Com Vinil Tyco (Scott Hansen) Estabelece Uma Presença Física

With Vinyl, the Musician Tyco Establishes a Physical Presence

Scott Hansen, who performs spacey electronic rock under the name Tycho, at a soundcheck in Philadelphia.

In the age of the surprise digital album, what about the vinyl fans?

That has become one of the stranger puzzles in the music industry, as more musicians orchestrate special releases with online services, while at the same time sales of vinyl LPs have come to represent an increasingly important chunk of those artists’ income.

Scott Hansen, who records spacey electronic rock under the name Tycho, has come up with one solution. Tycho’s new album, “Epoch,” was released online on Friday. Following a pattern laid out by stars like Beyoncé, Kanye West and Frank Ocean, it arrived with no advance notice.

Yet to accommodate fans who also want the release on physical formats, Tycho’s record label, Ghostly International, will be offering a custom slipmat — the felt pad that sits on a turntable — to customers who place advance orders for the vinyl record at their local record store. The slipmat will become available in about two weeks, and physical versions of the album, on both vinyl and CD, will come out in January.

The staggered timing lets Mr. Hansen and Ghostly release the music quickly — Mr. Hansen said he put the finishing touches on the recording just two weeks ago — while also giving a tangible dimension to what is otherwise digital ephemera. Mr. Hansen, a former graphic designer, handles the artwork of his records himself, and their look and feel are a major part of their attraction to fans; of the 70,000 copies of Tycho’s last album, “Awake,” that were sold, 26 percent were on vinyl.

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The vinyl version of Tycho’s new album, “Epoch,” will be released in January. CreditMolly Smith 

“We’ve always been really concerned with the physical experience,” Mr. Hansen said. “A lot of people want the vinyl so that they feel that this music is real, it’s not just a digital file.”

The plan also reflects how deeply many basic aspects of music marketing are now in flux, as the industry is being reshaped by streaming media. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, streaming now accounts for 47 percent of retail sales in the United States, and physical formats only 20 percent.

Vinyl records, which are often priced at a premium, have grown so quickly that they now generate almost half the sales revenue of CDs. Yet a decades-old manufacturing infrastructure means that labels must often wait months for a pressing plant to turn around a new record.

Independent labels like Ghostly must also manage the demands of digital services, which want exclusive content, and independent record stores, still a vital channel for sales and promotion.

“It’s a balance to make sure everyone’s happy,” said Bryan Duquette, Tycho’s manager. “If you placate Spotify and Apple, then the physical retailers are bummed.”

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Mr. Hansen at the Mann Center in Philadelphia.CreditKatrina d'Autremont for The New York Times 

For Mr. Hansen and many other artists, an instantaneous digital release has a powerful lure as a means to connect to his audience and jump-start what can otherwise be a grueling monthslong promotional schedule.

“I’m tired of the buildup,” he said. “Just release it. It’s fresh. It hasn’t been sitting around for four months. This is new — it feels like now.”

For fans of major acts, a surprise online release can create a communal moment, with reactions that ricochet across social media. Yet as this release strategy trickles down to lesser-known artists like Tycho, the effect is less clear.

Sam Valenti IV, the founder of Ghostly, described the slipmat as a “passport stamp” for fans, a way to seize on the release of new music yet still have a keepsake in physical form to function as a placeholder until the final product comes out.

“Streaming music is fantastic, but record stores still have a place as the physical manifestation of music culture,” Mr. Valenti said. “How to balance those things is a beautiful tension right now.”