![]() GAZETTE: Why do a few older technologies, like vinyl, fountain pens, and mechanical watches, enjoy a renaissance while most do not? My fear is that the growth of the industry is going to be limited by capacity. KELLEHER: I don’t see vinyl shrinking away again, but I do worry that, as an industry, if we can’t get more capacity online to lessen turn times, fans will move on to other ways to spend money, whether that’s cassettes or digital content. GAZETTE: Given how trendy it is now, will vinyl continue to grow after COVID? ![]() That plastic comes from abroad, and it’s being held in boats outside Long Beach and LA. The cost of plastic has also gone up about 30 percent year over year, largely because of the freight surcharges. We had to wait eight weeks for cardboard boxes that normally get here in two weeks’ time. There have been some supply-chain issues. If a machine part breaks and it takes us longer to get it, that means we’re down for longer. KELLEHER: We averaged six weeks turnaround time on all projects in 2019, 12.5 weeks in 2020, and 27 weeks in 2021. GAZETTE: How long does it take to fill an order as compared to pre-pandemic and why? If you can find capacity, people are grabbing it up. Because capacity is so hard to come by, I’m seeing record labels panic-ordering more than they might have in normal times because most of the pressing plants in North America aren’t taking new orders till 2023 at this point. We need 6,000.” So, all of our capacity planning has been thrown off by how much demand there is. They’ll say, “I only want 2,000 records.” They’ll put the order in and then say, “We sold through that too fast. We’re having a hard time getting parts for the machines.īut what’s happened to us is most of our clients are upping their order sizes. We’re not going to get it till January because the parts are harder to come by there are restrictions on how many people can be in a factory manufacturing machinery. In a normal world, it should have been here by July. For example, I put in orders for new machinery in March. KELLEHER: I don’t think it’s necessarily supply-chain-related. GAZETTE: The unexpected surge in demand during COVID has led to huge manufacturing delays, forcing even stars like Taylor Swift or Adele to wait months for vinyl copies of a new release to be pressed. There are probably six or seven huge plants in Europe. Most vinyl pressing actually happens in Europe. ![]() The major labels don’t own their own means of manufacturing anymore, and they’re the ones taking most of the capacity. You’ve got the large ones like the United Record Pressing plant in Nashville and Erika Records in Los Angeles that might have 20 machines, which do a lot of work for the major record labels. ![]() KELLEHER: In North America, I estimate there are probably 20 plants of various sizes. The major labels used to own plants to ensure they had enough product to keep record store bins stocked. GAZETTE: Back in its heyday, pressing a record was relatively easy. I don’t like it.” But vinyl really does transcend all generations. Usually it’s like, “Oh, my parents like that stuff. Vinyl is really interesting because I can’t think of many other products that kids will buy that were cool for their parents. It speaks to who I am outside of Zoom windows.” I think this past year, when we saw explosive growth in vinyl, had a lot to do with people being home and saying, “I’m here a lot. The more that we talk to college students and teenagers about why they buy vinyl, the common thread is that having vinyl in your dorm room or your house says something about you and who you are. KELLEHER: You’ve got a generation of kids now for whom music has always been a free commodity. ![]() GAZETTE: Why have vinyl records come back into favor with young consumers? The interview has been edited for clarity and length. The Gazette spoke with Caren Kelleher, a 2010 Harvard Business School graduate who left Google to start a pressing plant in Austin, Texas, in 2017, and Ryan Raffaelli, Marvin Bower Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, to learn more about the vinyl renaissance. In fact, the popularity of vinyl has grown so rapidly over the past 18 months of being home-bound by the pandemic that many of the world’s pressing plants are backed up with orders until 2023. Streaming accounts for about 85 percent of today’s music consumption, but sales of vinyl records have grown steadily over the past decade, owing to their rediscovery by members of Gen Z who view them as a timeless medium that offers richer sound quality. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |