Gold Coast Magic Records Launches Custom Vinyl Service For Indie Acts

Gold Coast Magic Records is a new premium custom vinyl record cutting service, set up in Labrador, Queensland.

It specialises in crafting high-quality, limited-edition lathe-cut records that play seamlessly on any standard turntable. They’re also called acetates or dub plates.

The vinyl album market in Australia has grown to be worth $44.5 million and shifted 1,178,011 units last year, according to ARIA.

Indie musicians wanting to get on the vinyl bandwagon can do so “without the minimum order requirements, waiting times or significant setup costs that hinder artists from getting their music onto a record," says founder Ronald Diaz.

Gold Coast Magic Records officially launched on June 11 with a post on its website, and orders started immediately. Some acts don’t own a turntable themselves but want to get their music out on black plastic. 

Diaz comes from a background of music and senior engineering. “Both have been a part of my whole life,” he says. 

“I’ve been playing keyboard and, more recently, saxophone. Professionally, I worked earlier as an audio engineer and electronics engineer.

“These skills were perfect for broadcast audio, so I moved into that, first as a community radio station technician and then on to commercial broadcast radio.

“After a few years, I jumped into software engineering. It was a different career path, but that’s led me to where I am.”

A few years ago, Diaz got a call from record producer Barrie Mason. They’d co-produced in the past. Mason wanted to get his latest EP mastered on vinyl and wanted to know about the technicalities of the process.

At that point, Diaz had no intention of building his own lathe plant. But as he investigated, he found there were very few businesses in Australia offering the service.

Even worse, if there was a glitch with the lathe, there was only a sole operator in Germany who could fix the problem. The waiting list was two years long, and manufacturers had to physically travel to Germany to be sorted out.

“I saw that as too much of a hassle. I’ve built things, including a digital pinball and a photo booth, so I thought I could give this a crack.”

A full-service production process includes in-house creation of full-colour printed artwork. Gold Coast Magic Records is based in a house. “The equipment is compact, so we can run multiple lathes if we want.” Because everything is automated, working at the business are only Ronald and his wife, Penelope.

As visitors enter, the first room has equipment for printing, cutting and folding jackets. 

In the cutting room, the lathe is on top of 200 kilos of sand, cable and specially made plates with concrete underneath so it’s vibrantly isolated. It looks something like a spaceship with lights flashing everywhere.

Diaz set it up as an easy process. Customers access the GCMR website to choose their products, which are diamond-cut in real-time.

These include 7” singles and 12” singles for promotional purposes, milestone celebrations, or limited-edition runs for fans. 

12” dubplates are for professional DJs, and 12” playlists are for personalised gifts or for music lovers to transform their digital recordings into analogue or make their own plastic versions of mixtapes.

Musicians and DJs upload their music and artwork designs. Diaz notes, “Our point of difference is that because we do everything in-house and our system is automated, it allows musicians to provide mastered versions of the track they’ve released to streaming services, and we can cut straight from YouTube.” 

Setting up the new business on the Gold Coast is also a positive, Diaz. “It’s a great music scene. The Gold Coast Council has a Music Action Plan, which plans for music development in the area. So we believe it’s a good place and a good time.”