Calculators: options from Record Industry's calculator; its prices as a benchmark

Reviewed Record Industry's (Haarlem, NL) public vinyl calculator: a
seven-step wizard with a live itemised cost list priced on its server.
Read its prices for a reference 12" LP at 200 / 300 / 500 / 1,000 copies
and for each option worth copying (checked October 2026).

Both artist demos (make-a-record and artist-order):
- audio arrives as digital files, analog tape (+ tape transfer) or a cut
  lacquer (no blanks, cutting or mastering; mastering choice disabled with
  the reason; cutting and mastering stages skipped in the timeline; the
  passport starts at "Lacquer received")
- labels printed, plain white or plain black (credit line; the label
  artwork drop is disabled for plain labels; the mock-up shows the plain
  label)
- press cleaning before a colour run, on by default, disabled for black
- 7" dinked (large centre hole), 7" only, drawn in the mock-up
- download card and barcode sticker extras
- run-out inscription (A-Z, 0-9, up to 15), scribed along the dead wax in
  the mock-up and named in the passport
- new rates (tape 3,800, cleaning 2,300 per title; plain labels -12 per
  disc; download card 43, barcode 6 per copy) are estimates with Record
  Industry's prices as the basis, each listed in the detailed demo
- make-a-record investor notes: Record Industry's 9 to 11 week quote after
  test-pressing approval against the 7 to 9 week CNX quote, and its 2 %
  reject allowance against 100 % optical inspection

Defaults unchanged (37,836 THB per title, 232 per copy at 100, break-even
41, goal 100, 548 kept).

Docs: artist-platform.md (choices table, benchmark section: what was
taken, what was left out, commercial terms worth deciding);
revenue-model.md (second Western data point: 219 THB a copy at 300
ex-works, per-title and per-copy reading against the assumptions, not a
re-base); production-timeline.md (its published lead times).

docs/finance/revenue-model.md

@@ -466,6 +466,47 @@ re-basing the whole model on one supplier's price list, in a market with
 one supplier, would be worse than leaving it low. Test it at Making Vinyl,
 then re-base.
 
+### Second Western data point: Record Industry's calculator (October 2026)
+
+Record Industry (Haarlem, NL) publishes an online calculator
+(https://www.recordindustry.com/calculator/, checked October 2026; ex 21 %
+Dutch VAT, ex freight, 20 copies over the order included). A 12" 140 g
+black LP, cut from a digital master with stampers, 5 test pressings,
+printed labels, white paper inner sleeve, printed 3 mm jacket on 300 gsm
+board, shrink wrap:
+
+| Copies | Order total | Per copy | Per copy, USD | Per copy, THB |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 200 | 1,494.68 EUR | 7.47 EUR | 8.63 | ~285 |
+| 300 | 1,721.22 EUR | 5.74 EUR | 6.63 | ~219 |
+| 500 | 2,098.12 EUR | 4.20 EUR | 4.85 | ~160 |
+| 1,000 | 3,169.78 EUR | 3.17 EUR | 3.66 | ~121 |
+
+At 1 EUR = 1.155 USD and 1 USD = 33 THB. How it is built: an order
+set-up fee of 60 EUR plus a small-run charge (60 EUR under 300, 40 under
+500); cutting with stampers 470 EUR a title (570 from tape, 240 to plate
+a supplied lacquer); black vinyl 1.49 EUR a record; colour +35 EUR
+set-up and +0.14 EUR a record, two-colour splatter +85 EUR and +0.99 EUR
+a record, press cleaning 60 EUR; the printed jacket steps down with the
+print run (1.93 EUR a copy at 200, 0.64 at 1,000).
+
+What it says about the assumptions above:
+
+- **Per title**, its set-up, small-run charge, cutting, stampers and test
+  pressings come to about 580 to 600 EUR (~670 to 690 USD, ~22,000 to
+  23,000 THB): the low end of the 580 to 1,730 USD assumption.
+- **Per copy** at 300, everything but the per-title items comes to about
+  3.81 EUR (~4.40 USD, ~145 THB), and black pressing with printed labels
+  and a paper inner sleeve to about 2.43 USD (2.09 USD at 1,000): below
+  the 2.90 to 5.80 USD range, which looks high for black at this plant.
+- **The Thai market price** of 650 to 950 THB a copy at 300 is about 3 to
+  4.3 times this plant's ex-works price (before freight, Thai import duty
+  and VAT, which the Thai buyer pays on an import).
+- The artist ordering demos (price list demo-0.1) come to about 343 THB a
+  copy at 300 with vinyl mastering, 310 THB without: above this plant's
+  ex-works price and well below the Thai market. Both price levels are
+  open until roadmap item 1; this is a benchmark, not a re-base.
+
 ## Revenue at full capacity
 
 | Scenario | Records/yr | Pressing revenue | Title services | Total USD | Total THB |