NYA report-
Worldwide vinyl capacity was steady for years then around 2013-2015 it grew by 100% to about 115 million vinyl pieces per year.
– Worldwide vinyl capacity today is in the range of 150-160 million pieces per year. Some plants are now running 24/7 to keep up with demand.
– Worldwide vinyl demand today is estimated to be around 350 million pieces per year.
– For the first time in decades there are three companies that are now making new presses. Two companies in Germany and one company in Canada. In the last couple of years 55 new presses have come online.
– Demand is higher and orders are even larger than initial projected sales because people are factoring in how long it takes to reorder and more artists are offering vinyl.
– Target and Walmart have increased the number of stores they carry vinyl in by 45% over the last 18 months.
RTI, the plant we are using in Camarillo to press the bootleg records, closed down for 3 weeks due to covid. When they opened back up they did so with a limited staff. RTI does not print labels, they sub out their labels to Stoughton Printing Company in the City of Industry. Stoughton also had a covid closing and reopened with a smaller staff.
Current pressing plants we use:
– Record Industry in the Netherlands
– Optimal in Germany
– Pallas/Furnace in Germany (Recently opened a plant in Virginia)
– Precision Record Pressing in Toronto
– Lazar Disc in Argentina
– RTI in Camarillo is a relatively small plant that uses Stoughton to print their labels.
Thoughts from Robin Hurley, Warner Bros / Reprise Records-
Here are some thoughts on the current vinyl situation that are either facts that I have been told, or anecdotal comments based on recent experiences and conversations with other people in the industry experiencing the same issue.
Vinyl sales have grown significantly over the past 5-10 years, but the pace of global growth of the format has escalated in the past 2 years – surprising everyone. So much so that the demand for vinyl has now outstripped capacity by over 2:1. The total global vinyl demand in 2021 is estimated at 350m units with only 160m units are available. All the labels (major and indie) are in the same boat; everyone has been caught by surprise by the speed of the growth and therefore everyone is jockeying for more capacity.
The pandemic has certainly fueled the increase. Turntable sales have soared in the past 1-2 years, with people at home and with disposable income and looking to replace travel, eating out and shopping with a new hobby. Vinyl is becoming a very appealing consumer format in the streaming dominated world. It is very tactile, addictive and collectible, so I do not think sales will decline significantly once the pandemic is over. Billy at WEA thinks the drop off may be 15% post-pandemic.
Other reasons for the increase in vinyl demand include the fact that some artists (& genres) who would not release their music on vinyl 5 years ago are now doing so. Also, many titles (new and catalog) are multi-LP sets, further increasing the vinyl units required.
The pandemic has had impact on the supply chain: Some of the high volume/high quality pressing plants are in Europe and the lack of air cargo space during the pandemic meant all stock from Europe was shipped by sea, adding 5-6 weeks shipping time.
Due to slower delivery time of vinyl from Europe, initial orders are larger, again adding more pressure on vinyl demand.
It seems that we will be facing this situation for 2-3 years. Adding presses and building new plants is a slow process. There are not many factories who can build new presses, and I am told that the biggest one (Canada) can only build 10 per year (but has orders for 30 presses)
NYA