We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jonathan & Jeff. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jonathan & Jeff below.
Alright, Jonathan & Jeff thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
Our first major partnership was with a company called Nasdisc. Unfortunately, they are no longer in business but they were one of the first brands to really invest in us as creators in the TikTok vinyl record space (also lovingly known as vinyltok). The funny thing is that they didn’t reach out to us… I actually reached out to them and pitched Jeff and I as long-term partners. At the time, we only had about 4,000 followers and their other partners had at least 10,000 followers. I have always been a believer in advocating for yourself and not waiting around for opportunities to come to you because, quite frankly, they may never come. This is especially true depending on your niche and how saturated it is. My motto with brand partnerships has always been: “The worst they can say is no.” I’m so glad they said yes because it really opened a lot of doors for us and the money we made helped us invest even more into the hobby.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Jeff and I were never serious collectors of anything before collecting vinyl records. As a kid I collected Pokemon cards and foreign currency and Jeff used to own a lot of various DVDs and CDs. As adults, we both became very minimal with our home decor, so the thought of collecting records just seemed like a visual nightmare. All of that changed in 2020 when the pandemic hit.
We downloaded TikTok to see what the hype was about and slowly started seeing videos of people showing their record collections. Jeff was actually the one who was drawn into the hobby first, and it took a lot of convincing to get me on board. I remember asking him two questions: “Can’t we just play music on Spotify?” and “Isn’t this a waste of money?” After seeing Jeff buy a handful of records, I started to see the fun in it and wanted to get some records of my own. Let’s just say it was a snowball effect from there!
As we started our joint collection, we quickly became in love with vinyl variants of albums we love. Vinyl variants are basically when an album is released with variations in its appearance. This could be a colorful pressing, a splatter pressing, a marbled pressing and so much more. It could also simply just mean alternative cover art, bonus tracks, or unique packaging. In short, it’s essentially creating multiple collectible versions of the same release. There is a divide among record collectors who think this sort of thing is fun, while others think it’s simply a waste of money to buy a record you already own in a different color.
Since we thought it was fun and had no one to share the excitement with, I decided to launch a joint TikTok account for us. That’s how @variantvault was born. We started off showing our cool colored pressings and the different vinyl variants we owned. Jeff and I have very similar and different tastes in music and that’s one of the reasons we decided to launch an account together. We hadn’t really seen anyone else doing it and thought it would be a way to command our own space in a niche that already felt saturated at the time.
While the goal was just to have fun, we had no idea that we’d one day be working with big brands like Universal Music Group, Whatnot, Victrola and more. Suddenly what started as a fun hobby became an opportunity to make extra cash. We’ve reviewed new album releases, turntables, music apps and more. Most recently we were invited to attend Chicago Record Store Crawl, hosted by Audio-Technica, and we had a blast visiting our local record stores and encouraging Chicagoans to support local.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
When we first started on TikTok, a lot of our viral or semi-viral videos were due to using trending sounds in a creative way. Since we started the account just to have fun, our earlier videos were simply us having fun. Of course we mixed in showing our variants so people knew what our account was about, but we always made sure to have fun and never take ourselves too seriously. Our goal was truly to make friends in the community and anything extra was icing on the cake.
Viewers on TikTok love authenticity. You have to remember that people got bored and tired of Instagram because of the constant chase for perfection, so keep your content real and relatable. Don’t over analyze everything you create. And definitely don’t take an internet troll’s comment to heart. 9/10 times they won’t even show their face in their profile photo. Having haters means you made it. Congratulate yourself for commanding attention and thank them for the engagement.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding part about being a TikTok creator is the community. The friends we’ve made within vinyltok extend from the USA to Spain to Germany. Traveling is a big part of our lives and it’s been amazing to meet these virtual friends in real life. The community we’ve all built within this niche is truly a beautiful thing. If you are starting your journey as a TikTok creator, just know that if all else fails you will make lifelong friends and, trust me, that’s worth hitting that intimidating red “post” button.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @variantvault (TikTok as well)
- Other: Email: [email protected]
