Aine over at Acme posted this to the Housemuziq list a couple of weeks back in response to someone asking about getting records pressed in North America.
Interesting insight. From her perspective it sounds like releasing records could revert back to the way things were back in the early 90's. Then it was difficult to gather gear to make a record, once software etc hit the scene, anyone could put out a record. Moving forward the pressing process itself could be the limiter/obstacle to getting a piece of vinyl out. dK ======================================================= Before you go looking at plants there has been some big changes in record pressing in North America that one needs to consider when wanting to put a record out. (I have started this email before to the list but always stopped- cos I thought no one cared) Firstly - closure of the 3 biggest plants - Universal, Europadisc and of course - wow - 331/3. Secondly- gone is the day for anyone to just simply keep banging releases out on vinyl every couple of weeks and expecting them to take 3-4 weeks to make- and all labels regardless of where they press need to be planning their vinyl releases until Dec ( that's a tip from me btw- if you don't want a situation like this) Basically, with Universal, Europa, 33 gone - there is now no large scale pressing plant that runs over 25 presses at once. 33 is still under lock and key so the number of available presses has halved. Thirdly - despite what we see in underground dance music - the majors are now doing more vinyl than ever, it is actually a growth area. I happen to know the new madonna did 150,000 units and Nelly Furtatdo 15,000 on vinyl. People want their analog Ramones and Radiohead. So now the majors that pressed at 33 have all gone to smaller plants in the US - various plants that have anywhere from 5 - 12 presses, so what happens when you press for the majors - they come first and are very demanding - and also, what do you do when you have 5 presses and get landed with a job for 70,000 units from Atlantic - put everyone else on the back burner. So chances are anywhere you look to press - your record will be taking 2-3 weeks longer than most people are used to, all my colleagues at other plants have said this to me, people are going to have to accept the new turn around times. Here at Acme - we have gone though our own little stage in taking vinyl into the future and anyone who has pressed with us in the beginning of this year knows- we may have had a reputation like that of Hubs in that we were extremely slow and backed up. One thing people never seem to build into the vinyl equation is that all the presses in north America are 30-50 years old and they are not making new ones anymore- it is actually just harder to press records these days. Also- the USA's only raw compound supplier is getting out of the business as environmentally they cant make lead vinyl anymore and the tin based compound is too expensive for the them to make, plus it runs like crap and ruins the presses and leaves stains on the vinyl- harder to press. A big issue in the closure of the big plants is that the only people who know can run presses and press records are all retired and hitting retiring age- it is a big problem for plants to find people who can do this and meet the ever rising expectations of those who press- as these people disappear - you take away that knowledge from a plant and you start loosing money faster than you can press records. ( 331/3) It is something along those lines happened at Acme, the guy who built it retired last November and we could not replace him, it took Chad about 6 months to get these presses down and to start pressing decent records in a decent timeframe. Saying that - when 33 closed and we had our situation, we put a sign up on the website advising we are not taking new clients - there is no point in taking peoples business if you can't get the records out the door. Also, I realized that all my clients do regular releases and for the last few weeks have been calling all our customers asking for their schedules for the next few months so I can guarantee all our labels that we can meet their releases on time. Most of our labels showed us amazing support during this period and they come first, I have turned down two massive labels who want to press here as I just want to look after those who have supported us. My other prediction from all this is that you may see an end to all these brand new labels releasing vinyl on their own imprints - as there just will be no where for them to press, basically - it is going to harder/longer/more expensive to put a record out - it will have to go back to like it did in the day - good music that sells will be the winner and hopefully the more established labels will start to see sales go up as there will be less new once off vinyl's eating into sales, people might have to actually start shopping their music around again. One thing that all of us pressers everywhere are subjected to right now, that slows getting records out is the heat. Today we started our presses at 4am and shut off at noon, it is too hot press records, so I am already behind this weeks schedule, it's crazy, 45 degrees C in Toronto today , aint no one gettin a rekkid! You can read all about my adventures in vinyl on my my space - the vinyl monolouges :) Thanks and cheers and heads up and respect to those of you who still love the record! Aine -----Original Message----- From: robin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2006 4:25 AM To: 313 Org Subject: Re: (313) Vinyl > > I've heard the opposite from the world of indie rock actually - that > small indie labels have done a good job of keeping vinyl going with > ltd. > pressings, 7"/45rpms, collector series, etc. I'm really hoping this is true and we have longer than the 5 years I've been told it will last. The guy I was talking to has a lot of dealing with D&M and people like that (he runs two labels of his own). I have no reason to disbelieve him but it might be that he has got the wrong end of the stick somewhere. Fingers crossed. robin...
