Dozens of record-pressing factories have been built to try to meet demand in North America — and it's still not enough.
Tyler Bryant listens to finished record albums for flaws in a quality control room at the United Record Pressing facility Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. The arrival of the compact disc nearly killed off record albums. Four decades later, with resuscitated record album sales producing double-digit growth, manufacturers are rapidly rebuilding an industry to keep pace with sales that topped $1 billion last year.
The industry"has found a new gear, and is accelerating at a new pace,” said Mark Michaels, CEO and chairman of United Record Pressing, the nation’s largest record producer, in Nashville, Tennessee. It coincided with the launch of Record Store Day to celebrate indie record stores, said Larry Jaffee, author of “Record Store Day: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century.”A younger generation is buying turntables and albums — and cassette tapes, too — and a new generation of artists like Adele, Ariana Grande and Harry Styles have been moving to vinyl, Jaffee noted.
It's not easy to launch a new pressing plant because there are only a handful of companies — none in the U.S. — that make record-pressing machines. Those machines are backordered, as well.
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