Vinyl has made a major comeback in recent years, with turntable and record sales following a massive upturn. While companies like Rega, Audio Technica, and Pro-Ject are easily cashing in on the trend with their quality, easy-to-produce turntables, plants like Independent Record Pressing are struggling to capitalize on a 21st century boom with sparse and outdated 20th century technology.
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| Above: These record presses need to be repaired before they can press the latest Adele album (courtesy of Vulture) |
“The good news is that everyone wants vinyl. The bad news is everything that you see here today,” said Independent co-owner Dave Hansen to New York Times reporter Ben Sisario of the plant.
On the day of Sisario’s visit, several record pressing machines were given breaks due to overheating issues. However, overheating is a miniscule issue compared to the other difficulties faced by plants in using the 1960s-70s era machines. Replacement parts are hard to come by, as are the machines themselves. In one instance, Independent spent $5, 000 dollars to make a mere replacement screw that was no longer manufactured.
The pressing machines don’t take care of themselves, and it has become a labor of love for pressing plants to scour the earth for fixable ones.
"They haven't made a press since, I think, the early 1970s. You get what you can get and rebuild them,” said Burlington Record Plant owner Justin Crowther to VPR.
Furnace Manufacturing, another vinyl manufacturing company, has resorted to a “mother load” of ten presses found in a Mexico City Warehouse.
According to Analog Planet, the trip to retrieve the presses was, “an adventure that included machetes, protesters and a “genuine kidnapping scare” not to mention a logistical nightmare.” Such are risks that one must take to preserve vinyl culture.
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| Above: Furnace employees prepare to take the record presses back to the United States (Courtesy of Analog Planet) |
Another factor that slows the production down is the tender loving care that goes into making our favorite records. According to The Oregonian, local plant Cascade Record Pressing tosses 10-20% of the records that they produce because they do not meet their demanding quality control standards. To make matters more difficult, many records pressed today are picture discs and special colored vinyl that require more care to press than traditional records.
Hansen is right: passing fad or not, vinyl has become a hot commodity. Today’s popular artists are now releasing their albums on vinyl and the top artists of yesteryear have also cashed in with elaborate reissues of their classic albums on the format. According to NJ.com, vinyl sales reached the 13 million unit mark last year, accounting for the greatest annual vinyl sales in 25 years. To put that into perspective, the last time that vinyl sales were as high as they are now was when America’s hair metal craze was winding down.
However, with the dire state of America’s record plants, it seems downright impossible to satisfy consumer demand for records. Independent is luckier than most: they can crank out a good 1.5 million records a year, but only if the inevitable problems the machines will have can be efficiently fixed. Burlington has two machines that can each produce around 700 records on a good day.
The production limitations that these plants have require them to be selective in what they press. Major albums tend to receive the right-of-way in larger plants, while independent labels struggle to get their record quotas fulfilled.
“I feel like some of those independent artists, because the bigger names are coming in, are having trouble pressing records,” said Crowther. Crowther’s plant is intent on fixing this issue.
If the vinyl boom continues, companies may have to finally resume production of record presses.
