Can Tennessee Solve America’s Vinyl Shortage? – Music Industry

As vinyl’s boom continues—the format generated $570 million in revenue through June 2022 (up 22% year over year), according to the 2022 Mid-Year RIAA Music Revenue Report—press plants from all over the world are not only struggling to keep up with the demand, but also planning how to get ahead.

According to Billboard, the US state of Tennessee aims to take the lead, increasing its number of plants from two to five by 2022 and planting a flag as the center of vinyl in this market. The State offers advantages in distribution, taxes and, above all, in culture.

“All music resonates from Tennessee,” says Brandon Seavers, CEO of Memphis Record Pressing (MRP), which was founded in 2014 and is undergoing its own $30 million expansion. “We really take pride in our musical heritage.”

The growth of Tennessee’s vinyl production capacity is substantial. MRP, owned by Czech Republic-based GZ Media, the world’s largest vinyl record maker, is adding 33,000 square feet to house 36 new presses that will be operational by early 2023; NRP, also owned by GZ Media, opened in June.

Physical Music Products, a smaller plant with three presses currently online (with five more expected in early 2023) that was founded by Nashville-based mastering engineer Piper Payne, opened in March, and The Vinyl Lab, a two-press boutique and music venue is operational as of April 2021.

“Nashville is exploding right now,” says URP Executive Director Mark Michaels. He cites everything from the “attractive” economy and state tax rates to the presence of tech giants like Amazon and Oracle as drivers of the city’s growth.

And, as Coker points out, an estimated 75% of the US population lives within a 24-hour drive from Nashville, making it what he calls “a retail paradise.”

It’s not just the proximity to distributors that makes Nashville and Memphis the ideal cities to host a pressing plant. Vinyl Lab founder Scott Lemasters believes it’s all about proximity to everything. “The components you need to make a record: the mastering houses and studios, the people who cut the lacquers. There is even a plating facility in town. Everything is within a 10-minute radius,” he says.

Just in December of last year shortage of vinyl plants was discussed as a growing problem within the industry. Left for dead with the advent of CDs in the 1980s, vinyl records are now the most popular and highest-grossing physical format in the music industry, and are chosen by fans for their collectability, quality of sound or simply for the tactile experience of music in a fully digital age. After growing steadily for more than a decade, vinyl sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic.