#296 - Is The Vinyl Record Business Returning?

Business Side of Music

Back in 2014, there were 15 record pressing plants in the U.S. along with approximately 30 facilities around the globe. There are now 55 record pressing plants in the United States, and 200 plants worldwide. The demand for vinyl records has never been higher than it is now. Because the industry has become craft oriented in recent years, an employee who works in these facilities, which has anywhere from 5 to 14 presses, now has to go through at least 10 to 14 months of extensive training before they can ever press the button to create a vinyl record of consistent quality. But getting that quality to become the industry standard has taken time to get all of these plants on the same page. Enter Dustin Blocker and Alex Cushing along with their trade association VRMA.

After spending 17 years as the lead singer of the rock band, Exit 380, Dustin Blocker co-founded Texas-based independent record label Hand Drawn Records in April 2011. Spending several years building the community of artists through live events and regional record releases, Blocker, and business partner, Alex Cushing, launched the vinyl record manufacturing arm of the business, Hand Drawn Pressing in December 2014, with the newest vinyl record presses on the planet in over 34 years landing in January 2017. In December 2019, Blocker along with several other company leaders throughout the vinyl record supply chain, launched the trade organization, Vinyl Record Manufacturers Association (VRMA), whose membership includes; vinyl record pressing plants, PVC compounders, cutting engineers, electroplating houses, recording studios, brokers, printers and record labels.

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