Extra money from bringing production in-house
Internal label-to-plant invoices are eliminated. Only customer receipts, avoided supplier spend and the plant’s actual costs affect group cash.
Does more CT production make it worthwhile?
The same product and batch cost, at different annual production volumes. Third-party orders and fixed costs stay at your selected inputs. These are scenarios; spare capacity is never automatically sold.
Optional: whole-label sales and release costs
These explain total label performance, but do not change the in-house advantage when the same records sell either way. Recording, artwork, existing royalties, retail VAT and selling fees are kept outside the main manufacturing decision. These simplified label scenarios are not a contract or recoupment engine.
Where a record sale goes
This view is before artist participation, release budgets and fixed overhead. The annual comparison below also funds unsold stock and all mechanical allowances.
Same releases. Two ways to make them.
Operating cash illustration, excluding corporation tax, financing, receivables timing and recoverable VAT timing. All production is paid in this period. This is not statutory profit or a peak funding forecast.
Evidence and remaining gaps
- HMRC: standard VAT rate: 20%; the default assumes UK domestic standard-rated sales and VAT registration.
- Stripe: UK pricing and refunds: 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards; original processing fees stay charged after refunds. Your actual payment mix may cost more.
- Bandcamp: physical sales fee: 10%, with payment processing separate. Platform and processor are separate editable inputs.
- Cyclone: 1,000 black 12-inch records: £2,800 ex VAT, 3mm spine and white inner, cutting, test pressings and UK delivery. Page duplicates ex/inc VAT figures; use its explicit ex-VAT label and seek a current quote.
- Breed: manufacturing cross-check: £2,279 ex VAT per 1,000 black records in disco bags. Different packaging; a cross-check, not a substitute for a matched quote.
- Seabass: outsourced cutting, metalwork and packaging: owning presses does not remove these supplier costs.
Sources checked 28–29 September 2026. Three suppliers corroborate the manufacturing cost structure; they do not independently verify a specific private quote. Artist terms, mechanical licence, D2C net receipts, factory input prices and demand still need CT-specific evidence.
Formula and scope
Annual albums made = releases × batch. Retained sales = made × sell-through. Saleable discs = albums × discs per album. Test copies also consume capacity. Factory rejects increase attempts and variable costs; the daily output target is already a good-disc rate, so yield is not deducted from capacity twice.
Net product revenue = D2C retained sales × gross price ÷ (1 + VAT) + wholesale retained sales × ex-VAT invoice price. Payment fees use gross charged orders, including shipping. Refunded product and shipping receipts are removed; original payment fees, despatch and return handling costs remain.
Outsourced manufacturing = releases × (complete batch quote + explicit extras). A complete quote already includes its cutting, stampers and packaging. Owned production = attempted discs × material/energy cost + good-disc inners + album jackets/wrap + cutting/metalwork/freight + warm-up.
Artist “receipts” scenario = chosen rate × product receipts after platform, processor and distributor fees. “Project surplus” scenario = chosen rate × positive surplus after channel costs, manufacturing, mechanics and release budget, before label/factory overhead. Neither is asserted to be your contract. Recoupment balances, cross-collateralisation, advances and payment timing are not simulated.
Main annual ownership advantage = (supplier spend avoided − owned variable production) × retained share + third-party contribution − fixed plant costs − sustaining capex. The optional whole-label table uses its own artist convention and is context only; it is not added to the main result. Retail revenue cancels when volumes and prices are the same. Unsold stock is funded in cash and shown separately at its modelled production-plus-mechanical cost; this is not an audited inventory valuation.
One currency and one VAT/channel profile per case; no export-tax engine, inflation, debt, corporation tax, inventory write-offs, royalty caps/minimums or monthly collection schedule. Returns are assumed resaleable. Losses, replacement discs or unsaleable returns require a further allowance.