Manifesto

Grinding Tapes Recording Company was established on a set of fundamental principles, which you will find outlined here.

Jason Rozen founded Grinding Tapes in autumn of 2005 after hearing the rough demos of Elijah Wyman's Why We Never Go Swimming and Other Short Stories. The vinyl pressing of this album was released on Grinding Tapes the following spring. For each sale, Grinding Tapes donated a percentage of the price to a charity selected by Elijah, establishing a tradition at Grinding Tapes of promoting peace, justice, and humanitarian relief through art. A substantial portion of the price that you pay for any Grinding Tapes release will be donated to an accredited charity of the artist's choice.

Grinding Tapes operates on a philosophy of transparency. Pressing quantities, cost/donation breakdown, and other relevant information will be made available to everyone on this website. Detailed information will be maintained to help preserve the collectibility of our often limited pressings.

At Grinding Tapes, we are sensitive to the financial struggles of both the artists and the fans. As you can verify with the cost breakdown information provided on this site, the vast majority of the revenue generated by sales is given back to the artists. We post rare and live recordings for free download and offer mp3 samples of the songs on our albums to help you make informed decisions about your purchases.

We love both digital and analog formats for music distribution and believe that they complement rather than compete with one another. Because our primary goal is to document and facilitate the exposure of socially-relevant recordings, we will make releases available in both analog and digital formats whenever possible.

Our principles permeate our business practices in every way. We use recycled materials in our packaging wherever we can. For each package mailed, Grinding Tapes offsets 60 pounds of CO2 emissions with TerraPass. We embrace the DIY ethics that differentiate artists from celebrities. We are determined to do our part in bringing about a socially-minded world.