The vinyl industry has taken a hit this week, with a fire at the Apollo Masters lacquer pressing plant. This comes as another challenge for the music industry to tackle as Apollo Masters is one of only two plants that make lacquer discs for global distribution.
The fire thankfully didn’t injure any workers, however, it is likely to have a resounding effect on the recent resurgence of vinyl in the music industry.
Vinyl almost became obsolete with the technological revolution, however, resilience seems to have prevailed as this is just another challenge for 45″ to beat.
“From my understanding, this fire will present a problem for the vinyl industry worldwide,” Ben Blackwell, co-founder of Third Man Records had written to Pitchfork following the fire. The revival of vinyl in today’s music climate has given fans a chance to experience a more vintage style of listening.
Now with the blaze, the worldwide industry will most likely rely solely on the Japanese company MDC on the production of lacquer, who is understood to already be struggling with their current workload. This could be an opportunity for the smaller cutting communities to emerge into the lacquer industry considering the demand on pressed vinyl in recent years!
Disaster for the vinyl pressing industry. Apollo Masters has burned to the ground. There will be a lacquer shortage and possibly plants having to close or scale back operations for a while. Very distressing news #vinylpressing #vinyl #lacquers https://t.co/HNWFQxDsFg
— duplication.ca Analogue Media (@duplicationca) February 7, 2020
Pressing company Duplication spoke to Smack Media and mentioned the alternative of metal mastering they may have to utilise as a saviour, “Instead of cutting the master into the lacquer it’s cut into copper which is mastered into production.” However, this cutting style presents its own problems with a result that favours higher frequencies unless a certain, not widely available, cutting head is used.
