thoroughly satisfying that it has in this case. Thrilling. Intimidating. Exciting, and just mind blowing.
So a massive, massive thank you to everyone who has bought it so far, and huge thanks to the remixers and the artists and everyone involved who came out with their best work for us, it is just brilliant and we are supremely grateful.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to clarify some questions and points that have come up, if I may :)
It is very hard to guess how much anything will sell - ask any record label working today and they will tell you thats the worst part of the job. You can under order or over order, and both are problematic financially and with storage. In this case, I thought it would do well, I hoped it would, but how well is well?
So before the pre-sale started, and because I knew there is big delays at the pressing plants now, I asked my pressing plant to save me the space to press some of the box set. They said they would try. They are nice.
We used up that space within 24 hours.
This means that if you ordered within the first 24 hours, you should be in that inital group, and you should have your box set before Xmas. Having said that, Covid 19 has surged recently, and I know the pressing plant, as well as being overwhelmed by vinyl orders from the major labels, is also now struggling with staff who are ill or quarantined. As always, Kniteforce will do everything it can to make sure you get the box set before Xmas..but yeah, at this point it is out of everyones control to some degree.
Now, if you ordered after the first 24 hours, we have placed another order of box sets with our plant. These will be pressed and with us in mid January (again, crazy world permitting).
I have already put both orders in with the pressing plant. I will keep you updated!
Some other details:
The Pre Sale will end on Friday 4th December for the COMPLETE 6 vinyl box set.
After that, we will see where we are. We may have to do a version of the box set with only the 5 vinyls and no extras, which will go through normal distribution as well as our site. We may just keep the pre sale open as it is. When dealing with a project of this size, it is tricky to manage all the pieces, so i will elt you know closer to the 4th of December on that.
We will NOT be splitting the box set up and selling any of the records individually. We did talk about that as a possibility initially, mainly because if I got left with loads of box sets that didnt sell, I would have had no other choice lol. But as it is, that will not be happening.
And there are no plans to release this digitally at this time, and that is unlikely to change!
Lastly, yes, there will be a Close Your Eyes / Windows In The Sky box set in 2021.
I am sure there are other questions and i will add to this blog given time :)
But mostly, I want to just say thank you. Acen and all the KF crew are just over the moon lol. It really has been an amazing week. So thank you all!
Oh, and merchandise - this has also been an unexpectedly huge success. Se were expecting a few orders, maybe 20-40. I am telling you straight up, selling tshirts etc is usually a horrible slow process. In the last few years I have done Tshirts here and there, and sold maybe 150 total. So that wasnt an unreasonable expectation, 20-40, maybe even 50.
We have done closer to 300 already.
And the same goes for the rest of the merchandise, the numbers we have done are so far past what we expected, that we are left going "wait, waaahhh???" Basically, we were absolutely unprepared for it haha. But fear not, we have it all under control, we have ordered what we need and we are already hard at work getting things done. But...its gonna take a few days / a week longer than expected to get things printed and sent. So bear with us, your patience is greatly appreciated.
What else can I say except thank you, everyone. Thank you so much!
Nice one,
Chris