Print Records on Demand-For Free.
Print Records on Demand-For Free.
No monkey business.
About
Great Ape
Most cutting houses expect musicians to pay for mastering, lacquer cuts, negatives, test prints, and hundreds of vinyl records upfront, costing thousands.
Then, artists often have to sell and distribute their records on their own.
Wouldn’t it be nice to skip all that?
Here at Great Ape, we use cutting-edge laser technology (literally) and print-on-demand strategy to produce vinyl records at no cost to artists, whenever fans want them. Simply give us your songs, and we’ll handle everything-from audio mastering to shipping the finished vinyl whenever a customer orders.
With us, you maintain full freedom as an artist-you set the price, we take a flat $11.99 per sale to cover all costs (including shipping within the US) and you receive the rest. No hassle-just music for your fans at a price you choose when they want it.
How Does It Work?
The traditional process of cutting vinyl records is expensive and time consuming. First, artists must have their songs professionally mastered for vinyl. Then, they send their recordings over to a cutting house, who cuts their songs into a lacquer-but that lacquer is much too soft to actually be played, so it is instead used to create a “negative” (the opposite of the final record ) which is then used to create the final, playable vinyls. If there is an error anywhere in the process, the whole pipeline must be repeated.
All-in, this costs thousands of dollars upfront, pricing out small artists and requiring minimum guaranteed orders in the hundreds-not to mention a lead time of weeks to months.
At Great Ape, we use a laser to cut grooves directly into the final record, skipping the entire production process. Since there are no set-up steps, we don’t have to charge artists upfront-or ever. Whenever someone buys a record, we simply cut it and ship it-no worrying about handling them as an artists, guaranteeing a specific number of sales, or running out of stock. We’d love for you to see it in action, whether you sell one vinyl or one hundred thousand.
We also use acrylic, which lasts longer and is more recyclable than traditional PVC while preserving audio quality, and are looking into 100% recycled rPETG.
The traditional process of cutting vinyl records is expensive and time consuming. First, artists must have their songs professionally mastered for vinyl. Then, they send their recordings over to a cutting house, who cuts their songs into a lacquer-but that lacquer is much too soft to actually be played, so it is instead used to create a “negative” (the opposite of the final record ) which is then used to create the final, playable vinyls. If there is an error anywhere in the process, the whole pipeline must be repeated.
All-in, this costs thousands of dollars upfront, pricing out small artists and requiring minimum guaranteed orders in the hundreds-not to mention a lead time of weeks to months.
At Great Ape, we use a 450nm blue laser to cut grooves directly into the final record, skipping the entire production process. Since there are no set-up steps, we don’t have to charge artists upfront-or ever. Whenever someone buys a record, we simply cut it and ship it-no worrying about handling them as an artists, guaranteeing a specific number of sales, or running out of stock. We’d love for you to see it in action, whether you sell one vinyl or one hundred thousand.
We also use acrylic, which lasts longer and is more recyclable than traditional PVC while preserving audio quality, and are looking into 100% recycled rPETG.
Interested?
We’d love to work with artists of any and all sizes-from those creating records only for themselves to giants working to spread their music globally.
If you’d like to work with us, we would appreciate it if you could fill out the basic information to the right and the full form below. If you have any questions, feel free to send us an email at contact@apevinyls.com.
Our Team
Carl is Great Ape’s mechanical lead. He is responsible for everything physical, from prototype design to the final build. Ask him to change one part of the design, and he’ll have a whole new CAD design within the hour. That’s the power of…something.
Carl was also on 2654E Echo with Alex, and does lab work through CU Boulder Engineering.
Founder & Chief EngineerCarl Richter
Favorite Musicians: Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada
Ace Anderson
Founder & COOFavorite Musicians: DaDood, Oliver Tree, Waterflame
We’re still not entirely sure what Ace does. Once we figure it out, we’ll let you know.
Alex is the tech lead for most of the electronics behind Great Ape, from laser drivers to motor connections. He can usually be found tinkering with something in our jungle of a workshop, finding new ways to optimize our designs for even higher quality.
Alex has previous experience as a Vex Robotics World Champion on team 2654E Echo as well as freelance engineering consulting through Dickhans LLC.
Founder & CEOConnor Gamse
Favorite Musicians: Jarv, Gingus, The Clash, Ahee
Alex Dickhans
Founder & CTOFavorite Musicians: Tupac, Public Enemy, Nas
Connor is our resident business bro. He handles most things administrative, and works as a team lead to coordinate projects. He’s also the lead of artist outreach, so if you’ve emailed or called with us, you’ve probably talked to him.
Connor has previous experience as a freelance data analyst and a national champion rower-where he was an “erg monkey”.