HD Vinyl strikes deal with one of the world's largest record pressing plants

HD Vinyl has struck a deal with GZ Media, one of the major vinyl record pressing plants, amongst a number of other major partnerships.

HD Vinyl is an innovation that hopes to boost audio fidelity of vinyl records by 30%, while expanding the amount of music that can be played on a single side from 22 minutes per side to half an hour.

GZ and HD Vinyl are teaming up, for GZ to retrofit HD’s laser-cut stampers to select machines, revealed at the Making Vinyl conference in Detroit this past week.

Record Products of America (RSA) and Viryl Technologies are also partnering with the much anticipated HD Vinyl, which has received millions in funding, and is part of Rebeat Innovation.

“Changing from traditional to HD Vinyl stampers has to be simple and fast,” said HD Vinyl founder, Guenter Loibl.  “Therefore, we are excited to work together with such innovative partners.  They are leaders in their field and have the experience and knowledge to fit HD Vinyl stampers into any press machine, both new and existing.”

The key to the innovation is the ultra-precise laser, which cuts grooves along an exact topographical path, cutting out a number of steps in the manufacturing process. This would be one of the first major changes to vinyl production since 1978. 

The first HD Vinyl-pressed records are expected to emerge in Spring of 2019, according to Loibl.

This comes at a time when vinyl sales are thought to be in the tens of millions, and rising.