Laser Etched Vinyl Records
With the vinyl format ever becoming more collectable, label owners are always thinking up ways in order to make their product more appealing and exclusive.
Many like the idea of coloured vinyl, though with the reduced amount of polycarbonate comes the higher noise floor level. This is something which a lot of label owners would rather stay clear of. After all, vinyl is the purists choice, so if you look at the format from this angle then decreasing the quality of sound in any way is just not acceptable.
One of my favourite ways to make a record look incredibly unique is ‘Laser-Etching’. A design is lasered onto one side of the vinyl record (no audio can be added to this side).
You may not want a centre label added to this side of the record, in which case it is advisable to press onto 180g 12″ vinyl to minimise the possibly of warping the laser etched vinyl.
Etching dates back to the early 1900s when the Gramophone Company would etch their logo onto the blank side of a one-sided single. Although the design cannot be seen as the record is being played, many record labels have experimented with etching onto clear vinyl so that the design can be seen from both sides of the record.