A Pressing Issue: How ‘the vinyl revival’ has caught out the music industry during the pandemic
SDE investigates manufacturing delays
Release dates going back and back. Box sets getting postponed by a year. Physical albums arriving months after their digital release. Rumours of pressing plant meltdowns… COVID-19 was bound to have an effect on the release of albums. But the pandemic has brought home a crisis in the music industry, and that is, quite simply, the fact that there aren’t enough pressing plants to cope with the demand for vinyl.
On the surface, the figures for the so-called vinyl revival are healthy: even with the high street shut for most of the year, vinyl sales in the UK rose by nearly 10 percent to 4.8 million in 2020. It’s the 13th consecutive year that vinyl sales have risen. Sales of turntables grew too, as music fans who had previously resisted the headlines about ‘The Vinyl Revival’ finally succumbed and began rediscovering love for the black stuff.
Despite the rise in popularity, there has been no serious initiative, since vinyl sales picked up, to increase vinyl production. No new pressing plants of any significant size built in the past decade, coupled with an ever-increasing rise in sales, means a crisis point has been reached.
Where once the turnaround to get a record on the shelves was around six weeks, it’s now three-to-five months, or possibly even longer. Small wonder that several artists are now releasing their albums digitally first, before vinyl, CD and cassette versions arrive months later. It’s the equivalent of the paperback being published before the hardback, but it’s hard to blame the artists wanting fans to hear their album as soon as it’s finished. One of the first bands to pilot the split release were Sheffield rockers Bring Me The Horizon. They released their mini-album Post Human: Survival Horror digitally last October – and saw the album reach number one when the physical version arrived in January. As keyboardist Jordan Fish told SDE: “Our record label is quite quick. But, when we heard we’d have to wait 16 weeks for it to be out on vinyl, we put our foot down. That’s a fucking ridiculous wait, particularly because no-one has really been able to explain why it takes so long.”
It’s that lack of clarity which is frustrating for everyone – SDE included. We’ve been hearing rumours for months of key box set releases by some very big names postponed indefinitely. We’ve seen release dates for new albums slip back and back. And we’ve been wondering: just what is going to be the knock-on effect of pressing plants being at full capacity for months and months? Are the major labels really block-booking all the available capacity at these plants? Will the industry ever catch up? And what of the environmental impact of producing and shipping
In a major investigation, we spoke to artists, labels, record stores, the BPI and the pressing plants themselves to find out whether the vinyl revival is about to crash to a halt… or if a vinyl revolution 2.0 is on the way.
How does a vinyl release normally work?
When an album is mastered, a lacquer is cut. This is then sent off to the pressing plant where a test pressing is made. This is what labels and artists use to make sure the finished album quality is up to scratch. This can take around four weeks or so.
Once a test pressing is approved, it’s then time to get the specified production run of vinyl manufactured. The usual lead time was around six weeks is because, there’s no doubting, it’s a complex, time-consuming process. Consider a run of coloured vinyl; production must stop while the presses are cleaned, so that the next run of vinyl is unaffected (this is one of the reasons why coloured vinyl is more expensive to make – it takes more time). Even with the smoothest running plant, there are no shortcuts in terms of processes and procedures and nothing that can be done to reduce this time.
Why has the time shot up to around five months?
When COVID-19 struck, things became, understandably, pretty quiet for the music industry for about three or four months. One pressing plant exec told us: “When things began falling apart, we advised our clients it was the perfect time to press up their vinyl, as there was suddenly capacity available. We told them: ‘If you don’t do it now, by the traditional pre-Christmas busy period, it’s going to be mayhem.’ And that’s exactly what happened. More artists are making more product.”
Quite simply, there is no immediate availability at pressing plants, because there aren’t enough pressing plants.
Just how many pressing plants are there?
It’s a question nobody seems able to give a precise answer to. The BPI don’t have any data on the exact number in the UK, let alone worldwide. It’s safe to say there are fewer than 10 established worldwide plants of any meaningful size. These are:
- OPTIMAL: a high-end German plant described by the head of one mid-sized label as “the Rolls-Royce of pressing plants” for the quality of its vinyl. They are also regarded as the leaders in quality control. In addition, AIM head Peter Quicke – also co-CEO of Ninja Tune and founder of the music industry’s climate change campaign group Music Declares – praises Optimal for its environmentally-friendly approach. Quicke said: “Optimal have a good record on renewable energy.
- PALLAS: Another highly-respected German plant. It’s slightly smaller than Optimal, but has a similar record on quality control and environmental impact.
- GZ: Europe’s largest plant is also its most controversial, accused of caring far more about quantity than quality. The Czech plant has a dodgy record on the number of faulty pressings it manufactures. However, one plant source told SDE: “You have to know their strengths and weaknesses. They’re excellent at producing different vinyl editions, like colour and splatter vinyl. They also make CDs, so they can be a good one-stop shop. If you stay on top of their quality control, they’re very convenient.”
- MPO: A well-regarded French plant, who tend to work mostly with Sony.
- THE VINYL FACTORY: The largest British plant is mainly used for boutique releases, not least on The Vinyl Factory’s own label, specialising in small-run special editions of major albums. Pete Paphides’ label Needle Mythology use The Vinyl Factory.
- MUSIC INDUSTRY: The Dutch plant is the home of reissues label Music On Vinyl. It kept the faith when vinyl was at its nadir, with Music On Vinyl pressing many reissues for major labels. Despite MOV being a good label, the majors have mostly taken their reissues back in-house.
- SONY JAPAN: In 2017, Sony re-opened its Japanese pressing plant after 30 years, the clearest sign from a major that it wanted to do something about the vinyl revival.
And that, give or take some boutique plants such as Jack White’s five-year-old Detroit in-house plant at his Third Man record label, is that. Well-regarded Hertfordshire plant Vinyl Presents is said to be expanding, but it still won’t be as large as The Vinyl Factory, never mind Optimal or GZ. It doesn’t seem enough for an industry that’s kept on reviving for 13 years.
Sony, Universal and Warner started getting all their vinyl for the States pressed in Europe, then shipped back to the US. And that’s still going on. It’s meant even more delays for British releases
UK Label boss
What about American pressing plants?
American vinyl is a thorny issue. The vinyl renaissance hasn’t been as widespread in the States as in Britain. In general terms, a box set will sell about as many copies in the US as in the UK, so there’s obviously far fewer records being sold per capita Stateside. There isn’t a mass-market pressing plant on the scale of GZ, with American vinyl essentially pressed at a series of boutique plants.
While pressing plants in mainland Europe were affected at different points by COVID-related shutdowns, the US was hit especially hard. One UK label boss told SDE: “When America went into lockdown, you couldn’t get vinyl made in the States. Sony, Universal and Warner started getting all their vinyl for the States pressed in Europe, then shipped back to the US. And that’s still going on. It’s meant even more delays for British releases.”
How do pressing plants decide which records get pressed first?
Specialist firms, such as Key Prodution, act as ‘brokers’ for labels. As well as offering design and packaging services, they buy up space across the plants to offer their clients. Some labels may choose to do this in-house, while others use a broker who will have relationships with all the major pressing plants and can advise on how long the wait time is, while obviously keeping track of any cancellations leading to last-minute availability. Major labels will negotiate a guaranteed capacity and, in normal times, the vagaries of a changing release schedule means that slots can become available for others to stake a claim. But at the moment, capacity has been at maximum virtually ever since lockdown.
Are major labels buying up all the space at pressing plants?
That’s always the rumour. It was convincingly denied both by a major label exec we spoke to and a pressing plant. SDE was told: “It’s not true that majors are going to plants and demanding ‘Take everyone else off press, you have to press ours’”. It seems, the majors simply have more resources to be able to plan their releases further ahead and know when they need the plant space. But another label boss said “none of the indies could get a look in” once one major supposedly began buying all the remaining space at a European plant to compensate for the lack of vinyl being pressed in America.
What about CDs? Are there delays in making them too?
Nope. The format that industry would apparently like to die still takes approximately 10 days to manufacture. If you are looking for fancy gatefold card wallet packaging you are probably looking at an additional 10 days. That’s still significantly less time than four-five months, though. The BPI said: “With 16 million copies sold [last year], CD continues to show its resilience and play a key role in shaping chart success”.
What are the practical effects of pressing delays on planning reissues?
The bonus material included on a reissue is often planned as far as a year in advance. But that doesn’t mean you are ready to go. Once you know what you want to do there are still plenty of potential hazards. A compiler might be trying to locate a specific master tape (it took the best part of a year to locate the multi-tracks required for Steven Wilson to remix Tears For Fears The Seeds of Love in 5.1 surround sound), or be in search of the official version of an unreleased song that’s been circulating on bootlegs for years (and yet doesn’t seem to be in the label’s vaults). Crucially, the artist themselves may be negotiating their approval of the reissue for some months. Perhaps they want to promote their new album before considering any discussion of their 40-year-old demos, or are looking to renegotiate their royalty rate or agree terms with their publishers on future sync deals. Such financial negotiations are a reality. Perhaps the artist would love to search their cellar for that elusive demo, but won’t have time to look for months. The point is, with shorter lead times, product managers have the luxury of being able to leave it much later to deliver the assets for their reissue project, so the time required to work through tasks, like those mentioned above, isn’t necessarily a big deal. But not at the moment. For example, if you are working on a major global reissue for September, in mid-April you’ve effectively already missed the boat, if there’s any kind of sizeable vinyl element in your project! At the moment SDE knows of at least a dozen major releases which had been scheduled for Q4 this year, but which have already been bumped to 2022.
If vinyl takes so long, will labels be tempted to switch to streaming-only deluxe reissues?
That depends. The consensus in appears to be that the industry is still burned from the failure of trying digital-only reissues when iTunes downloads were at their height a decade ago. The established ethos states that reissues only appear to collectors, and collectors need something physical to collect. Streaming-only reissues in hip-hop are increasingly well-established, however. The head of a reissues label said: “Digital is how a sizeable proportion of hip-hop’s audience has always consumed music.” BMG recently reissued The Farm’s album Spartacus as a stream-only set for its 30th anniversary. In short, physical reissues are safe, but who knows what the future will bring.
Will the digital-first, physical-later split release model become a fixture?
Possibly. After the success of Post Human: Survival Horror, Bring Me The Horizon have no qualms about repeating the idea. Jordan Fish says: “If there’s another option, we’d consider it, but we’re just not going to sit on our music for four months. We’re happy Post Human: Survival Horror made number one when the vinyl went on sale, but that had nothing to do with splitting the release. Without sounding arrogant, we’d already had a number one album. For us, seeing our Spotify listenership figures rise is a more accurate measure of how we’re doing than chart positions. We wanted our music out as soon as possible, because the lyrics are timely and there’s the practicality of singles to consider. We’d already released the first single from Survival Horror when we heard about the four-month wait. If you take too long once that ball is rolling on an album campaign, you start to lose momentum.”
Will five-month lead times for vinyl become the norm, or will the industry catch up post-COVID?
Even once American pressing plants are fully operational again, SDE heard from some sources that labels have realised it’s cheaper to export vinyl back to the US from Europe than to use the States’ expensive pressing plants. In other words, this over-running of European plants might – and we emphasise might – be here to stay. Given that plants were mostly at capacity before that influx, it doesn’t paint the rosiest future. Even if pressing plants return to normal post-COVID, the delays will take a year to 18 months to catch up on. As one plant source said: “COVID exacerbated what was already a problem. It’d take a long time to catch up, even if things are fine. It’d only take one of the major plants to have a problem to throw everything back into chaos, unless capacity is increased.”
How are the delays in pressing albums affecting record stores?
Delays at getting fresh stock of popular titles in has gone from four weeks to four months. David Kosky, owner of well-respected record store Black Circle in Leighton Buzzard, Beds, saw albums by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath unavailable over Christmas. Even Fleetwood Mac’s eternal vinyl best-seller Rumours has been hard to stock. David said: “Warner’s account manager is very proactive at letting stores know when stock is coming back in. But Warner’s ordering portal for the whole of Europe had 16,000 vinyl copies of Rumours when that was last in. They went in a day. It was like trying to buy festival tickets online. It’s easier to stock for forthcoming releases, as they’ve got a street date to meet. But for restocks, albums go back and back. Other record stores are affected too, obviously, but it’s not ideal to knock back orders for albums like The Dark Side Of The Moon which are hardly obscure.”
Consumers like it, even if they moan about it
Label boss on Record Store Day
If record plants aren’t able to keep up with demand for regular albums, is going ahead with Record Store Day a good idea this year?
Absolutely, at least financially. It’s one of the biggest sales days of the year, for both stores and labels. “Consumers like it, even if they moan about it,” as one label boss neatly summarised. However, pressing plant delays is the main reason Record Store Day has again been split over two ‘drop’ days this year, on 12 June 12 and 17 July. Labels needed to have all their RSD titles at the plants by last October – and inevitable delays on some of RSD’s approximately 450 titles meant there needed to be a second date to accommodate the overspill.
The split dates creates more work for stores – a month to prepare, a month for each RSD and the month after to recover – and means Record Store Day will be the main focus of record shops for about a third of the year in 2021.
Black Circle’s David Kosky says: “I love Record Store Day, but some stores fall into a trap of bumbling along until RSD, having a massive weekend, then going back to bumbling along. It has to be approached as a nice supplement to the work you do the rest of the year. It’s important, but it can’t be to the detriment of your business as a whole.”
How has Brexit affected pressing plants?
It’s not been ideal. Because most plants are in Europe, getting vinyl to the UK is “an absolute nightmare,” according to the people at the sharp end we spoke to. Many couriers refuse to take goods to the UK. Costs for couriers and VAT issues have risen. Plants and their brokers have been hiring extra financial staff to understand the implications of Brexit and its paperwork. Crates of vinyl have been lost in transit. Warehouses are full, so there’s no room to leave any goods, vinyl included. “None of this is to do with pressing plant capacity,” as one source explained. “It all just adds to existing stress.”
What effect has that had on stores and labels?
Surprisingly little. It’s “an extra day or two” for UK titles to arrive, according to most of the labels we spoke to, echoed by the record stores. The pressing plants’ additional background work and stresses haven’t been passed on, in the main.
Are these delays going to increase the cost of vinyl?
According to Official Charts Company, the average retail price of an LP in 2020 was £21.55, compared to £20.23 in 2017. This includes boxsets. SDE readers may raise an eyebrow or two at these stats!
Shouldn’t the music industry have foreseen that some kind of problem was going to tip pressing plants over the edge?
Asking the music industry to foresee major issues is a tad naïve. In fairness, around five years ago, some plants did install new pressers to counteract a more minor version of the same issue. But it’s clear there needs to be a new plant to keep the vinyl revival in full swing.
Factories are incredibly expensive to build, it’s a massive, massive investment.”
Label executive
Will a new pressing plant get built to help solve the capacity problems?
This is the question at the heart of it all. Opinions vary. The BPI said: “We’re not aware of one being planned. That doesn’t mean it’s not being considered somewhere in the industry, we’re just not able to say one way or the other. It’s hard to say how productivity at the existing plants could be improved any further, as labels, distributors and so on have been working hard to achieve this already.” Pressing plants, their brokers and record stores would love to see it happen. But one label boss said: “Physical product, overall, is declining year on year and plants are very complex to run.” And a major label exec warned: “I don’t see a new plant happening. Factories are incredibly expensive to build, it’s a massive, massive investment.”
How could a new plant in Britain help?
It doesn’t seem especially likely that it’ll happen, but a new plant in the UK would at least overcome the issues plants face in exporting vinyl to the UK. It would also alleviate fears over albums leaking, both with the resulting turnaround time being shortened and for having fewer potential sources of someone leaking an artist’s music online. Label bosses admit that 90 percent of most leaks can be traced to a warehouse. Bring Me The Horizon’s 2013 album Sempiternal leaked two months before its planned release. Jordan Fish said: “Another reason we won’t wait four months to release an album is because the Sempiternal experience has left us paranoid about our music leaking. It doesn’t feel great to send your music outside of the country months ahead of release. I know NDAs are signed and I’m sure those distribution companies are great, but we can’t bear the thought of our music sat there for four months on a shelf. I’d have thought at least one label would take the opportunity at seeing how much vinyl is being sold and smash it by building a new plant. It definitely seems a good idea.”
It’s telling that a putative new UK pressing plant seemed to escape the attention of both the BPI and the record industry bosses we spoke to in preparing this feature. Based in Middlesbrough, the newly-launched Press On Vinyl hopes to press 100,000 records a month when it opens in May. Plant boss Danny Lowe told Teeside Live: “We hope we can help the fantastic local music scene. Not many towns have access to their own local vinyl plant, so it’s a real win for the area.” That’s undoubtedly laudable, but the ‘local’ aspect implies Press On Vinyl isn’t designed to help the worldwide vinyl pressing shortage.
Would a new pressing plant immediately solve everything?
No. One pressing plant source told us the complexities of getting a new plant up and running means it’d take a year to have any significant effect. SDE was told: “You don’t just install machines and everything is ready to go. You need a large boiler capacity, while pressers run differently depending on the air’s water content. There’s the galvanic side of making metalworks to make test pressings. You’d need six pressers to make a plant worthwhile, and finding trained engineers to run them isn’t easy. Every stage has a risk factor.”
The idea that 180g vinyl is better is purely emotional, because of its heaviness
Peter Quicke – CEO of Ninja Tune
What about the impact of vinyl on the environment? Should we be bringing more vinyl into the world?
The EU has regulations to make PVC (used in vinyl) less toxic. Music Declares Emergency wants pressing plants to use renewable energy. Founder Peter Quicke – also CEO of Ninja Tune and chair of AIM – said Optimal and Pallas are good on renewable energy, thanks partly to Germany’s beneficial renewable energy tariffs. Peter said: “All pressing plants are aware of the issues around sustainability. But, because of the current surplus demands on them, plants are currently focused on just being able to produce as much vinyl as they can. COVID has caused increased quality control problems because of staffing issues, so plants are struggling to think beyond the immediate.”
Those quality control problems means more records are being returned, and each ‘wasted’ vinyl is a big problem for the environment. Even recycled vinyl is made from the faulty stock on a production line before it gets into shops, rather than returned stock.
With most records being pressed in the EU, particularly with American plants closed, more records are being sent by air. “Ninja Tune uses sea freight where we can,” says Peter. “That takes four-six weeks, while air freight takes a day. If you’ve got a perceived ‘emergency’ of getting your record into the shops on time, air freight obviously makes more sense. The truth is, the diesel used in ships is nasty. But the amount of carbon is about five percent that of air freight.”
Does the music industry support the need for vinyl and pressing plants to become more sustainable?
“I think so,” says Peter Quicke. “But there’s some inertia and not enough urgency.” Another way to improve vinyl’s sustainability is to reduce heavyweight vinyl from 180g to 140g, as Ninja Tune have. Peter explains: “140g uses less PVC and it’s lighter, so you need less shipping. There’s also a rational reason why 140g vinyl sounds better: the stamper needs less pressure. The idea that 180g vinyl is better is purely emotional, because of its heaviness.”
Are CDs as damaging to the planet as vinyl?
They’re smaller and lighter, so they use less plastic and less shipping. But, as CDs are a mix of plastic and metal, they’re harder to recycle – though it can be done. CDs are also seen as more disposable than vinyl, so are more likely to end up on landfill. Vinyl is at least likely to be kept and played a lot, so it’s not single-use.
How else can productivity be improved, if a major new pressing plant isn’t being built?
Unearthing a previously undiscovered plant is obviously helpful: one US label recently learned of a plant in Nairobi. It’s also been mooted that cutting out record shops and going Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) would be beneficial, at least for labels. Delivery times are less strict, cutting out five weeks of distribution time. Vinyl and CDs go to one central warehouse, rather than to a distribution centre which sends it to hundreds of shops. Fans often get exclusive merchandise through a D2C webstore.
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NewsWhat are the disadvantages of D2C?
Anyone who’s used Rhino’s dismal Dig! store to buy their exclusive David Bowie and Iron Maiden live albums can answer that. Postage fees can be pricey, customer service is woeful and even securing the products can be a lottery. A friend of SDE is waiting for four of the five David Bowie live albums he managed to buy to turn up. Getting anyone at Dig! to respond to an email is a thankless task. It’s a far cry from a good record shop, as Black Circle’s David Kosky points out: “Labels starting to make albums and boxsets D2C-only makes it more difficult for shops like us but, if you dig into D2C sites, you don’t get value for money. Most fans aren’t bothered by the T-shirt or hat D2C albums get bundled with. Record shops aren’t just about the records, either. It’s social contact, discovering music in the shop, the cut-and-thrust of a customer community. D2C just can’t offer that.”
Is physical here to stay?
On a purely practical basis, physical is hugely beneficial to artists. Bring Me The Horizon’s Jordan Fish points out: “We sold over 10,000 physical copies of our album, which fans had been able to listen to for three months. Fans want to show support for their favourite artists. The truth is, if we’d released a T-shirt or a pendant instead of a vinyl to represent Post Human: Survival Horror and asked fans to buy that, a lot of them would have done so, because they want to support us. But vinyl is the ideal way to show that support. It’s playable, it’s the best audio experience, but we know of fans who buy our albums on vinyl who don’t have a turntable: it’s art, it’s something to get signed, a nice keepsake. Whichever way you want to approach it, vinyl is a great artistic product. No wonder there’s a big demand for it.”
Despite those cautionary words from labels about the expense of new pressing plants and the overall decline in physical product, the BPI insists it remains committed to the vinyl revival. They say: “We’re absolutely committed to vinyl. Labels, specialist and indie retailers, the recorded sector as a whole are hugely committed. Vinyl LPs account for 18 percent of all albums purchased, the highest level since the ’90s. Of course we’re committed to it.”
SDE investigation by John Earls & Paul Sinclair. Report by John Earls.
A record-like disk. It has an aluminium base plate attached to which is about 20mm of soft lacquer. Audio engineers using a lathe machine and a very sharp gemstone to carve the music into the lacquer.
Sync (or synchronisation) is a process where songs are combined with moving images – film, TV series, adverts, video games, trailers etc
Don’t ask. We’re sworn to secrecy!
SuperDeluxeEdition.com helps fans around the world discover physical music and discuss releases. To keep the site free, SDE participates in various affiliate programs, including Amazon and earns from qualifying purchases.
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Paul– Michael Fremmer over at Analog Planet wrote a post yesterday about having his comments removed from this article. He was a little miffed. You’ve probably seen his post by now. Apparently he took exception to a few things that your author may have gotten wrong in this article. Fremmer is one of the world’s leading experts on vinyl records. He has written for Stereophile for decades and I know him to be a truthful and inciteful writer. Hard to understand why you would censure his comments?
So what happened? I would have liked to have read his comments on this article. Hope you can step-up and help to mend this fence. You guys both do amazing work. There is probably lots of crossover readership between the two websites. I know I’m one.
They weren’t “removed”, they were never published. The fact that he thinks this OUTRAGE is worth writing a post about on his own site (which I haven’t seen) says it all. This ‘leading expert’ took to leaving abusive comments on this site directed towards me – there’s the measure of the man.
I’ve been reading him for years and years and can’t recall anything like this ever happening, but I take you at your word. No one should feel that they have a right to abusive commentary on someone else’s platform. I’m just sorry this happened. You’re actually both doing great work in your respective areas– which have, at most, minimal overlap. I wrote essentially the same post to Michael, telling him I’ve read your site, near daily for years, and that you’ve never been anything less than respectful of all others contributing comments. Wish I hadn’t seen any of this, but thanks at least for clarifying it a bit more.
One last… I just popped over to Analog Planet and noticed right away that he pulled that shady about SDE post off of his site entirely. Maybe all of the comments (and there were quite a few) sticking up for SDE made him reconsider his aggressive reaction to what was overall a pretty good article on the present state of vinyl. Cheers!
Good to know. Thanks.
I just noticed that a comment I added yesterday has not been added. The comment was not outrageous, or offensive, but providing a different view point to another commentator. Are you Filtering out pro vinyl comments?
The comment is there, I can see it. “Are you Filtering out pro vinyl comments?” is that a serious question?! No, but I do filter out people being obnoxious and rude…
Great video here of a top-end tone-arm designer putting some myths to rest
https://youtu.be/4vzcD8OK_Do
I’m playing the devil’s advocate here because I’m a record buyer and I don’t have a turntable but 2 years ago while queueing on Record Store Day at Rough Trade East in London, just for fun I asked about 40 people (male and female) if they had a record player and I only found 6 who actually owned one but they were all into records. Ok, it was only about 40 people, not a very big sample but what does it say about the vinyl “revival”?
As Bring Me The Horizon’s Jordan Fish points out in the article above: “(…) we know of fans who buy our albums on vinyl who don’t have a turntable: it’s art, it’s something to get signed, a nice keepsake. Whichever way you want to approach it, vinyl is a great artistic product.”
In the scheme of things, does it really matter that there is a delay in production, that there aren’t enough record plants, that records are not 180 or 140 grams or that they are warped or perfectly flat? Most collectors don’t even open the records they buy and keep them sealed and stickered. Personally I do open them but don’t play them hence why, at the price we pay for a vinyl record, there should always be a download code which is not a given anymore… Some artists would have you know that a download code supposedly costs money to provide, a statement I’ve yet to fathom…
Out of fairness (?) to those vinyl collectors who don’t play their records and/or purchase just to collect the physical product- I’m in a similar, albeit smaller, boat with my vinyl music collection. I only collect CDs and those are opened, auditioned, and ripped to my computer (encoded in FLAC for my home network and at 256 ACC for the portable/iPhone/iPod devices). I’ve become a bit obsessed with volume matching tracks off of CD singles, EPs, etc. and use Adobe Audition to adjust the track’s volume to match the main album’s volume (it’s taken years of effort to fine tune my large library of music where I try to make my own “Deluxe” versions of favorite albums by artists who never gave an album the treatment or worse off when a Super Deluxe Box is missing tracks from singles, EPs, and the like). Either way, my main point surrounds owning the physical media in the first place and having that fallback to future proof how I want to listen to my music. Especially true as I recall my first years ripping discs (circa 2001) in iTunes at 192 AAC because I thought it sounded better than the default iTunes sold 128 AAC – how things change. 6 iPhones, 7 iPods, and 2 Hi Res Players later AAC doesn’t always fit the bill…not even 2 channel FLAC with the introduction of Dolby ATMOS in Blu-Ray album formats.
I’d be very underwhelmed if I only collected vinyl and an album failed to include a lossless version of the album. The very few standalone vinyl purchases I’ve made have all been a result of bonus or additional tracks not offered on my preferred format [in every case, they came with FLAC downloads]. If the majority point in collecting wax is to appreciate the sonics- what’s an MP3 going to do for you on the road/away from home? And in my case, the same applies with any format that begins in a lossy state. Does your music listening just stop when you’re away from the turntable or do you just “give in” and concede to streaming quality? With CD at least, good mastering aside, you’re in a good spot to begin with and it’s quite literally up to you in choosing the best path for digitalization, format conversion, etc. And it’s also quite easy to put the disc into a dedicated CD player, DVD player, Blu-ray player, Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player…I laugh when folks state they have no way to play compact discs :)
I’m currently sitting on 100 plus new/sealed LPs that were part of super deluxe box sets or exclusive standalone releases and were just sent to a house without a turntable (a special thanks to Rhino Records) – the compact discs, however, have all been opened + played + enjoyed and the music itself is the only part that matters to me.
What would you classify as a pressing plant “of a significant size?” Because based on my reading of the article, you omitted Quality Records Pressings in Salina, KS, built in 2011, which processes a ton of records. Additionally, I would not consider Third Man Pressings a “boutique” pressing plant. Also, no mention of RTI or Furnace? I agree with your general argument, but you get to it with a lot of factual omissions.
Also, no mention to the many small pressing plants that opened in these last 4-5 years. They are very importante to take the pressure of the big ones. Most of the releases nowadays are 300-500 units. That can be done in a day or two in a smaller operation, not subject to the waiting times of the big ones.
Here’s an irony. I have suggested a couple of times (to other magazines/publications too) that the one thing missing in reviews of vinyl (especially, although other media can be affect) is the quality of the production.
I have had a number of vinyl reissues in recent years where the quality was garbage. A few from 4AD for example. Nothing to do with the weight (all 180g) but down to shoddy pressings.
So, would SDE please
a) Comment on the quality of any vinyl they review. Appreciate this is a sample size of one but it’s a start.
b) Tell us which pressing house was involved with each issue. Is 4Ad using GZ………..?
Thanks
That’s more niche than I want SDE to be. Other sites and forums cover this kind of thing. I really do not want to be reading comments every day with people arguing over vinyl pressings, and I imagine that the majority don’t either.
Paul, if you added a just tiny bit of info about who’s pressing a new release (assuming this info is known) I’d find that helpful and its just a few words. For those that want to go way deeper I’d suggest The Hoffman Music forums. They have endless threads discussing the pressing quality of countless releases– I go there occasionally. I also read the comments on the releases listed on Discogs– they usually contain info on any quality issues. Agree that discussions about vinyl pressing quality aren’t why I visit SDE. You have been doing a consistently excellent job on this site for as long as I can remember. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Wheadley. Yes, I would be happy to mention things like where something is being pressed if it is known, although sometimes just getting basic facts from PRs or labels like ‘has this been remastered?’ is tricky enough!
Whilst I am the ultimate cynic when it comes to the “vinyl” comeback….I consider it equal parts marketing and a(apologies for crudity) dick lengthening exercise. What intrigues me about this so called revival is the apparent quality of the product. This is a piece I stumbled across …think on Amazon….the question is how particular are buyers…back in the pre cd era I had many records which had a small warp in them but would still play….I think the bloke in this message (and I will give him great credit for calling them records) expects perfection….each record to be perfectly flat…..
” I
ve found the biggest issue I have with new LPs is the number that are warped especially those in box sets.ve recently had to return:I
The Rolling Stones 1971-1016 Studio Albums (15 Albums/20 LPs) six LPs warped.
The Turtles Albums Collection (6 LPs) all SIX LPs warped.
Steve Miller Band Complete Albums Volume 1 1968-1976 (9 LPs) The second LP
Sailorwas warped, after the other box sets I couldnt be arsed checking the rest. Got this from Amazon Germany for £79, return shipping over £57! Which they refunded without issue.ve returned THREE of these and gave up, at least 6 singles warped in each box and no I couldnThe Beatles Singles Collection, I
t make up a complete flat collection from the 3 boxes. I tried.sWe can only hope the cost of having these boxes being returned to the sellers feeds back to the record plants, These warped discs can only be down to not giving the pressings time to cool down prior to packaging.
To cap all of this my coloured vinyl SE set of The Who
Whoartrived today with the Red LP2 warped. I messaged The Whos on line store, they can have it back Ive done with warped discs.The thing is I still prefer LPs to CDs, that
s me and Im not arguing with anyone about it although I still buy CDs due to space shortages.The quality of the packaging on this 50th anniversary is superb. That’s where the good stops.
Giles Martin laid an egg with this remix. Absolutely pointless. A clumsy, lifeless mix. Helter Skelter, in particular, is awful. What a dissapointment. A really shabby job on one of my favorite albums of all time.
After FOUR replacement copies ordered, i have finally given up waiting for an acceptable product that wasn’t heavily warped. I can’t believe Amazon is selling this mediocre pressing, all four copies arrived with BOTH LP’s warped, with a strangling shrinkwrap that probably ruined them all. A real shame; in spite of the 5 star work that Giles Martin has done with this mix, the lame pressing of these LP’s is subpar.
– RECIEVED FOUR HEAVILY WARPED REPLACEMENT COPIES
– MEDIOCRE PRESSING
– 5 STAR GILES MARTIN MIX
Will ask for refund and never buy this again. Don’t bother buying it.”
The digital edition of Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters was released 17 April 2020. Physical editions followed three months later.
I know this won’t go down well here but I really don’t get the vinyl revival thing. I know that 180 gram vinyl and half speed mastering is probably fantastic but spending money for something you probably have on CD/streaming and sounding better than vinyl…plus the money for the turntable to do it justice…I don’t understand why anyone would want to do this. CDs are far superior when it comes to quality and storage and now quality wise the likes of Amazon music HD and Tidal are giving the ultimate quality people need for a modest monthly price where you are probably paying less and getting far more than a vinyl purchase. Each to their own I suppose but it’s not for me. I have a deezer sub and a Fiio hi res audio player and I’m listening to music with quality I could never get on vinyl.
“I’m listening to music with quality I could never get on vinyl.”
You obviously haven’t listened to well pressed vinyl on a half decent system. I’m a Tidal subscriber & it’s great, generally way better than CD. But my well pressed & mastered vinyl sounds way better.
/RANT ON
To be honest, reading this, I’m far more annoyed at Paul and SDE than I am at anyone else. This article is good and all, but it smacks of hip-dom. Sorry Paul. Where have you and SDE been as CD’s have been continually butchered by highly compressed masters? Where is the investigation? Where is the article? Where is the investigation into cheap digipacs? Highly compressed masters has done more to destroy music than a delay of a few months for a vinyl release!
One of the reasons Vinyl is better than CD right now is because of the care and attention that is paid to the process. The masters used for Vinyl are being crafted, while digital masters are being run through algorithms to maximize volume. If the same care given to Vinyl was applied to CD, we’d have even more benefits (I don’t want to start a CD v. Vinyl argument here, but it’s simply factual that CD has more dynamic range, and doesn’t have the limitations of having to be sequenced in a specific way to ensure quality).
But of course, there have been no articles on these subjects. No SDE investigation. No campaign from Paul. The fact is, SDE has a larger voice than anyone individually, so it’s sad that they have chosen to ignore this question. Yet, a delay of a few months on a Vinyl release gets all this attention?!?! A delay? Really?
I know digital isn’t hip, but at the end of the day it’s the music that counts. How about we look into why there aren’t two masters digitally – one for streaming that can be as compressed as they want, and one mastered with the same attention that Vinyl gets for CD’s? Why don’t we get many hi-res physical release outside of box sets? Why is SACD so poorly supported? Why have stellar labels such as Nonesuch sold out their recordings by releasing them on some of the worst digipacs I’ve ever seen?
Come on Paul – try and save music, forget the hip Vinyl angle, and take on the bigger problem. For example, Vinyl lovers want an analog master used – why are record companies often obtuse about what has a digital source and what doesn’t?
At the end of the day the article here asks the question: Why are Vinyl releases delayed? Talk about First World problems – how about “why did Radiohead’s last CD sound like mush on CD because it so was so compressed?” And that’s just one example of literally thousands. Why is packaging getting increasingly cheaper and more nasty?
Sorry – the article may be worthy, but overall it just annoyed me. I know what the larger problem is, but apparently SDE hasn’t seen fit to take it on. Sorry Paul, I’ve got to tell it as I see it. I know this is your site and all. However, the problem tackled here is minuscule compared to the larger issues. Record stores can sell CD’s as well as Vinyl! A delay isn’t great, but is it really such a big problem when we have so much being released right now? If they could keep up, who would be able to afford it?!?
/RANT OFF.
Interesting article and discussion.
Another thing worth mentioning is the distribution problems the past two years. Two years ago, in the US, WMG (Warner Music Group) announced it was changing distributors from Technicolor to Direct Shot (purchased by Legacy Supply Chain Services). It meant all 3 majors (Universal, Warner and Sony) shared the same distributor (Direct Shot). Alternative Distribution Alliance (a music distribution company owned by Warner Music Group) used to distribute most independant labels but after the deal with Direct Shot, Domino, Saddler Creek, Beggars switched to Redeye as distributor.
As a result of this consolidation, more and more delays as Direct Shot could’t keep up with orders from labels and record stores. An order that usually took a week to fulfill now needed approx 6 to 8 weeks. As local record stores were suffering the most, majors could’t care less about the problem. As streaming accounts for 80% of record industry revenues, a problem with distribution and physical sales isn’t a major issue for them. According to Rolling Stone, CDs and vinyl accounted for nearly a billion dollars in revenue in 2019, about one-tenth of the U.S. music industry.
In the end, artists want their albums released on CD, vinyl, K7 or even available as downloads as they get a fair share and defined percentage on sales. With streaming, it’s a different story.
For major labels, they don’t really care and that’s why they all outsourced distribution of CDs and vinyls.
I’ve been buying vinyl for 30 years and even though less vinyls were produced between 1993 and 2008 (before the vinyl resurgence), you still had vinyl enthusiasts buying vinyls in record store, fairs, eBay, etc. That’s why I think vinyl will remain and people will still buy vinyl records in 10 or 20 years but we could go back to the days of 1995-2005 when only a small percentage of new releases were pressed on vinyl (mainly indie releases) and even less classic albums repressed on vinyl.
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2020/02/an-absolute-nightmare-how-a-distribution-crisis-is-crippling-nj-record-stores.html
Fascinating read – thanks John and Paul. I must admit I love this kind of industry behind-the-scenes article. Paul, have you thought of maybe making a Keepsake booklet around your investigative articles – kind of like ‘SDE investigates’ or ‘How it Works: The Physical Music Industry’ ;-) being serious though, here. Compile this with e.g. your opinion piece on big gig scalping practices (‘The Great Sausage Roll Swindle’) , a debate piece on RSD…. I reckon that could be really interesting. I’d buy it!
Great job Paul. I think that we got to point that all physical formats are for a very small group of people which collecting music is a kind of hobby.they are willing to pay their hard working money ,but they demad quality. Neither cds or vinyl are dead , but their target group are “audiophile” people. No need to pay for a brickwall sounding cd or constantly poping vinyl. If the indestry will understand and respect that,i think that it doesn t matter if a cd or vinyl becomes availiable a couple or more months after the release to the streaming services. The real fans of the artist we ll support them.All the others will not even pay for a premium streaming subscprition. By the way hd tracks is a very good option.But this is also for people willing to pay for music. my final words:respect me and you ll have my money!
Kudos to john for the great article
Yet vinyl quality still has a ways to go. So far, the only new pressing I have bought during the last few months that HASN’T had any pops or noticeable surface noise has been the 2-LP edition of Warren Zevon’s Stand in the Fire. Of course, with pressing cycles still at a miserly 30 seconds (before vinyl’s decline in quality in the 1970s, 45 to 60-second cycles were more common), it’s not surprising, even though they otherwise seem to be taking more care with the format than they did back in the days where the major labels stumbled all over themselves to ship platinum…
The industry foisted 180g vinyl on the public as a “luxury” feature to persuade punters to pay higher prices for the product. Some enlightened artists insist upon 140 g vinyl as there is no sound difference.
Back in 2014, I attended an Audio Engineering Society meeting on the vinyl resurgence in which the issue of 180g vinyl was brought up. The engineers at the meeting said that 180g vinyl requires more time on the press (about 30 seconds), but more importantly, even though 180g has a thicker biscuit, it’s more likely to have a “vinyl fill” problem (like a waffle with not enough batter). Both the disc cutters at the meeting also said they prefer 140g vinyl, even though they only did lacquer cutting, not pressing.
30 seconds isn’t long enough. Before the veritable explosion of platinum-selling LPs in the mid-70s and the oil shocks (which together had the industry using recycled and inferior quality vinyl), longer pressing cycles were more common.
Great article. I’ve slowed my vinyl buying because of the quality control issues that others have talked about here. I’m done spending that kind of money for poor pressings. It seems like the quality control issues have gotten really bad over the last six months. I can’t remember seeing so many warped and noisy records in my 45+ years of buying music.
The late 70s and early 80s. Especially when LP jackets used heavier cardboard stock (which contributed to LPs warping along with the covers as the shrink wrap shrunk) and places like Tower Records would literally stack albums in piles on those platforms between the racks. Combine that with 20 to 30-second pressing cycles and recycled vinyl (sometimes without bothering to remove the old labels first, I remember reading at the time), and that was a horrible time for records—and a major reason why folks like me gladly abandoned vinyl for the Compact Disc when it finally hit the market.
Yes, that was a bad period. I do remember cringing at the stacks of LP’s in the larger record stores during that time. I too happily switched to the Compact Disc for the same reasons when it hit the market.
Wow, great in-depth story. Very well done.
These articles and interviews make this website so much more than only news about artists and releases.
Very interesting article. It first became clear to me that there were real pressing problems when you hear stories that Taylor Swift has just “dropped” a new album – cd will be available in a month but vinyl six months away! If an organisation like Swifts doesn’t have the power to make things happen, then there must be a real industry situation. Swift’s latest Fearless reworking was out on CD last week, but the previous release – Evermore – doesn’t make its vinyl debut until end of May!
I’ve always presumed that record companies aren’t investing in new plants because they are rather hoping this vinyl revival will go away. I don’t know what level of profit margins physical products create, but it would surely be much simpler for the majors if everybody just downloaded digital. Max profit for little outlay.
Having said that, I don’t understand why certain companies seem to be pushing for some new releases on cassette and now I’ve noticed even 8 track ( the new forthcoming St Vincent release). Surely nobody wants to play – or is able to play – these formats. Where does it stop? Will they issue on 78rpm or cylinders?
My final thought is how much of the new vinyl is actually played rather than just collected. Not saying there is anything wrong with collecting. I certainly have more than my fair share of records still in shrink wrap. I find increasingly that I’m still playing CDs mostly and looking at vinyl.
I seem to recall reading one survey suggesting 40-50% of vinyl was never played, although I guess whether or not purchasers play it isn’t of any great concern to the vendor. It might, however, help explain how the market can sustain selling vinyl releases months after release as a stream, download or CD.
A very, very interesting read. Thank you to the authors for it. It’s the kind of industry articles I like reading.
Regarding the content, my conclusion is that even though vinyl sales have increased year over year, somehow the industry is hesitant to invest in new vinyl pressing capacity, even if that means higher prices for the pressing service (less available capacity means plants can, and will, charge more). Maybe they don’t think this is a trend that will last many years more, which, at the same time, might mean more expensive vinyl releases. And I think digital first and physical later is a risky policy for record labels, because eventually part of the customers that would have bought the physical release will end up settling for the digital version (“why buy the vinyl when I already listened to it?”).
We may never come to agreement on whether vinyl or CD sounds better…but, can someone; anyone please agree that the new US Volvo commercial should not be using New Oder’s “Blue Monday” – couldn’t they solicit license for Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” instead? A fan’s worst nightmare.
Most of the difference is in the mastering, I think. Vinyl frequently sounds better these days because there are physical limits to mastering for loudness that don’t exist for digital formats—leading to the ironic situation that the format originally touted for its wide dynamic range often contains music that has less dynamic range that its vinyl counterpart.
Otherwise, the main advantage of the digital formats is that the physical medium doesn’t affect sound quality (except perhaps in cases of severe manufacturing defects).
Does anyone know which plant is doing the Abbey Road half-speed remasters? I have had absolutely terrible luck with them: scratches, rub marks, etc…quite disappointing!
Take it as a sign from the Vinyl Gods :) Most of those 1/2 speeds are a waste of money.
May I add that this is a beautiful article, most interesting to learn all these aspects. Thank you so much Paul for letting us have also this precious industry inside information.
I apologise if maybe it has been said already: is the author John Earls of Classic Pop (and other) fame? If so, you make a great professional collaboration, congratulations (you do in any case). I usually tend to share most of John’ s opinions and reviews (and apparently tastes). He is indeed a fan of deluxe boxsets and reissues.
Thanks Cris and yes, that is indeed the same John Earls!
@Ansalon, much below.
I totally agree, personally.
However the dispute of the audio quality between cd and vinyl has been going on for ages and it seems to me that an agreement on the basic principles (digitalised vs analogue, the span, the scope, the frequencies lost, etc.) of the discussion has not been reached between the parties. I am a vinyl junkie and have always been, even in the darkest years. NEVER gave in to CD (only when I could not do without the record and was sure a vinyl would not come out [it probably happened only with the second and third Dubstar albums]: I have already written in a comment years ago that I have waited for a year to buy Seal IV on vinyl with no certainty whatsoever that it would and did the same for six months for Duran’ s RCM which came out limited via the fan club).
Apart from the object of course, to me vinyl sound is warmer. But I am no audiophile (even though I do perceive it when something sounds “wrong”, for whatever reason).
So I would be glad if someone who is an expert could learnedly explain the objective pros and cons of the two from a technical point of view. It would be a very interesting read.
I’m no expert but this is what I’ve found out.The “warmer” sound of vinyl is due to them mastering high sounds out of vinyl because they won’t play back on records.Never have been able to therefore people have been conditioned to listen to music with less treble.The sound problems people associate with cds have nothing to do with the medium itself.As large numbers of people switched to listening to music on portable technology and headphones companies became aware that they didn’t like outside environment sounds going over the top of the music in quieter passages.Therefore they used mastering that made the soft parts louder and decreased the difference in volume between the loud and soft parts-the loudness wars.This became conventional wisdom.
Not all cds are mastered this way and my hope is that as CD becomes more of a niche format they will start using flat transfers of the master tapes.To take 2 examples of recent releases with great dynamic range-Rough And Rowdy Ways and The Future Bites-I don’t think I have seen anyone comment on audiophile forums that the vinyl sounds better than the CD.
Don’t know where you found this out but it’s completely false. Vinyl records can reproduce frequencies from 7hz to 50khz. Well beyond standard audio CD’s. Highs are not rolled off due to limitations of the medium– you’re confusing RIAA mastering requirements with the notion that this is done to make a warmer sound or to address some limitation inherent to vinyl. Record cartridges can easily reproduce frequencies well above 20khz. Human hearing tops out at 20khz, BUT that does not mean that we do not perceive or have any use for higher frequencies– up to 100khz– this information/frequencies is where the brain triangulates the location of a sound. This is why it is far easier to perceive a 3D-like soundstage when listening to well-recorded and mastered vinyl records.
The compression wars did not begin with earbuds and smartphones– although they may be the reason that the trend continues. It began with radio where more compression gives a punchier sound and makes it easier to hear the quieter passages of a song– labels recognized this and began competing to make their releases stand up to other competitors releases when broadcast.
https://www.furnacemfg.com/vinyl-record-audio-preparation/#:~:text=Deep%20Dive%20Into%20the%20Groove,accurately%20reproduced%20on%20your%20LP.
Thank you too Wheadley, most comforting for a vinyl lover! But again I see there appears to be no common agreement on the characteristics of the two formats in otder to reach a final conclusion..!
Thank you Alan, most intriguing and happy to learn some of the aspects of the matter. But I lost your thread in your conclusion regarding cds and mastrr tapes: am I therefore given to think that vinyls are therefore still more faithful to the original than cds notwithstanding the treble exclusion aspect?
I will try to explain the mastering thing more clearly.
When there was a big explosion in portable music devices starting with discman and moving to iPod etc music companies researched listening preferences for those consumers.They found out that consumers didn’t like the music going quiet so sounds of the outside world took over.They found out that by bringing up the volume of the softer bits those people were happier.There was now less volume difference between the louder and softer bits.This is the reduction in Dynamic Range that is written about.This style of mastering became the standard that was also used for cds.
It is a decision made at the mastering stage for each release where they can decide what volume range they want.
I don’t know why people are so eager to get rid of CD. It still massively out sells vinyl. As the poster below said, it seems more to be the fact that record labels can make a lot more money on the price of vinyl than CD.
True.
I wrote long ago that in 1995 (the beginning of the Dark Ages, when I fought alone with the help of any microscopic record shop I could find in my travels and small second hand vinyl record fairs) I bought Queen’ s Made in Heaven (gatefold, three posters, cream vinyl) at HALF the price of the cd. Ridiculous. I simply could not believe people couldn’ t see the resounding difference.
Price wise, today it is shamefully the opposite.
Great article, and the comments also cover many many issues with the whole vinyl situation. I’d love to know more about which plants are pressing which records, because I’ve had far too many bad pressings to keep shelling out so much money without knowing I’m going to get a decent pressing. In fact thanks to this wonderful site I’ve turned to more super deluxe CD sets as better investments of my time and money. You can sit down and enjoy the experience of listening to a CD just the same.
Fantastic article! Big thanks to John and Paul for this. One thing I’m always surprised at is how many records are released each week. My local shop sends out a weekly email and there is always 10-20+ vinyl releases. Assume this is stuff that could have come out earlier if more pressing plants? Also slightly related, but I keep reading about a cassette revival – if this picks up speed could it run into similar production delays as vinyl?
CDs are more likely to end up in the trash than vinyl? I’d like to see the source of that statement. Does anyone remember that vinyl requires cleaning and more expensive hardware to achieve the same sound quality as a CD? What about playing CDs in the car? If one is concerned about the environment think about how many records an SDE requires vs. a single Blu-ray. I can go on but it seems to me that the vinyl resurgence is motivated by the fact that more money can be made by selling vinyl, not that it is “better.” Unless you have over $10,000, maybe even $20,000 investment in your audio equipment it is very unlikely that you are hearing better sound from a record than at CD.
Thank you. This was a big “eye twitch” inspiration as I read this. Great article, regardless, but the attitude seems very “Gee, wish I could find the forest in all these trees.”
Whining about sustainability only gets you so far if you’re acknowledging a culture (real or imagined) in which everything is disposable while taking no steps to address it. Sure, don’t be a hog about manufacturing and transport, but it’s all for nothing if 3/4 of what you manufacture and ship winds up trashed in half a year (or less, in the case of damaged/defective goods).
Only a couple of albums had sold over 500,000 copies in all formats except streaming in the US in 2020 by November. Of the best selling 25, only a handful were by artists likely to be selling vinyl in any numbers This might explain some of the indifference amongst larger record companies to increasing vinyl production capacity.
If wot you are saying is correct!
Then you have hit the nail on the head!
And there is a very, very, very good chance this so called vinyl revival is a flash in the pan,,and will be going down the dumper soon,so why spend millions building new facilitys?
I’m one of those guys that if I see a classic album of my youth in fopp or hmv I will buy it just to have it, maybe put it in a display cabinet or on a shelf,no record player,CDs in car or 4 k player threw my telly! I believe that about 50% of people who buy vinyl do the same thing!
Now (down the dumper) ten thumps up if anyone can tell me where that phrase came from?
Smash Hits, John
I can only give you 1 thumb, sorry
I have no issue with delays or waiting for the physical format – especially if thought & care is put into the finished item. HOWEVER when there are delays for whatever reason, it is unacceptable for poor communication from the sellers end. Either not letting you know there will be a delay, or worse still not replying when you send a query regarding an item – I am looking at you WARNERS!!! I’ve had terrible experience with them just recently. Items not turning up on time (or at all in some cases i’m still waiting!), and no response or e-mail to say what’s happening!
It really is just good customer service that’s needed & common decency.
Thanks for a great piece of reporting. Enjoyable and really informative. Thanks also for raising the issues of environmental impact, as this seems too rarely talked about. I wish more was being done about this.
Great article, very revealing. Thanks & congrats Paul and John.
I had noticed several vinyl pre orders I had in were getting put back. This gave me some answers and I guess made me appreciate the manufacturing process more and the lead times to regular albums, let alone special edition box sets… I must admit I never thought about the environmental aspect of vinyl, but agree CDs are more likely to end up in landfill. I have this romantic idea I will hand all my vinyl down to my son, but he will probably look at them and (apart from the coloured vinyl) probably make a face and go “who the hell are they?” – maybe I’ll just sell them on eBay some time in the future and go on a cruise!
And that cruise ship will be really good for the environment won’t it!, And every record you post to a eBay buyer will also do the environment good!
I’m no Greta thunburg,in fact I’d bring back coal,,
Give them to your son!
Great read! would be interesting to understand the environmental impact of “streaming” versus production of physical media as well in 2021. Also, the impact of the space required to store the physical media? Finally, who actually decides what gets to press on physical media?
Fantastic read. I found it interesting to hear about the production of vinyl and complexity of the growing market. I have always assumed that record pressing plants were being brought back to life or new highly automated assembly lines were being developed. Initially when vinyl started it’s comeback some pressings were dreadful, Blue Note 75 comes to mind. Eventually there were quality improvements however I still see more manufacturing defects on vinyl then what there was in the 70s and 80s.
180 gram vinyl pressings have become the norm. I always wondered why and if there was any advantages. Surprised that there’s actually a disadvantage.
I have a different thought on D2C after the Bowie Brilliant Adventures mess.
I know this article is about vinyl but the mention of digital only collectors/SDEs through iTunes made me think of NFTs (Non fungible tokens) and if they may ultimately replace physical product.
https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/kings-of-leon-when-you-see-yourself-album-nft-crypto-1135192/amp/
Maybe a future SDE story?
I have not been a vinyl person for 35 years but found this article fascinating.Probably the best story ever published on the site.
In the “delayed to 2022 due to manufacturing constraints” list I can give you one.Neil Young’s Alchemy was scheduled for 29 October but has been moved to 2022 with no actual date.He posted this week that they have finished work on a number of projects but have come up against the vinyl log jam.
The only Archives releases that have dates now are the 6 Official Bootleg Series titles in late August and mid September.They might only have CD and download release initially anyway although he has said he plans for them all to come out on vinyl as well.
”American vinyl is a thorny issue. The vinyl renaissance hasn’t been as widespread in the States as in Britain. In general terms, a box set will sell about as many copies in the US as in the UK, so there’s obviously far fewer records being sold per capita Stateside.”
I don’t think the above statement is accurate.
According to Statista:
Continuing one of the more surprising comebacks of the digital age, vinyl album sales in the United States have grown for the 15th consecutive year. In 2020, 27.5 million LPs were sold in the United States, up 46 percent compared to 2019 and more than 30-fold compared to 2006 when the vinyl comeback began.
https://www.statista.com/chart/7699/lp-sales-in-the-united-states/
So…for the U.S: 27.5 million records sold to a population of 331 million = 8.2%
For the U.K.: 4.8 million records sold to a population of 68 million people 7.0%
The US actually has sold more per capita.
Hi Jon,
the article is mentioning box sets (as you quoted correct), but you’re giving us numbers for vinyl records.
So i assume both John (Earls) and you are right, you’re just talking about different things…
Very interesting and informativo article!
I think these delays are because everyone is going to the same pressing plants as before, and these are the ones delaying all production.
There are lots of new pressing plants making records now. Almost 20 in Europe, only in the last 6 years. Most are small operations, with one or two presses, but most of them, if not all, use new machines built recently, with modern technology (even if they are just a new version of the old ones). There is the Newbilt press, made in Germany and the Pheenix-Alpha made in Sweden. There is also Vyril from Canada. All three are in the market only for 7 years or so.
Even having just one press, these small operations can make about 700-2000 records per day, depending on how many shifts.
Some of them have a turnaround time of 6-8 weeks, and most of this waiting is because of cutting and galvanics, who can take from 2 to 6 weeks to deliver.
This “small” production numbers are not so small, since most indie labels usually make edition of 1000 pieces, or less.
Recurring to these new small pressing plants will ease the pressure and turnaround time for the big ones like GZ, Optimal, etc, which are the ones taking 4-5 months.
Also, the new ones have a lot of margin to grow, while still mantaining good delivery times. The quality also can be the same or better depending on quality control, because all these big plants are already using the exact same machines as the small new ones.
The big plants can dedicate to big releases of tens of thousands and these small ones are perfect for small quantity releases, like 300 or 500.
It’ just a question of time for labels and artists will find and trust the new pressing plants and waiting times will be come bearable. And maybe even the prices too.
Such an interesting, well-researched and excellent article, thanks so much for doing this.
As others have already alluded, it’s highly unlikely that record companies would want to invest in new plants, regardless of vinyl’s increasing popularity. Clearly, the majority of people who frequent this website will keep vinyl alive; however, the majority of consumers prefer to stream and don’t have that compulsion to own a physical copy of music.
I’d also argue that popular music itself is going to be less sought after owing to the fact that much of it has been so homogenised to the point where the songs and artists sound the same. Maybe it’s me, but I generally leant towards music that not only sounded great to my ears, but also had that point of difference that made me want to spend my hard earned money on it. I simply cannot see why substantial numbers of consumers would invest in physical copies of most of the modern music when it sounds as disposable and homogenised as it does. Streaming appears to suit them more as they change their playlists on Spotify and the like, rather than investing serious time and money in getting to know an album.
The other issue of course is that music is no longer the cultural phenomenon it once was as young people find entertainment in a variety of other forms (mostly gaming).
Naturally I hope I’m wrong…
‘I simply cannot see why substantial numbers of consumers would invest in physical copies of most of the modern music when it sounds as disposable and homogenised as it does.’
I don’t disagree that there is a lot of dross non descript music that is made today, that needs to never be made let alone get a physical release. but there is also a lot of decent acts that the youth of today love, which physical product is perfect for.
My son loves Slowthai who I wouldn’t have given a second listen to. Despite streaming, he’s also bought the record and cd. Some of the personalised marketing Slowthai does, puts to shame the old establishment way of communicating (or not) with customers, and its good to see Slowthai doing well. He even rang my son up on April 1st – no he didn’t – that was dad pretending to be Tyrone (Slowthai) – I got him good!
Agree that there are some decent modern artists and releases. Sadly they are few and far between, as are those artists who put the central focus on producing complete albums, rather than just a series of collaborative singles releases.
Very interesting read, learnt a few things there. Whatever format people choose, hope vinyl stays, it’s what I grew up with in the early 80’s to the present day.
Being 63, I started listening only to vinyl, had a few cassettes for portable listening. Even had some 8 tracks for car use. Times move on, cd’s came out in the eighties and they were the new ‘in-thing’, easy to repeat favourite tracks with a remote control etc. But one thing that never changed was the richness, depth & quality of vinyl.
You want to hold your new album sleeve, read who played on each track & boost to your peers what you are listening to & why they should do the same.
All music media has a place, some more convenient if your out running / on holiday or lounging in your den.
We need to keep it important, encouraging all generations to enjoy the benefits of relaxation, listening to your favourite artists.
Interesting article. Would like to know if/how these delays and even the pre-COVID backlogs affect the price of vinyl. Seems like it is just marketing departments colluding to raise prices but curious if it relates to the production costs being higher with less manufacturing capacity available compared to before vinyl went out of fashion in the early 90s. Of course CDs being cheaper to manufacture vs vinyl didn’t mean they were priced lower back in the day. Seems they could make more money overall by bringing down the price point and luring in a larger market (including the younger generation).
Excellent read that answered all of my questions about the process and how it was COVID affected. In the states the only issues I’ve had is with bigger acts such as Petty, etc. with regards to delays. Smaller bands and labels seem to be on time for the bands I follow at least. I listen to a lot of Extreme Metal and never see delays with these acts and the vinyl is generally excellent in quality and well packaged with inserts, posters, etc. I definitely believe there are pockets of plants out there not in the larger radar, at least in the States. Metal Blade, Southern Lord, Peaceville, take your pick, they all seem to knock it out if the park on quality and are never delayed.
Really interesting and informative read.
Thanks Paul, really enjoyed that.
Very informative reading. Thanks !
Dublin Vinyl is a new pressing plant in Dublin, Ireland.
https://dublinvinyl.com/
with an associated store:
https://therecordhub.com/
Top article: good insights into the challenges of something that lots of us love.
Great article guys. This is the kind of thing that draws me back to SDE every day.
As a recent convert back to vinyl, it’s great to see the medium growing all the time but unless there is a major new plant I fear that the only thing that will grow are the prices. Quality is also a concern as I have had some very poor pressings from certain plants.The majors should be addressing this needs but the music industry is sadly not known for their foresight.
The delays in major artist releases is annoying for fans and bad for business so hopefully something will happen in the next couple of years.
On another issue, love the new website revamp. Worth all the work. Well done!
Thanks for a superb informative article. Tremendous read.
Great post , i have recently returned to vinyl after 25 yrs or so , 180g vinyl was the thing of dreams back then , or so i thought i seem to get a lot of static building up during playback , so i tried one of my 70`s albums hardly any static at all , anyone else had this ? , any tips . I even but an anti static gun.
Perhaps it’s your mat? I was told that rubber mats generate more static than cork ones. I have no idea why this could possibly be the case, but I have a cork mat & have no problem with static.
Paul et al
Read the article. It seems to me that there are certainly some issues.
Record Store Day could be argued as a contributor to the present day. Inevitably the suits will ride the wave and over power the already under pressure dynamic. How many releases are new or unreleased? Of all my selections only Rory is an unreleased copy.
Us long term vinyl lovers very keen to hoover up anything and everything released by our favourite artists are also contributing to this vicious circle.
Poor indi bands and I mean the truly independent PROG bands such as IQ and Jadis Lifesigns etc are back of the queue. The grey splatter vinyl version of Frequency is long overdue as is Altitude. Er come on Paul where are the reviews and mentions of Prog; sorry Paul just getting a mention in on this still overlooked genre.
Surely whilst we all like multiple releases on vinyl of the artist’s release; 7 different vinyl versions of UAMS by Steve Hackett is surely contributing – yes Brexit not withstanding, I have all copies inc the CD at web site prices luckily not secondary market. Not so great on Rory and will likely have to use this route for the Sabbath pic disc coming on US RSD.
It’s what isthmus is folks, let’s stay calm and listen to La Villa Strangiato whilst we await hopefully MP on box set.
Blame it all on Neil if you ask me but then no vinyl from him and the music industry would collapse!
Carl
Believe it or not, there is still a huge, huge second hand market. Ok, maybe not pristine, 1st edition etc but a great deal of the time,perfecly good records. Not being bought, going to waste and binned. Think of “good seconds as good enough to compile your own Boxsets or SDEs.
Agree. I’m currently sorting through my own collection (several thousand) with a view to selling them at a market or eBay (or similar). They’ve given me years of joy and now it’s time to pass it on – assuming people have the same impeccable taste as me ;-).
Truly interesting report, enjoyed reading while doing my bit for the cause by listening to a recently purchased Sigur Rus Agaetis Byrjun 20th anniversary vinyl.
Re the majors monopolizing pressing plants. I remember being told there is (was?) a small pressing plant in Luton that was doing small runs for indie labels for years, essentially a one man operation I think. About 7 or 8 years ago as the vinyl revival started to gather momentum one of the majors went to them and said we want you to work exclusively for us then immediately had them pressing Beatles LPs etc 24/7. They continued to do small runs for indies but had to do them in their own time, ie late at night!
What a fascinating article. Very interesting & the sort of thing that makes me love this website!. How about some more behind the scenes articles on the Music industry in the future?
Somewhere in this Lark could well be the long overdue Duran Duran vinyl reissues, as they are CD-ist these days!!
Very interesting article.
I for one started collecting records seriously when I left school and the price of an LP was around £2 , half my wage at the time!
There is something bewitching in buying a record when compared to a CD.
The beauty of the sleeve for a start, especially gatefold sleeves makes the whole buying experience completely different to buying a cd, many’s the time I bought an LP for its cover rather than the music and then to my joy found how much I loved the music I did not really know much about.
For example I loved the Moody Blues Every good boy deserves a favour cover or Yes Close to the edge cover and have enjoyed the music ever since.
Personally the only downside to an LP is the volume level compared to a cd but to my ears which are not great unfortunately a cd sound is far harsher than a LP.
Downloads for me are a complete non starter and at my age (67) my only interest is physical music and let’s hope the music industry realise that the market is there for LP’s and invest in production facilities to match the continuing demand that seems to be growing year on year.
Amazing article. Thanks for sharing, Paul.
One thing I’ve always wondered – what happened to old pressing plant equipment? I assume in the 60s, 70s and 80s (before CDs became king) there were many vinyl pressing plants worldwide.
Surely some of this equipment must have survived, and is stored somewhere (in old warehouses, etc.), ready to be dusted off and resurrected for future use.
Probably all got scrapped! When cd came along records where seen as very old hat!,, nobody would ever think as they loaded there CDs in a motorised tray by remote control,, that they would ever have a use again,as you jump on your latest mountain bike,,you could never see the day when the penny farthing would return would you?
I would expect that a lot of the “redundant” equipment was cannibalised to keep the remaining presses operational.
There are new presses on the market now, but I was under the impression there hadn’t been much new on the market for years due to a lack of demand (may be wrong!).
Yes, new presses have been available only since around 2015–2016. Before that, the old presses were brought back in service (in addition to those few that were kept running for the occasional vinyl edition), and new parts had to either be custom-made or cannibalized from other presses that weren’t running.
Great article, I thought it would end in a crowdfunding to start up your own pressing factory, that would have been a nice idea.
The shipping thing and Brexit is just hart and budget breaking. I payed about 35 euro extra upon the high shipping costs, for customs, guess what, the thing is made in the Netherlands where I live! Why not sell a bunch from within Europe and ship what you think you need to the UK. Anyway, UK customers won’t have to deal with me buying up their records as it is too expensive, maybe it helps lol.
Thank you for sharing this. Very interesting article. I did not know that a box set will sell about as many copies in the US as in the UK. I do feel that the author gave short shrift to the American pressing plants. While it may be a number of independent plant pressing records, Third Man Records is somewhat necessary to mention (founded by White Stripes’ Jack White) for it developing new vinyl presses. The seemingly well respected RTI deserves some mention as well. I recall that GZ was going to open a pressing plant in the USA as well.
My guess is the author is UK based, but the article made the USA seem like an isolated backwater. I think the USA has something like over 25 pressing plants of varying size. The following is a list of record manufacturing plants in the USA: Gotta Groove Records; Archer Record Pressing; Blue Sprocket Pressing; Brooklynphono; Burlington Record Plant; Capsule Labs; Cascade Record Pressing; Citizen Vinyl; Erika Records; Furnace Record Pressing; Gold Rush Vinyl; Hand Drawn Records; Hitbound; Independent Record Pressing; Kindercore Vinyl; Memphis Record Pressing; Musicol Recording; New Orleans Record Press; Palomino Record Pressing; Quality Record Pressings; Record Technology (RTI); Smashed Plastic; Softwax; Stereodisk; Sunpress Vinyl; Third Man Records; United Record Pressing; VRP.
https://vinyl-pressing-plants.com/all-vinyl-pressing-plants-list/countries/United-States-of-America/
There is also a massive delay to vinyl production if it is half speed mastered as it will clearly take twice as many of your Earth time periods for the quanticular malficulations to become completified.
An interesting and well researched article, John. I think the vinyl revival is definitely here to stay. Most people just want to listen to the music and will happily use streaming platforms, but an awful lot of people want to buy it and own it on, particularly on vinyl.
Excellent and fascinating stuff.
Yes – I’m on board and collecting vinyl again ( to my bank manager and partner’s chagrin) – maybe because I’m older and settled and am happy to fill my man cave with them – wouldn’t have been practical when younger and moving around more and there have been some amazing box sets etc over the last few years.
I’m just hoping the delayed major releases you mention don’t include the Bowie Era 5 box set. Say it ain’t so Paul!
Very good article, I’ve learned a lot.
Thank you.
More of those stories in the future, please!
Excuse my American ignorance but what does BPI stand for?
Great article, thank you, John.
It’s the British Phonographic Industry.
Great article, i’ve seen and been told of delays to records and bigger boxset releases because of these factors slowly merging together. Definitely more physical releases coming out well after their digital counterparts -Fleet Foxes latest was released on vinyl nearly five months after it debuted digitally!
I would like to use this opportunity to give GZ media a vote in confidence quality pressing wise, again I’ve seen and read criticism online (usually the zealots on Discogs) of albums pressed there, but of all the albums i’ve bought in the past decade that have been pressed there -usually European pressings of US indie labels like Drag City or Castle Face for example, i’ve never had a problem, great sounding wax. Optimal and the Abbey Road Half Speed Mastering releases however…
Also, agree on a well Mastered cd being the ideal, sadly that very rarely the case these days, even if we are over peak brickwall of 10-20 years ago -which is why i got into listening via vinyl in the first place.
Typhoon’ latest, the excellent ‘Sympathetic Magic’ was released digitally last November I think. Vinyl in August / September!
I can list a few GZ pressings I own that are an insult to Quality Control. As the article alluded to, quality suddenly improves when a label sends its own people in to supervise the process. They do a lot of Demon stuff, especially RSD, and that’s where I find the bulk of the issues with the titles I own
There’s a similar thing going on in the home video market. Apparently there is only ONE plant in North America that can press 4K discs, and so the pandemic has created an insane bottleneck for both new and catalog movie releases.
Interesting article, it’s taken me over 2 decades to get vinyl copies of Radiohead’s classic brace of The Bends & OK Computer, I think so many buy as souvenirs/keepsakes that it’s not really critical if it’s an archive release, but a lot of younger artists need these releases out to keep momentum. Having read this I don’t hold out much hope for a vinyl repress of the Bowie BLA series.
Great report John, thank you.
As others have said an interesting an informative read. At least I now know the full rational for the email or social media posting of the release of the forthcoming album has been delayed…
I now expect all the plants to be block booked for 50th anniversary editions due in 2023, so very limited space for anything else.
Very interesting indeed! I am not on board with the vinyl revival, as I have been in the CD camp since nearly the beginning. I have a friend who took the plunge, and got so tired of having to return LPs because of noisy defects that has now gone to streaming. I was wondering if he just hit a lot of bad luck, or is the emotional attachment to the LP outweighing and thus ignoring the defect issue. I wonder if the crush to press has affected the quality of vinyl today – poor pressings is why I switched in the first place. Here, second hand shops do a whirlwind vinyl business – but I can’t imagine buying some old pressing with a TV dinner’s worth of crap in the grooves.
Rediscovered my love of vinyl about 5 years ago. Have bought about 500 new (both “new” and reissues) since then. Very very few have been disappointing audio quality wise.
In France, the Xvinyl factory is also very active and produces very high quality discs
Another issue is that there is only one company in the world (located in Japan) that makes blank lacquers. This is after February of last year, when a fire destroyed one facility in California.
Nice article Paul, just a few comments. There is one very large (but not GZ sided) pressing plant in the USA – United Record Pressing, in Nashville, TN. Their reputation is not good. QRP (Quality Record Pressings/Analogue Productions) and RTI (Record Technology Inc) arguably are the best pressing plants in the world (aside from Pallas).
There were 27.5 million LPs sold in the USA in 2020 vs 4.5 million in the UK (slightly fewer per capita – but Brits are the biggest European marked for records).
In early 2020 the Apollo Masters plant – in California – burned down – this was the source of about 70% of the world’s lacquers, the shortage of which likely resulted in delayed record releases.
Great read Paul .
The lack of foresight by record companies who dumped vinyl for cd many years ago is part of the problem. They’re always after the next buck with no long term plan .
Whilst it’s easy for us to blame the record companies for a lack of foresight. It is a superpower that not many of us possess either. I ditched most of my vinyl in 1996 (or thereabouts). Marriage, kids, moving countries, then moving back made me jump on the “Vinyl is dead” bandwagon. So other than keeping my hand in with some Kate Bush vinyl purchases in the late 2000s. It was only when I decided that I missed Vinyl in 2013 and I found this site (expensive catalyst) that I decided I was wrong. It’s easy to say I am a fly by night and will disappear but if you think I seriously collected Vinyl first time round from 1979 to about 1988, about 9 years from 12 years old to the end of my University years. I’ve been going 8 years this time around so not a massive difference.
If the problem is that companies are scared of the bubble bursting then that isn’t because of a lack of interest from people of a certain generation it’s that the digital world / social / t’internet has programmed pretty much everybody under the age of 30 to not care about or even try to understand the joys of the physical world. It’s not just that they don’t collect music, they don’t collect books, stamps, comics, music, newspapers et. al. The young, as they grow older That allied to the inescapable fact that the people who do collect this stuff are dying quickest.
The “Long Term Plan” as you put it is dependant on what “Long Term” is. The long term plan in my book is the death of anything that isn’t downloadable. And in that they are going the right way, we are but a bump in the road. We will be here for another 5? 10? 15? years but by then I will be lucky to be 70. And I can’t see a bunch of 40 year olds bringing up the rear in 2037 clamouring for a physical version of anything.
I dunno Chris, who would have predicted that people would still be interested in model railways or that people would visit old canals for leisure or that milk floats would make a comeback?!. Things from the past come back in suprising ways sometimes because they’re interesting and fun and it doesn’t matter that they’re not at the cutting egde of technology. The Record Shops I frequent have loads of young customers and the 2nd market is still heating up like crazy, with buyers of all ages. The days of people buying a pristine ‘Rumours’, playing it on a Crossley turntable and wondering what all the fuss is about may be numbered but I think there is a new generation who are getting the same passion for physical formats that’ll stick around, but maybe not enough to sink millions into right now. It may be that Vinyl slips back to being a boutique thing and the smaller plants will be able to manage demand for all those multi-disc Doctor Who sets and McCartney III variants. Second hand vinyl I think will be around for a good while longer, and same as any antique or collectables market it will be sensitive to changes in taste and fashion but I would be confident that many of the SDEs and Box Sets of today will be in demand in the future.
I would love for you to be right Dr. Volume (just finished watching the entire run of WKRP in Cincinatti so have to be careful not to call you Dr Johnny).
It will always be a matter of scale. From Millions down to hundreds of thousands down to tens of thousands down to thousands and then some releases down to the hundreds.
Spot on Chris. I think the days of what we all love here are not infinite. When people like us die off, there will be no one who is into this sort of thing. The “Kids” don’t collect things, don’t want to pay for things like this so the market for SDE’s may last another 10, 20 years… I hope I’m wrong so the time for all this sort of thing is now.
Where I live, I would struggle to even find a new CD player or even a Blu ray player as the market is streaming & more streaming.
Heathens…
Jigsaws used to be something only small children or my grandma were interested in. Teens and people in their 20s were only into computer gaming, or so I thought. Then the pandemic came alone, and the primitive world of the jigsaw really took off again. Not entirely sure if sales have boomed in the last 12-13 months, or if people have just dusted off their old jigsaws from the loft. But regardless, it’s something that never really had great appeal for most people, but the pandemic created a new passion for it. Plenty of comic collectors of all ages still around too. Just walk into any branch of Forbidden Planet and you’ll see.
Vinyl though? Hmm. Maybe you could be right. I work with four people in their 20s, and they all only listen to Spotify. Not a great statistic I suppose, only giving you a sample of four people, but it probably reflects the majority. I’m 45 and when I told them I still bought CDs and vinyl, they called me Grandad!!
Very interesting article! Love vinyl, but was unaware of much of this information.
“The idea that 180g vinyl is better is purely emotional, because of its heaviness”. The idea that ANY vinyl is better is purely emotional.
purely sound-wise, even I who is a “vynil victim” can only agree with that. A non brickwalled cd master alwys sounds better than its vynil, specific vynil master, counterpart (check the MOFi CD layer of the Dire Straits aginst the MoFI vynil of Dire Straits). It has more details, more stereo separation, and more dynamics (if it is not brickwalled to death of course). But I still prefer to buy stuff on vynil whenever it is available. As our international Paul’s motto says “holding the music in our hands” is very much more “true” to me with a 12 inch cover, and the printed inner sleeve or the 12 inch “booklet” than with the most thought of CD deluxe book style edition.
I was thinking exactly the same thing.
I’m not sure, but was curious if this commitment to vinyl was not another ‘hype’ or some commercial trick to keep consumers buying the same product over and over again, due to the degrading of the product…
I don’t agree. Are good quality cd’s or digital better when it come to pure signal-to-noise ratio? Sure. But cd’s and any digital media samples the audio. Vinyl is one continuous stream. To me it sounds better – warmer, more organic. Not necessarily crisper or cleaner but I vastly prefer warmer and organic :).
Ah, but vinyl is also “analog”. That is, it’s analagous. Not necessarily an exact reproduction.
And for that matter, every film or video you’ve ever seen “samples”. It’s the speed at which they run (24 fps to 60 fps, depending on the format) that makes the motion appear continuous.
Of course, the main difference when it comes to audio is that the sampling occurs THOUSANDS of times per second; to even the most sensitive ear, that’s about as continuous as you’re going to get this side of actually being there.
Excellent article, thank you guys.
Don’t @ me, but I’m sure that the reason that no-one’s prepared to build a major new pressing plant is simply because “the vinyl revival” is a bubble they’re continually afraid is going to burst at any moment… yes, it’s a bubble with 13-years of growth, and one which the industry is grateful for, but for better or worse, they’ve set the controls for a streaming-only future, and nobody wants to be left with a massive useless factory when the music stops (if you’ll pardon the analogy…)
Great read! Thank you.
Extremely interesting article, thank you. Had been wondering how the global vinyl manufacturing footprint was looking like.
A very interesting read. On a personal note, I just received an email today that Sparks reissue of Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat on Yellow Vinyl has been pushed back AGAIN – this time to mid-June. This must be hurting smaller labels that can’t get product out.
Great article, thank you both. I learned lots of things.
Great article, most informative. Am I the only one who raised a smile at the comment about GZ: “The Czech plant has a dodgy record”….!
The only vinyl I buy these days tends to be reasonably limited (300-700) exclusives on small independent labels such as Clay Pipe Recordings. I’m astonished to learn that I’m nearly always paying less for these than the average figure of £21.55 quoted in the article. Can this really be correct? Rumours is currently £14 on Amazon.
Vinyl, ‘It’s the best audio experience.’
Cue a deep sigh from me…
It’s a funny old world.
After three years focusing on CD, I’m finally releasing a few vinyl reissues on my label. But imagine my disappointment when I tried to schedule manufacturing with a local pressing plant only to be told it will be a 7 month turnaround time! In the end, I had to push aside my desire to help out a local plant and find another with a faster turnaround. For the first of my planned releases, the turnaround was said to be 3 1/2 – 4 months, for my third and most recent title I’m being quoted 4 – 5 months. While that alone is a little frustrating, I’m anticipating a couple of these releases might sell out fairly quickly, and if that proves correct then it’s going to take another 4 – 5 months for a repressing.
For the local plant, they state their extended delay is due to getting vinyl manufacturing materials into the USA. They’ve said boats carrying the materials are left to float on the water for weeks and weeks before they are able to check in their shipments, all due to covid. I really hope that some of these issues causing extreme delays passes because it’s just going to make me want to stick to the 2 week turnaround for CD manufacturing.
“…it’s just going to make me want to stick to the 2 week turnaround for CD manufacturing.” Yes, please…and thank you Scott…love your catalog AND the compact discs you make available .
I’d be super happy if you just kept reissuing more quality titles on CD. I got my first CDs back in 1985 and 6000 titles later I’m not leaving the format.
Excellent article. I’ve read similar articles in the past regarding the vinyl revival, sadly it seems that nothing has really changed and the whole thing could come crashing down at any moment still….
Lets not forget the environmental footprint that digital leaves as well. It shouldn’t be forgotten because it’s harder to “see”. The cloud uses an awful lot of power.
Another really good read that!, I like many never let my appreciation and love of the black stuff diminish over the years although I gave many 100s of now valuable records away to a very appreciative Hospice Charity Shop just before it took off again!. I think the main issue is the technology that makes the vinyl is now antiquated and impossible to come by, and the presses are now many decades old. Spares for the presses are probably none existent and if they are whoever owns the NOS parts will no doubt ask the Earth for them. Really enjoyed that article.
Yes, technical problems are a big issue, but i also learned from a piece about Czech pressing plant “GZ Media” in German vinyl magazine “Mint” some time ago another problem is that plants haven’t educated new staff for literally decades, so if the older employees who are skilled in the operation of old machines retire there is no one left who knows what to do in case something goes wrong during pressing.
At “GZ” that led to retired staff significantly increasing their pension by helping out at the plant on a regular basis.
Great article. There has been a noticeable dip in quality control since the vinyl revival started. I seem to get more and more warped and off-center pressings these days. It’s really become a gamble buying new vinyl. Also the United States Postal Service seems to do their best in destroying things on the way to my house. But we are spoiled by media rate when you can ship an LP domestically for $5.
This is brilliant work. An issue I’ve heard about many times, clearly explained, with all angles covered. This could be in The Economist for its ability to educate readers on an obtuse industry problem in simple language.
Why, thank you very much!
Great read Paul, thank you. Now if only you would let slip those delayed SDE’s that you talked about!!
Great article! Fascinating to find out what goes into the making of a vinyl and the challenges it poses. Nice to know environmental issues are starting to be taken into consideration too.
Fantastic read, very informative. I read about the new Middlesbrough plant a few days ago, I think they have a staff of 10 at the moment but are looking to increase to 30. Good luck to them I say. On the subject of 180g vinyl, I don’t think they are necessary. They often turn up slightly warped and I don’t think they sound any better than my 120g and 140g records. It would also help the environment using less vinyl.
Great article Paul. Reminds me of a brilliant lyric by the hilarious prophet-cum-singer-songwriter, Father John Misty, from his 2012 song “Now I’m Starting to Love the War” – ‘Try not to think so much about the truly staggering amount of oil that it takes to make a record / all the shipping, the vinyl, the cellophane lining, the high gloss… the tape and the gear…’
Great article. Really interesting read.
Very informative article
Wow, this is the kind of article you expect from Music Week. Well done, everyone!
Very interesting article John and Paul(!), thanks.
Explains the background of why we consumers sometimes feel very neglected by the music companies.