ATTN Labels who press vinyl records NEWS about future vinyl manufacturing

[downlow]

This was fwd to me from a friend. Some insight to the future of vinyl manufacturing, a big topic for me and my imprint since we primarily press records:

Before you go looking at plants there has been some big changes in
record
pressing in North America that one needs to consider when wanting to
put a
record out.
(I have started this email before to the list but always stopped- cos I
thought no one cared)

Firstly - closure of the 3 biggest plants - Universal, Europadisc and
of
course - wow - 331/3.

Secondly- gone is the day for anyone to just simply keep banging
releases
out on vinyl every couple of weeks and expecting them to take 3-4 weeks
to
make- and all labels regardless of where they press need to be planning
their vinyl releases until Dec ( that's a tip from me btw- if you don't
want
a situation like this)

Basically, with Universal, Europa, 33 gone - there is now no large
scale
pressing plant that runs over 25 presses at once. 33 is still under
lock and
key so the number of available presses has halved.

Thirdly - despite what we see in underground dance music - the majors
are
now doing more vinyl than ever, it is actually a growth area. I happen
to
know the new madonna did 150,000 units and Nelly Furtatdo 15,000 on
vinyl.
People want their analog Ramones and Radiohead.

So now the majors that pressed at 33 have all gone to smaller plants in
the
US - various plants that have anywhere from 5 - 12 presses, so what
happens
when you press for the majors - they come first and are very demanding
- and
also, what do you do when you have 5 presses and get landed with a job
for
70,000 units from Atlantic - put everyone else on the back burner.

So chances are anywhere you look to press - your record will be taking
2-3
weeks longer than most people are used to, all my colleagues at other
plants
have said this to me, people are going to have to accept the new turn
around
times.

Here at Acme - we have gone though our own little stage in taking vinyl
into
the future and anyone who has pressed with us in the beginning of this
year
knows- we may have had a reputation like that of Hubs in that we were
extremely slow and backed up. One thing people never seem to build into
the
vinyl equation is that all the presses in north America are 30-50 years
old
and they are not making new ones anymore- it is actually just harder to
press records these days.

Also- the USA's only raw compound supplier is getting out of the
business as
environmentally they cant make lead vinyl anymore and the tin based
compound
is too expensive for the them to make, plus it runs like crap and ruins
the
presses and leaves stains on the vinyl- harder to press.

A big issue in the closure of the big plants is that the only people
who
know can run presses and press records are all retired and hitting
retiring
age- it is a big problem for plants to find people who can do this and
meet
the ever rising expectations of those who press- as these people
disappear -
you take away that knowledge from a plant and you start loosing money
faster
than you can press records. ( 331/3)

It is something along those lines happened at Acme, the guy who built
it
retired last November and we could not replace him, it took Chad about
6
months to get these presses down and to start pressing decent records
in a
decent timeframe. Saying that - when 33 closed and we had our
situation, we
put a sign up on the website advising we are not taking new clients -
there
is no point in taking peoples business if you can't get the records out
the
door.
Also, I realized that all my clients do regular releases and for the
last
few weeks have been calling all our customers asking for their
schedules for
the next few months so I can guarantee all our labels that we can meet
their
releases on time. Most of our labels showed us amazing support during
this
period and they come first, I have turned down two massive labels who
want
to press here as I just want to look after those who have supported us.

My other prediction from all this is that you may see an end to all
these
brand new labels releasing vinyl on their own imprints - as there just
will
be no where for them to press, basically - it is going to
harder/longer/more
expensive to put a record out - it will have to go back to like it did
in
the day - good music that sells will be the winner and hopefully the
more
established labels will start to see sales go up as there will be less
new
once off vinyl's eating into sales, people might have to actually start
shopping their music around again.

One thing that all of us pressers everywhere are subjected to right
now,
that slows getting records out is the heat. Today we started our
presses at
4am and shut off at noon, it is too hot press records, so I am already
behind this weeks schedule, it's crazy, 45 degrees C in Toronto today ,
aint
no one gettin a rekkid!

You can read all about my adventures in vinyl on my my space - the
vinyl
monolouges

Thanks and cheers and heads up and respect to those of you who still
love
the record!

Aine