Making Vinyl Records

Musician Jack White owns Third Man Records vinyl pressing plant in Detroit, one of 88 disk pressers in the US. This video directed by Wired magazine’s Katherine Wzorek takes a look at how platters are manufactured.

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Top Image (“Leo’s DJ, after Da Vinci”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Metal Band Buys Vinyl Record Plant

Heavy Metal band Metallica is getting heavy into vinyl with the purchase of Furnace Record Pressing, a 70,000-square-foot vinyl pressing plant in Alexandria, Virginia. The band isn’t alone. Musician Jack White owns the Third Man Records vinyl pressing plant in Detroit, another one of the 88 disk pressers in the US.

Metallica sold 387,000 vinyl albums last year. Industry-wide, vinyl outsold CDs last year, the first time since 1987, becoming the single most popular format of physical media in music, accounting for $1.2 billion in sales.

More:

“Metallica Sells So Much Vinyl It Just Bought Its Own Pressing Plant,” Robert Levine, Billboard

“Metallica have bought their own vinyl pressing plant,” Will Richards, NME

“Metallica Just Bought A Northern Virginia Record-Pressing Company,” Elliot C. Williams, DCist

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Top Image (“Leo’s DJ, after Da Vinci”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Vinyl City, USA: Nashville

In Tennessee, especially the Nashville area, the number of vinyl plants will rise from two to five overall this year. Through June of this year, vinyl records made $570 million in revenue, up 22 percent year-over-year. Demand hasn’t abated.

More:

“Can Tennessee Solve America’s Vinyl Shortage?” Lyndsey Havens, Billboard

US Vinyl Sales Rise 22% In First Half of 2022,” Aprol Claire Welsh, DJ Mag

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Image (“Leo’s DJ, after Da Vinci”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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The Apple iPod, 2001 — 2022

Apple has announced that, after existing 7th generation iPod Touch supplies are sold, the 21-year-old portable music player line will be laid to rest. In lieu of flowers, you should probably subscribe to Apple Music or something.

For you youngsters, here’s the gee-whiz 2001 iPod promo video:

More:

“Farewell to the iPod,” Tripp Mickle, New York Times

“Apple Kills the iPod,” Phillip Tracy, Gizmodo

“‘The spirit lives on’: Apple to discontinue the iPod after 21 years,” Christy Cooney, The Guardian

“A Visual History of the Apple iPod,” Eric Griffith, PC Magazine

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Image (“iPod Society”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Vinyl Sells Big

In 2021, U.S. vinyl albums outsold CDs for the first time in 30 years, even though CD sales increased, too.

According to data from the MRC and Billboard, 38.3 per cent of all album sales in the country last year were in vinyl format, accounting for over 50 per cent of all physical album sales (41.72 million sales out of a total of 82.79 million).

2021 vinyl album sales went up by  51.4 per cent to 41.72 million compared to 2020.

Vinyl is more expensive than other formats, so who’s buying LPs? The most devoted fans of artists like Adele, Taylor Swift, and Olivia Rodrigo want these large physical tokens.

More:

“Vinyl outsold CDs in the US for the first time in decades,” Scott Nover, Quartz

“As superstars cash in on vinyl LP boom, small labels and manufacturers struggle to meet demand,” Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times

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Image (“Leo’s DJ, after Da Vinci”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

33⅓ in 2020: LPs Outsell CDs

“Sales of vinyl records surpassed those of CDs in the U.S. for the first time since 1986, marking a key turning point for the format’s nostalgia-fueled resurgence.

People spent $232.1 million on limited-play and extended-play records in the first half of the year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, eclipsing the $129.9 million they spent on compact discs.

Vinyl was the most popular way people listened to music throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s, at which point it gave way to tape cassettes — followed by CDs and digital formats. Each new format was more convenient than the last and suppressed interest in vinyl.”

— “Vinyl-Record Sales Top Compact Discs for First Time in 34 Years,” Lucas Shaw, Bloomberg

More:

“Vinyl outsells CDs for the first time since the 1980s,” Nick Reilly, NME

“Vinyl Is Poised to Outsell CDs For the First Time Since 1986,” Elias Leight, Rolling Stone

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Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-vBQ

Image (“Leo’s DJ, after Da Vinci”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

The CD: R.I.P.?

“As streaming services replace previous modes of music consumption, CDs are too young to be considered vintage and too old to keep their value. Stores like Best Buy and Target that were once powerhouses for CD sales are inching toward a CD-less model ….”

“Go deeper: The slow death of the CD,” Marisa Fernandez, Axios

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Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-s0D

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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