And your ears shall hear…

Are we still in the midst of the vinyl renaissance or is it over? Well, first, exactly what is a renaissance? Renaissance is a French word meaning “rebirth.” It refers to a period in European civilization that was marked by a revival of Classical learning and wisdom. If that’s the definition, we know that the vinyl rebirth has already happened. The graph below shows us that vinyl sales have been steadily increasing since 2008, when the resurrection essentially began. But is it still happening?

Is the general population still clamoring for new vinyl? It looks as though this is the case, and that we are seeing some of the highest vinyl sales ever. I think we’d have to see this chart in another 10 years, but a part of me thinks we are still in the midst of the vinyl revival.

During Covid, when everyone was trapped indoors, records became more important than ever, but so did the demand for vinyl flooring and other home uses, as people were longing for more space and remodeling the area they had. So, the pandemic in turn caused a shortage of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the material used to make vinyl records, while also shutting down some plants and making human operations less efficient due to COVID restrictions. Even before all of this madness, there was a shortage of record processing plants, and finding that album on vinyl was hit or miss.

Something called the Apollo Masters fire of 2020 had a huge impact on vinyl production as well. The only vinyl plant in the US to manufacture lacquer discs (acetate discs), one of only two in the world, which seems preposterous, was burnt to the ground and everything inside was completely destroyed. This forced US companies to use a Japanese manufacturer called MDC, causing crushing delays and slowing the process even more, if that’s possible. Plus, you have to keep in mind that most of the machinery and equipment used to press records is over 50 years old.

Big pressings by Adele, Billie Eilish, and T. Swift have also caused past backlogs. Apparently, pressing hundreds of thousands of copies of your recent release could clog up the system, i.e. the few small factories that are still printing this medium. Many are blaming these leading ladies for vinyl’s dire situation, while fans say they are the only reason vinyl is holding on and still enjoying a revival. The article below states that if it wasn’t for Taylor Swift’s record releases throughout 2022, vinyl sales would have actually dropped that year. Now that is a statement and a statistic that needs to be reckoned with. “However, major labels ‘clogging up’ pressing capacity is certainly not a new thing; in fact, it’s been a major gripe of independent labels since the original resurgence of vinyl in the early 2010s, and was reported on as far back as the advent of record store day in 2007.” –Megan Townsend

Townsend goes on to say that frustration is not just being felt by the small labels, but the pressure is building within major labels. An anonymous employee says that at one time there was infighting between Warner and their imprint Parlophone Records. For example, if Warner does a huge David Bowie repress, then developing artists like Lily Allen and David Guetta will have their projects pushed back indefinitely. So it seems the squeeze is happening all over the industry, to all types of artists.

But besides big labels and entertainers like Adele and Swift, most artists are producing short runs of vinyl between 500-1000 pieces, in two to three different colors. These runs are much more tedious for pressing facilities, which would rather have those 500,000 Adele runs, as opposed to these color combos where they have to mind “the dye melt characteristics of the vinyl itself for each run— it has nothing to do with the actual color pigments, but instead, the PVC formulations.  Different PVC formulations, which have varying specific gravity characteristics, can have dramatically different melting results at various extruder, nozzle, and mold temperature settings – each leading to different molding results when the records are being pressed, as well as different edge characteristics during edge trimming and cooling.” I never knew all those variations went into producing colored vinyl, so it’s no wonder why these Crayola pressings are more expensive than the regular 180 gram black that most newbies squawk at. In layman’s terms, that’s a lot of hard work to make such small pressings of colored vinyl.

Given all that vinyl has been through, including a pandemic, a masters fire, and bulk pressings, it still seems that we continue to want vinyl in this country, whether as a badge of fandom or for a better listening experience. An article in Music Crowns, dated May 17th, 2024, stated that, “Even though new record processing plants have opened, and existing plants have ramped up their capacity, the demand is currently outpacing supply. Vinyl pressing orders usually have a lead time of up to 12 months, and the retail cost of storage space is also on the rise, which is contributing to the issue.” So, we are in the midst of the vinyl renaissance, if indeed demand is still outpacing supply. It would appear that the desire for vinyl has not fallen off but continues to grow in 2024.

In a 2021 article from Mixmag entitled “THE VINYL STRAW: WHY THE VINYL INDUSTRY IS AT BREAKING POINT,” Deputy Digital Editor Megan Townsend says, “It isn’t showing much sign of slowing down. The Global Record Sales Market report 2021-2026 has predicted that the vinyl industry is expected to be worth $481.5 million by 2026, as opposed to its valuation of $179 million in 2019. In a recent study, 15% in the 16-25 age bracket (or Gen Z) said they have bought a vinyl record in the past 12 months, higher than the 11% of millennials who’ve done the same thing.”

Recently, in July, Eminem dropped his surprise comeback album, The Death of Slim Shady. After a few full listens on Spotify, I decided that this is something I would like to have in my vinyl collection. I started searching for copies online, only to realize that his website is taking pre-orders now for a late October delivery. I called several local record stores and they all said the same thing, “He hasn’t released any copies to the general public.” This was the proof I needed and one more reason to assume that the vinyl renaissance is clearly underway, and still, a bit…delayed.