CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Upstart businessman Vance Macauley ambitiously numbered the first release of his brand new record label, Place/Value Records, as PVR-0001, confirmed sources who wish they never loaned him money.
“I’ve got it all laid out. The first few thousand copies of this record are getting printed right now and once those sell out in the first week I’ll use that money to fund a second pressing and the next few releases,” said Macauley. “We’re going to drop the debut LP from local faves David and the Peak Time Bangerz. They had, like, over 30 people at their show last Friday. I mean that’s a crazy amount of people for a Friday night because the bar next door was doing ‘The Office’ trivia and most people in town show up to that. Between local sales and online orders we should fly through the first run once the reviews come in. As long as we can do that every month for a year, we should have cash on hand for our first 60 releases.”
Following the announcement, numerous Cheyenne musicians have sent messages of support to Macauley.
“Yeah, I told him it was pretty cool that he was willing to put the money in,” said David Bridgers, frontman for David and the Peak Time Bangerz. “I hope he makes his money back and all that, but mostly I’m just stoked that I get to hear my band on vinyl and give my mom a copy. But what we’re supposed to do with the other 70 copies he gave us, I have no idea. I was thinking of making a few of them into ashtrays and selling them on Etsy. But I think most of them will end up at Goodwill.”
The enthusiasm shared by the local community has yet to translate to the international music industry.
“Upstart labels like this used to worry us,” said Alannah Johns, a label representative from Universal Music Group. “We would hear about some new imprint and immediately sprint to the war room. Every single one was an instant target that we had to absolutely eradicate. But then we realized that all of those labels die within 45 days, give or take, and we don’t ever have to lift a finger, we just sit back and wait for them to start complaining about algorithms and watch the entire world they built for themselves burn down.”
As of press time, Place/Value Records had already published a GoFundMe, which they started after paying the “ridiculously and unexpectedly large” down payment to the pressing plant.