New vinyl pressing plant, Onyx Record Press, opens in Los Angeles County
It's the brainchild of L.A. DJ and producer Drumcell
A new vinyl pressing plant has opened in Los Angeles County.
The brainchild of L.A. techno DJ and producer Drumcell, Onyx Record Press is based in the city of Arcadia and is anticipated to start pressing vinyl as early as August.
With the plant already take pre-orders, Drumcell said in a statement: "We believe in investing in our music communities by prioritising non-major labels and artists, creating access for customers that are faced with unrealistic timelines or flat out denied, and having new state-of-the-art pressing machines for a quicker turnaround.”
“Our team has over 25 years of experience in the vinyl manufacturing industry,” added Drumcell. “We uphold the notion that getting records pressed is a distinguished compliment for an artist. We believe that the sum of feeling the weight of vinyl in your hands, listening to the needle translate the grooves into music and admiring the large artwork is the ultimate form to experience recorded music."
Check out Drumcell’s full post on the plant via Twitter below.
The news comes almost exactly a year after a new vinyl pressing plant with hopes to become "America's premier vinyl production facility" opened in California.
Yesterday, 18th July, it was revealed that US vinyl sales increased by 21.7% in the first half of 2023.
Amid a trend of worldwide shortages and delays for pressing plants, last year also saw vinyl pressing plants opening up in the likes of Germany and Middlesborough.
Last year, DJ Mag delved into whether a Taiwanese pressing plant could revolutionise the vinyl market. Watch a video of the vinyl production in action from that pressing plant here.
Despite a continued resurgence in popularity, manufacturing delays and rising costs are straining small, have put the independent vinyl market under strain. Paired with environmental concerns and a reassessment of what physical releases can entail, it has seemed to some as though the wax bubble has been on the verge of bursting. Read DJ Mag's investigation into the matter here.
