Adele has inadvertently caused a major delay in vinyl production, with the release of her forthcoming record, 30.
Sony Music sources told Variety, that more than 500,000 vinyl copies of 30 have been manufactured in the lead up to the record’s November 19th release.
Like many artists, Adele had to finish her forthcoming album early if she wanted vinyl available on the same day the album was released to streaming services. If not, Adele would have been subject to manufacturing shortages and overbooked pressing plants that have impacted the release of every new LP.
Delays in vinyl production are symptomatic of both the coronavirus pandemic and the overall rise of vinyl sales.
Vinyl sales have been on the up since 2006, overtaking CD sales for the first time since 1986 in 2020. Last year, Discogs mid-year report showed that physical sales of music soared amid the pandemic.
According to the report, overall physical music sales on the Discogs Marketplace rose 29.69 per cent – 4,228,270 orders – between January and June 2020, in comparison to 2019 figures. Significantly, vinyl saw an increase in sales by 33.72 per cent with over 5.8 million units sold.
In the US, chains like Walmart and Target have quit the CD business, turning instead to ordering their own exclusive color-varient pressings. This increasing demand, coupled with the pandemic supply-chain issues and labour shortages, has sent manufacturing pressures into overdrive.
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“A lot of people were looking for ways to keep themselves entertained at home during the pandemic” David Macias, head of the indie Thirty Tigers label, told Variety of the surging vinyl sales. “As a configuration, it’s gone from the cool factor to a huge chunk of the business.”
“In 2019, Thirty Tigers did about 295,000 units of vinyl, and this year we’re on pace to do 800,000. It’s crazy how much it’s blown up in two years,” he adds.
Ed Sheeran recently told Kyle & Jackie O that he was able to fast-track the vinyl production of his latest album = by turning it in in July for an October release date. “There’s like three vinyl factories in the world,” Sheeran said. “So you have to do it like really upfront — and Adele had basically booked out all the vinyl factories, so we had to get a slot and get our album in there.
“It was like me, Coldplay, Adele, Taylor, ABBA, Elton (John), all of us were trying to get our vinyls printed at the same time.”
Amid these major record label demands, independent artists and smaller imprints have been told that if they deliver their master recordings to a plant now, they’ll likely have to wait until August 2022 to get their record pressed.
“If you’re in a band and you DON’T finish recording a new album in the next 3 months the vinyl won’t come out until 2023. No pressure though,” tweeted Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! earlier this week.
If you’re in a band and you DON’T finish recording a new album in the next 3 months the vinyl won’t come out until 2023. No pressure though
— Laura Jane Grace (@LauraJaneGrace) November 2, 2021
“You could open a plant tomorrow and you’d probably have a call from Universal next week trying to block out the next few months of capacity. They’re trying to go around and block out as much as possible,” ATO records Mike Quinn told Variety.
