Impressed is a 100% independently owned Australian music label, but done different.

Think - the slow fashion and slow food movements, but for music.

If streaming random AI generated music mindlessly on Spotify is SheIn and McDonalds, we're the antithesis of that. We go deep, we live in the musicians sonic worlds.

We support musicians and curate a unique vinyl experience with our customers and music family first in mind. We don't just press records, we don't just buy wholesale records, we don't just have a store, we don't just sign musicians rights.

We are part of the process of bringing the artists sonic vision to a physical reality and we're super proud of the work we do to support our musicians to keep making great music.

We also run an artist management company, Impressed Music Management, where the artists we represent own their own portion of the entire company. We're not into taking artist rights and owning them in perpetuity, in all galaxies. We're interested in growing together, in creating great music together. And we stand by that in our actions, not just our words.

Impressed is an independent music home, created for music lovers, by music lovers - somewhere we felt was missing in this saturated, digital landscape.

We hope that's something that resonates with you too.

Firstly, we're not just another record store - we manufacture the overwhelming majority of our vinyl records ourselves in direct collaboration with the artist.

We believe in supporting local musicians visions for their work, not just musically but their whole overall creative vision, including physical vinyl and its packaging. We strictly work with artists who have a strong and unique vision for the music they are releasing into the world - in a time when thousands of songs are uploaded onto streaming everyday - we work with artists who want to create something special, memorable and with the legs to stand out in this noisy streaming world.

We work closely creatively with each individual artist to create a beautiful, meaningful and interesting physical representation of their album. It's not just the highest quality sonic pressing (though this is always our first box to tick!) it's also creating a story of their album through colours, patterns, vinyl techniques, graphic design, exclusive photography, booklets and live instore gigs and tours - it's an overall presentation of how each artist sees their specific music vision coming to life physically.

No shade to anyone - each to their own - but that's why you won't see any bulk-buy Taylor Swift records for sale here.

We’re always transparent about how much a record will cost - both to you and the artist - and we’re passionate about making sure that the artist and songwriters are paid for their art. Simply put, we want to make unique, quality vinyl records by artists we love, and share them with the wider public.

As we're based in Sydney, Australia, we concentrate on making records for Australian artists - or for overseas artists that we love coming into Australia.

We started Impressed to be on the side of local Australia artists, and we believe a big part of that is pressing locally as much as possible.

We press as much of our stock locally in Australia and New Zealand, as possible, which not only supports local industry but also reduces Air Miles for the environment. We occasionally press records overseas depending on artist needs creatively for their vision and international distribution requirements, but we always tell you with 100% transparency where the product has been made.

There’s four of us in the core day-to-day team of Impressed, all of which have music industry experience and are fans of wildly different genres of music. Two of us are recording artists ourselves! If there’s a majority vote in favour of the record, we’ll work with the rights holder and artist to create an exclusive ‘Impressed version’. Simply, if we’re impressed with the music, we’ll want to press it.

We're so glad you asked - this is our favourite question.

Firstly, we pay for the manufacturing - not the artist or label. This saves them a ton of money (vinyl ain’t cheap.) Then, we pay a really generous royalty on a per unit basis which means they get a healthy payout that’s in dollars, not cents. 

If you think that artists get paid $0.00318 cents for a single stream on Spotify, we pay artists roughly 2000 to 3000 times more than that for selling a single vinyl album.

In short, - that's why your purchase of vinyl supports your favourite artists - and why we got into this business in the first place - so great musicians can afford to make more great music.

For ARIA chart purposes (we’re ARIA accredited, which means your purchase counts towards your favourite artist charting), ‘day of release’ simply means the day an album or EP officially counts toward the chart - usually a Friday. Wherever possible, our goal is to get the record into your hot little hands at exactly the same time. Of course, postage can sometimes go awry, but given that we make and ship in Australia, we make every effort that your package lands on your doorstep the day the music is available online.

Mainly, Impressed records are exclusive to the website you’re on right now. 

We are growing quickly, and part of that demand is local retailers being keen to stock our great records. For the most popular records, you might find different variants in colour or packaging at some of our favourite indie record stores around the world, including the iconic Rough Trade stores, but they won’t come with our signature obi, essays & packaging.

We've also seen some of our most popular sold out titles popping up on Discogs from time to time!

Sometimes! You may find very limited numbers of Impressed releases  in select record stores (we love record stores, too!). If you’re at a record store (or any other store) and this sounds like your jam, drop us a line here

An obi strip is a piece of heavyweight card that traditionally wraps around the spine of the jacket in Japanese pressings. It carries more information about the record and allows us to make the pressing special without asking the artist to compromise their artwork or design of their art.

Impressed's Listening Notes Essays are included in most of our LP album packages. These are written by some of the country’s best music journalists. We hope you enjoy them and that they will provide an added depth to your listening experience that's exclusive to Impressed and our music family.

While it's 'Impressed Best Practice' to include an individual essay with our LP's, sometimes production deadlines limit our ability to do so, and sometimes the artists request that the music speaks for itself, which we totally respect!

Really simply, if you buy three or more items an automatic 15% discount will apply.

A lot of record buyers online ask for their records to come with some plastic outerwrap, often to protect against the elements whilst in transit. We don’t believe in shrink wrapping; it just means something (at best) going in the soft plastic bin that Australia can’t get around to dealing with, but we will supply your record covered in a removable and reusable soft plastic bag. 

We understand that some customers won’t want the extra plastic. So if you don’t want it, just check that box. 

We’re working hard on alternatives to this bag that protects your record, allows you to see it on your shelf, and most importantly looks after the earth. 

We're super proud to say that in our first months as a record label, we were the first Australian record label to press a vinyl record on BIOVINYL, which was Simon Mavin's 'Some Days'. This eco-wax has a reduced carbon of up to 92% and still sounds amazing., and we continue to use this where the artist requests and it works creatively for their vision.

We also make several of our records in colour re-grind - like FISHER's 'Atmosphere' 12", made from the offcuts of other colour records that would otherwise get binned.

We’re working on sourcing compostable inner and outer sleeves, too.

There's lots we're doing, and no doubt there's lots more we could be doing. It's front of our mind as we grow.

Well, thanks for being here!

We’re big lovers of music, but if we're being honest, it's also important to us not to press everything that comes across our desks.

Quality is the most important aspect of our work, and that exists in music as well as vision, presentation and effort. When we see all of these aspects of an artist align, we're interested.

If you think you've got what it takes, drop our A&R Team a line at support@impressedrecordings.com with the subject line 'A&R Opportunity' and we'll get in contact.

Please note that due to the high volume of requests for pressings we are unable to respond to every enquiry at this stage or give detailed feedback, however we get it, the music biz ain't easy, and we endeavour to at every opportunity.

Hope to hear from you soon.