Once a test pressing is approved, it’s then time to get the specified production run of vinyl manufactured. This is what labels and artists use to make sure the finished album quality is up to scratch. This is then sent off to the pressing plant where a test pressing is made. When an album is mastered, a lacquer is cut. 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.
#Vinil music pub full
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
We’ve seen release dates for new albums slip back and back. We’ve been hearing rumours for months of key box set releases by some very big names postponed indefinitely.
It’s that lack of clarity which is frustrating for everyone – SDE included. That’s a fucking ridiculous wait, particularly because no-one has really been able to explain why it takes so long.” But, when we heard we’d have to wait 16 weeks for it to be out on vinyl, we put our foot down. As keyboardist Jordan Fish told SDE: “Our record label is quite quick. 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. One of the first bands to pilot the split release were Sheffield rockers Bring Me The Horizon. 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. Small wonder that several artists are now releasing their albums digitally first, before vinyl, CD and cassette versions arrive months later. 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. 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. 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.ĭespite the rise in popularity, there has been no serious initiative, since vinyl sales picked up, to increase vinyl production. It’s the 13th consecutive year that vinyl sales have risen.
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. 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. Rumours of pressing plant meltdowns… COVID-19 was bound to have an effect on the release of albums. Physical albums arriving months after their digital release.
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