This 75-year-old vinyl record plant survived Napster, CDs and 8-tracks and is busier than ever

(29 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: COMMERCIAL MUSIC, MUSIC VIDEO AND OR PERFORMANCES, MUST BE CLEARED ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN LOCAL MUSIC PERFORMANCE AND COPYRIGHT AGREEMENTS WITH YOUR APPLICABLE COLLECTING SOCIETY.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nashville, Tennessee - 11 July 2024
1. Tight of a puck of vinyl being pressed in a machine
2. Tight on a machine cutting off excess vinyl and dropping record onto a stack of records
3. Wide of an employee at United Record Pressing inspecting a stack of vinyl records
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Michaels, CEO of United Record Pressing:
"When I bought United Record Pressing in 2007, vinyl was was was a dying species."
5. Wide of a row of stampers lined up
6. Tight on a sticker for SZA's "Ctrl" album
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Michaels, CEO of United Record Pressing:
"A lot of what the company did was it made 12-inch singles for rap, hip hop artists."
8. Tight of a record playing
9. Tight on levels on a soundboard moving
10. Wide of an engineer at United Record Pressing listening to a record
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Michaels, CEO of United Record Pressing:
"It was primarily audiophiles and aficionados that clung to the, you know, the experience of vinyl and digital music had sort of surpassed it."
11. Wide of a wall of colored vinyl records
12. Tight to zoom out of an AC/DC record
13. Pan up on a colorful vinyl record
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Michaels, CEO of United Record Pressing:
"You had a lot of independent artists that really embraced that thesis and supported it, and they wanted their music on vinyl and they really insisted on it and their fans embraced it. And so all the sudden now there there was a whole generation of fans that were discovering this this beautiful format that that had been forgotten."
15. Wide of Tyler Bryant, quality control lead, turning up the record player to listen to a Johnny Cash song
16. Tight on a record player running
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Tyler Bryant, quality control lead, United Record Pressing:
"When it's your job, you kinda have to sit down and listen to Miley Cyrus and Harry Styles and stuff like that. I'm a punk kid. All that stuff is way out of my realm."
18. Tight on a sign for "Buy Vinyl"
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Michaels, CEO of United Record Pressing:
"Target and Walmart started carrying vinyl and so that exposed a whole new segment of the market to vinyl."
20. Tight on an employee inspecting a green vinyl record
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Michaels, CEO of United Record Pressing:
"A record, you get to pick it up and you look at it and you experience setting on the platter and putting the needle, the needle in the groove and having an experience and opening it up and reading the liner notes and understanding the history and all the work that went into it and the people that played on it."
22. Medium of a machine dropping records on a stack
23. Wide of a medium looking closely at a machine pressing the vinyl record
24. Wide of the exterior of United Record Pressing


STORYLINE:
United Record Pressing in Nashville has survived 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, Napster, iPods and streaming services.

Six decades after it pressed the Beatles' first single in the U.S., the country's oldest vinyl record maker has rebounded so dramatically thanks to new generations of younger vinyl fans.

The 75-year-old company has adjusted its business from filling jukeboxes, to helping DJs spin, to stocking shelves despite a pandemic. On shelves in its warehouse are master versions by Johnny Cash, Kanye West and The Black Crowes.












(AP Video by Kristin M. Hall)



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