Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s top music outlet, takes a look at the vinyl pressing plant surge in the wake of the vinyl resurgence
Vinyl is back in the news again. And no, it’s not just because
Slightly Stoopid is trying to press
an album made of marijuana.
Jack White, White Stripes frontman and Third Man Records
founder and owner, has announced that he will be opening Third Man
Pressing on February 25. The vinyl pressing plant will be located near the
Third Man Records shop in Detroit and boasts the latest in vinyl pressing
technology. Third Man Pressing houses eight of the first new presses made in
the last 35 years which will be run on a “closed-loop, chilled water system,” making
it the first environmentally sustainable record pressing plant in the world. Pressing
both Third Man and outside releases, the plant’s first pressings will include
represses of The White Stripes’ first two albums, Destroy All Monsters and
Xanadu’s split LP ‘The Black Hole,’ and the first of a seven-record Detroit
Gospel reissue project.
However, White isn’t the only one opening a record pressing
plant this year in the states. Sunpress
Vinyl, formerly Final Vinyl, has reopened up shop in Florida. Founded by
Jamaican reggae producer Joe Gibbs, who originally opened the plant as his U.S.
base in the 1970s, the plant has six pressing machines and will offer packaging
services, as well as press your vinyl. Another one of the oldest pressing
plants in the US, United
Record Pressing in Nashville, will be moving from their historic location
to a new, larger facility.
Plants are even reopening in other countries. Tuff
Gong, the historic Jamaican vinyl pressing factory started by Bob Marley in
the 1960s, has partnered with Sunpress Vinyl to update the facility and make it
operational again. The building, which also houses a recording studio, is
currently under construction and is looking to open up in May.
Over the last decade, demand for vinyl records has
skyrocketed. In the last year alone, sales of vinyl records in the United
States rose nearly 26 percent, the only physical format to make gains in a year
when physical sales themselves were down nearly 11 percent. Events like Record
Store Day have continued bring more people to record shops. Major labels are
starting jump on the bandwagon as well and press newer titles on the classic
medium. With more and more people clamoring for the feel of a tangible musical
item in their hands, it’s no wonder that more pressing sites are opening or
reopening for business.
The vinyl resurgence has led to the need for more facilities
to produce records. It has prompted old factories to reopen their doors, like
Tuff Gong and Sunpress Vinyl, or find larger locations, like United Record
Pressing. It has made ventures like White’s Third Man Pressing plausible and worthwhile
(though he probably would have built it resurgence or no resurgence). As demand
increases and vinyl records see their highest sales in decades, there is no
telling how many more presses could open in the coming years.
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Vinyl records continue to live on Long Island at Vinyl Bay
777 and vinylbay777.com. Find thousands of new and used vinyl records, as well
as CDs, cassettes, DVDs and cultural memorabilia, at Long Island’s top new
independent record shop. We have thousands of titles to choose from with more being
added all the time. Make it a point to stop into our Plainview location during
business hours, or shop online from the comfort of your own home.
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