Inside @unitedrecordpressing, the World’s Busiest Vinyl Record...

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Inside @unitedrecordpressing, the World’s Busiest Vinyl Record Plant

To see more photos of the record-making process, check out @unitedrecordpressing on Instagram. For more music stories, check out @music.

“I tend to speak in analogies, and there are so few that are accurate for vinyl production,” says Jay Millar, director of marketing for United Record Pressing (@unitedrecordpressing) in Nashville, Tennessee. “The closest I’ve ever come to one would be like being a baker, but they are constantly changing your pans and your ingredients. Every recording is so unique from one to the next — even if it’s literally the same songs. It’s a lot of trial and error getting that to work right.”

Here’s (the very simplified version of) how United works: The process starts with pellets — vinyl pellets, to be specific, which look a bit like gravel. The pellets are then heated to 250 degrees and squeezed like a tube of toothpaste into a shape that resembles a biscuit. Then a label is slapped on the middle. After 200 tons of pressure, the biscuit is flattened out and trimmed and voila: you have your record.

Today, United is the busiest record plant in the country, operating 24 hours a day, six days a week.

“There really is no slow time,” says Jay. “To me it’s almost laughable when the word ‘trend’ gets brought up. Because how many trends last over 10 years? Can you really call something that’s lasted 10 years — especially when it’s not only lasted, it’s something that has never gone away — a trend?”

— Instagram @music

by via Instagram Blog