Interview: Creating Music and Change with Caren Kelleher

Founder of Gold Rush Vinyl, Caren Kelleher, reimagines sustainability in the music industry and its potential in a post-pandemic era.

Written by Srija Reddy

Photo courtesy of Caren Kelleher

Gold Rush Vinyl is an Austin based music startup that produces high-quality vinyl records, boasting a turnaround time that is three times faster than the industry average. In redefining the standard, Gold Rush’s vinyl production experience has also expanded the understanding of sustainable production in the music industry.

Afterglow spoke with Gold Rush founder Caren Kelleher to learn about the intersection of sustainability and music, Gold Rush’s principles, and the importance of an eco-conscious mindset. 

With apps like Spotify and Apple Music, streaming music has become the number one way to listen to music, yet the popularity of vinyl records still endures. Why do you think that is?

Well, I think it's two-fold. On the consumer side, I think one thing I hear from especially college students is music has pretty much become a free commodity that you can get anywhere. It can fit in a playlist in your pocket and it doesn't really say much about you as a person when people can't see the music that you're listening to, or you can't hold it, or read the liner notes, but there's a different level of fandom when you buy a vinyl record. It really means that you're choosing to invest in that artist. I think that that social currency has become important to fans and to bands alike.

The second reason is because with streaming, the royalty rates that artists are paid are so low that a lot of artists had to start relying on merchandise more and more to help offset the losses from TV sales going away and digital downloads going away. Vinyl became a really cool thing to have on merch tables as bands were hitting the road. I think a lot of it was driven by bands making it available to fans and suddenly having vinyl where they didn't have it before.

When people think about sustainability, we tend to focus on fast fashion or food waste instead of sustainability in the music industry. What comes to mind when you think of a sustainable music industry?

The music industry definitely leaves a pretty terrible environmental footprint when you think about how many components go into it right there. What we do with the plastic manufacturing of CDs is the same thing. Festivals and concerts, that leaves a huge carbon footprint when bands are touring from city to city. One thing that people forget too is that the data centers that are needed to stream music are huge facilities that require so much energy and water. Really, those are pretty ardent too, and so I think we all have a responsibility as we're pursuing these things, which are important for our mental well-being and our cultural well-being to be thoughtful about ways to reduce our impacts on the environment. The job has been an easy way to fix it. Now, I had that opportunity for years to work for the Newport Folk Festival, and I am just so impressed with the ways that they have incorporated sustainability into everything that they do. It's such a part of the festival identity in a really natural way, and I would love to see more of that in our industry.

Recently, the pandemic has significantly impacted the music industry, especially in reimagining live concerts and festivals. Do you think the effects of the pandemic could create a more ecological mindful concert experience, and how would you imagine it?

One thing the pandemic is going to do, it's going to give a lot of people time to think because we're home a lot more and have time for ideas. I hope that the pandemic results in more creativity around it. Whether or not that's immediately adopted, I don't know, because I think the first thing that's going to happen is people are going to rush to want to be together and to be at a concert experiencing that in the same way. I've been encouraged to hear how many entrepreneurs I know, who are not even entrepreneurs but aspiring entrepreneurs, are thinking about problems in our industry in a fresh light now that they have the brain space and time to do it.

Moving on to Gold Rush specifically, do you think that Gold Rush embodies sustainability, and if so, how?

We have the luxury of starting from scratch in modern day, whereas a lot of older plants have been around for 40, 60, 80 years. We have the chance to really, from the ground up, start thinking about what we wanted to put in place here to make it a more environmentally-friendly facility. That came down to everything from the lighting that we put to the way that we designed our water systems to recycle water back through to the factory, to questioning our vendors on what is being used and the materials that we put in our records.

That just came with the fact that we were a new company. I'm a younger plant owner compared to other plant owners and know that my interns and my customers and even my staff are very concerned about how we reduce our footprint. That also comes down to quality. The team here does a really good job of making sure everything we put out is high quality to reduce the amount of waste and returns we have. Just little day-to-day things that ultimately have a pretty big impact, not only on our production but the footprint we leave behind.

How do you see Gold Rush changing in the future? Do you have any sustainability goals that you want to meet, which can encompass any environmental-social-governance criteria?

We're such a young company still trying to make it out of the pandemic. That really has been first and foremost on my mind. It's just to sustain the company itself, come out of COVID as a company. That, first and foremost, is where my head is at. I do pay attention to what a lot of my peers who are starting companies, especially in manufacturing, are doing.

I'm really proud of the things we've done in the meantime like working with vendors that use soy-based ink and that have recycled paper and things of that nature. Certainly, as we get bigger, we'll have the chance to employ a lot more of our waste reduction techniques on a bigger scale and have more of an impact on the total economy.

This interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.

Follow Gold Rush Vinyl’s Instagram and Twitter @goldrushvinyl

For more information, check them out at goldrushvinyl.com