Sony Music to open record pressing plant next year, 30 years after closing their last one.
Vinyl is back in a big way, and publishing heavyweight Sony Music are getting in on the action. Sony closed its last record plant in 1989 in order to focus on printing CDs, which seemed like the future of music at the time.
Now that CD sales are falling and vinyl record showings are at their highest since the 1990s, it makes sense for Sony Music to revisit the format.
The plant will open in 2018 at the Shizuoka Prefecture, and according to Mixmag it will start out producing bigger mainstream releases and Japanese reissues before moving onto printing records from artists outside of Sony Music labels.
Though vinyl has regained much of its popularity, many have worried about the sustainability of the comeback, since there are far fewer printing plants than there used to be at vinyl’s peak. According to Vinyl Pressing Plants.com, there are just six plants in the USA, only a handful in Europe, and none in Japan.
Sony Music’s Shizuoka Prefecture plant will go some way towards alleviating this problem, and truly help cement vinyl’s return.
For information about releasing your music on vinyl, contact MN2S Label Services.