Spring is in full swing here in Iowa, trees are budding, and the weather has been unpredictable. It could be 70ºF one day and then snowing the next. The weather is constantly changing, but one thing is constant, my grind! For the last 8 years I’ve been working in this studio/shop in some capacity nearly every night. We have done nothing but grow, and there’s no sign of slowing. In fact one of our significant announcements is that this year we did just slightly better than breaking even for the first time, dare I say we made a profit?! Not much, but that is still huge considering it has taken us so long to accomplish this. God willing I will keep this thing going another several years, but some things will be changing in order to accomplish this. Before I get to that I do have a couple of announcements.

1. Our first vinyl release, FRR-001 Static Technician EP is finally sold out. I have purposely waited until now to announce that we only got exactly 326 copies made in total, 110 clear with blue splatter, and 216 of the black. No represses will be done, so these were actually limited edition. If you have a copy, I would advise holding onto it, because they should only increase in value over time as more people hear these tracks and go looking for them. Many people enjoy the title track Static Technician, and Acid Roll is a future classic within the Acid House genre.
2. Now that physical copies of the record are gone, I am allowing a digital download to be purchased via our store page. You will be asked to pay any amount above $3.50, and then you should immediately receive an email giving you access to download a .zip file containing the five Mp3 tracks. We thank you for your continued support and all proceeds will be reinvested into future releases. There are still plenty copies available of our other releases for now, but I will not be releasing information about how many were pressed of each of those, nor allowing digital downloads of them, until their respective physical copies run out.

Family Room Recordings, LLC. is a multifaceted business with many different ways it can move. We have the Record Store selling new and used DJ vinyl, the Lathe Room for cutting custom records, The Recording Studio, The Record Label, Event Promotion, and Equipment Rental and Sales.

Right now the majority of our income comes from the Record Store’s sales of used DJ records. I usually only keep about 600 records for sale at any given time, but most of them are hard to find in the USA, or are otherwise rare or valuable, or are absolute classics. I really enjoy doing this, as it preserves an art form that may otherwise all but go extinct. Over the remainder of 2025 I plan to slowly expand the amount of records I am keeping stocked at any given time to about 800-1000, as I am currently backlogged with about 8 to 9 crates of records still waiting to be listed. The only limiting factor is the amount of time I can spend locating and shipping the records I sell. I have also been working on clearance auctions by selling bundles of 30 or so less popular records at a time on auction sites. I’ve had mixed success with this, but at least it moves them on, hopefully to a new home where they will be enjoyed.

The “Lathe Room” aspect of this business is a very risky and high-maintenence endeavor. It is extremely delicate and the replacement parts are expensive. The process of cutting a custom record can be extremely time consuming and rarely allows me to come out ahead financially. However, it is extremely rewarding to create something that will be loved by the recipient and countless others for years to come, so for now I will continue providing this service with some small changes.
1. 12″ Records are still $20 each
2. 7″ records are still $10 each
3. I now require you to purchase at least 3 copies of each record I cut for you, with a temporary maximum of 5 copies per record per order, this is subject to change depending on availability. For instance you might want me to cut you 3 different records, and you might want 3 copies of one, 5 copies of another and 10 of the other. For that last record, at first I will only cut you the 5 max, and then send those to you. Then after other people’s orders are complete, I will circle back, reload your project file, cut you the other 5 and send those out to you. This ensures that no one customer is monopolizing the lathe by purchasing a large quantity, so hopefully everyone can get cuts done if they want.
4. The setup is the most time consuming part of the process, so if you want less than 3 copies of a given record, there will be an additional $20 setup fee. Whereas if you instead order more than 3 copies of that record, setup will be included free.

The Record Label aspect of the business has been somewhat slow aside from finally being sold out of our first release, there’s not much news. The 5th release has been in the works for some time, with several finished tracks, and a few half finished tracks that could potentially make up FRR-005. We are still in the planning phase, and are still looking to potentially add some new artists to it. More on this later in the year hopefully.

I mentioned Event Promotion above, and there is not much to say about this yet. I think we can safely say that we will start very very small, but you can probably expect some sort of small event(s) or gathering coming in 2025. Hoping to add another couple of events in 2026, leading up to our 10 year anniversary in 2027 where hopefully we can have a pretty decent sized party for that. This seems like a lofty goal for now, but I also don’t have a problem just ordering a few pizzas with friends if that’s all we can do.

I also mentioned we do a bit of Rental and Sales of equipment. Regarding Sales this might be a good time to mention, we are planning to downsize and reorganize the studio a bit. Rather than keeping a stock of several machines and instruments that rarely get used, we will be thinning the equipment collection out and probably remodeling the studio over the next couple years. The main goals will be downsizing to free up useable space, streamlining the workflow, and making this small space much more functional. I am also hoping to have a booth at a couple trade shows or swap meets this year in order to sell off some gear. It will be difficult parting with certain pieces, but they will hopefully see more use and enjoyment than what I have been able to give them by simply hoarding them.

That pretty much wraps up the Spring Update for now. Thanks for reading!

Scott Ferguson

Owner,
Family Room Recordings, LLC.