My label started half as a joke in 2019 when I decided to invest the rest of my student loan money, around 200 euros, to release two of my albums on cassette. I was totally amazed when people actually wanted to buy my music on tape. Soon after this, vaporwave artists started to send submissions (thank you Aldo for the first submission ever!!!) and I begun releasing them on tape and eventually on vinyl.
Anyone who has ever run an indie record label, which releases at least one physical album per month, knows how time-consuming the label life really is. Cityman Productions has been almost like a dayjob for me even though I also work part time at a record store, and most of the weekends I have been packing orders.
As many of you probably know, I'm also a producer behind Cityman 900 and various other aliases. Most of my life I have been playing in various bands, making music and rehearsing every single day. Now that Cityman Productions has grown to be quite a big boy, I have almost no time to make music which is the thing I so dearly love because it's the meaning of life for me.
The other thing which has been haunting me is the fact that if I want to continue running Cityman Productions, I have to start using a fullfilment warehouse which packs and ships all the physical orders I have so far handled from my house in Finland.
This would ruin all the fun for me because I love packing orders, do the quality check, put together the SEGA boxes and so on. I would basically become just a guy on my PC ordering stuff that I can never see in real life. The reason for having my own label is to do almost everything myself – it's just too awesome to throw away.
I have run the thought process countless times in my head and the result is the same every time. I just can't be a musician while running Cityman Productions. At least I'm not able to do it. It's a cold fact but it was very hard to accept because I have loved every single second of running my own label. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that I will need to shut down Cityman Productions in order to be able to pursue my other dreams.
The bright side here is that I have had an awesome opportunity to get to know dozens of fantastic people out there in the vaporwave scene all over the world. I have had wonderful conversations with many of you in the middle of the night. I have worked with talented artists to release their work of art on killer physical releases.
I would like to thank the following: Every single one of you who have ever grabbed physical or digital items from Cityman Productions – you guys are the most important reason why my label existed. All the fantastic artists I have had the honor to work with. All the graphic designers and other labels I have collaborated with. All the cool people I have chatted with on social media, Discord etc. All the super special people who are now my good friends (you know who you are!).
From the depths of my pixelated heart: THANK YOU!!!
The huge shutdown sale starts on Monday (May 20th) and all the remaining items will be available at hilarious prices until the end of June. The prices will be as low as I can go from the get-go, so please note that they will not go any lower during the sale. I'll do an announcement on Monday when the sale is live. Don't worry, I will not disappear into thin air after this post; I will take care of each and everyone of your current and upcoming orders personally as I've done thus far.
-Tony, Cityman Productions