Earlier this month, Tone Deaf reported on the intriguing Catch 22 that is currently plaguing the record business. While vinyl is experiencing a surge in sales unseen in over a decade, plants are increasingly unable to keep up with the demand, forcing many factories to close their doors.

At the moment, only 16 vinyl-pressing factories remain in the United States, with just one company providing plants with the raw vinyl necessary for records to be made. Despite the resurgence, vinyl still represents just two percent of music sales, meaning investors aren’t lining up to bankroll new factories.

Until now. As Billboard reports, Memphis Record Pressing, a new vinyl pressing plant, is the brainchild of Fat Possum founder Matthew Johnson, who partnered with Bruce Watson and AudioGraphics Masterworks owners Mark Yoshida and Brandon Seavers, to bring his idea to life.

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The plant is now finally ready for business 10 months after construction began in March of this year. Its first release was a re-print of Youth Lagoon’s 2011 LP, Year of Hibernation, which the plant unveiled at the beginning of last month – see the printing process in the video embed below.

“I’ve had 3,000 Modest Mouse records stuck in customs that’s cost me a lot of money at Christmas,” Johnson tells Billboard. “I’m tired of all that shit. I hate this business. It’s getting so bad. If I want to sit down, I feel like I have to cut a tree down, cut it into boards, make a chair — it’s ridiculous. You used to not have to worry about manufacturing. Now you do.”

Johnson opened his plant specifically to release records from Leeds punk outfit Fat White Family and promising up-and-comers the Districts, and after experiencing frustration with consistently backordered shipments of records. Though it must be said that it bodes well for the vinyl industry to have backorders in the first place.

Though Johnson is skeptical the vinyl resurgence will last, since 2008, vinyl sales have increased 223 percent to 6.06 million units last year, and Nielsen Music numbers indicate they are still gaining momentum, on track to surpass 8 million units this year (sales grew 1.5 million last year and 2 million this year).

With nine presses now at his disposal, Johnson hopes to churn out a minimum of 7,000 records a day and “hopefully” 13-14,000. While it’s significantly less than a powerhouse like Nashville’s United Record Pressing, Memphis Record Pressing’s advantage over the competition lies in their speed. The smaller plant cycles 37 seconds per record as opposed to the usual minute-per-record at most plants.

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And it’s not just Fat Possum who’ll be reaping the benefits of the new plant. Memphis Record Pressing will also be making records for additional companies, including some of the labels working with Sony’s RED Distribution.

“[President] Bob Morelli and [svp product development] Alan Becker have been very supportive and patient of our complete lack of financial planning,” says Johnson, “so obviously we’d like to reciprocate and give them all the manufacturing capability we don’t use.”

While Johnson says he’s unsure of how much money he’ll save with his own pressing plant, he’s certain it will save him travel time. Eschewing previous channels which saw records pressed in Czechoslovakia and sent to the US before distribution, Johnson can now keep everything in-house.

More importantly, however, provided it’s successful, Johnson’s plant may well serve as an example to other labels, both independent and major, who may go on to open or otherwise refurbish their own pressing plants, securing the future of vinyl and its place in the music industry landscape.

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