NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In the six decades since Plain disc pressing eradicated The Beatles’ first American single, The nation’s oldest vinyl record maker has outlasted 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, Napster, iPods and streaming services. Today, the Nashville-based company has rebounded so dramatically that some of its equipment and technology has been upgraded to meet the ever-growing demand for old-school vinyl.

The 75-year-old company has adapted its business from filling jukeboxes to helping DJs spin and fill the shelves despite a pandemic. On his warehouse shelves are master versions of Johnny Cash, Kanye West and The Black Crowes.

When Mark Michaels bought the company in 2007, vinyl was beginning to disappear: his 38 employees were mostly producing singles for rap artists, often promos for clubs. Michaels wanted a real chance to build a business and believed he could keep it stable, but without growing it substantially. It also has a rich history as the first record pressing plant in the South, including an apartment at the top of the plant that housed black artists and music executives during segregation.

“You walked into this building and you felt 50, 60 years of history and the importance of what it represented,” said Michaels, the company’s CEO and president. “And yes, you’re choking, you’re getting goosebumps.” live this.

Today, United Record Pressing operates a newer factory, six times the size of the one Michaels purchased, with about 125 employees who make up to 80,000 records a day.

Various factors have vinyl boosted in recent years, from independent artists insisting on vinyl albums to big-box retailers joining the movement.

In 2023, U.S. revenues from vinyl records increased 10% to $1.4 billion, the 17th consecutive year of growth, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Records accounted for 71% of revenue from non-digital music formats, and for the second time since 1987, vinyl sales surpassed CD sales.

United Record Pressing has undergone its own evolution. The initial pressing plant was established in 1949 by Nashville’s Bullet Records label. In the 1950s it became Southern Plastics Inc. and focused on the 7-inch singles favored by jukebox manufacturers.

By the early 1960s, the company was pressing more than a million records per month. He signed a deal to produce singles for Motown Records and moved to larger premises including the apartment that housed The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and others – and which became known as the “Motown Suite” . In 1963, she released the Beatles’ first American single, “Please Please Me.” Then, in the 1970s, a restructuring transformed the company into United Record Pressing.

During the 1980s, records became a niche market. DJs still needed records for their turntables. Rap and hip-hop artists used them for scratching. But CDs had overtaken them.

In the late 2000s, independent artists insisted on releasing vinyl records. In 2015, the records were widely adopted again, but there were few manufacturers and they relied on presses from the 1960s and 1970s and a limited number of specialists who could operate them, Michaels said. Demand has further increased during the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s art,” Michaels said of vinyl records. “Artists and fans want something tactile to hold on to and engage with. Streaming music is easy, and streaming music is a great way to discover new music. But you know, at the end of the day, it’s kind of sonic wallpaper.

Today, the factory mixes the old and the new.

There are many wooden panels on audio equipment used to test original versions of records before they are used to press copies. And the factory has its share of modernized pressing equipment that seems to have been around since the last time vinyl dominated the market.

Technology also improves the process. Beyond older presses, there are sleek, newly manufactured machines that release records quieter and more efficiently. And there are huge bags of colorful pebbles from discarded materials that can be pressed again to form new discs.

The machines that stamp the master copies use technology that was in place to produce CDs and DVDs, now retooled for vinyl.

In a room further from the factory, the roar of the machines gives way to music.

This is where Tyler Bryant might listen to 10 records in one sitting as the company’s quality control manager. Speaking about the harmonica beats of a Cash album, Bryant said he discovered many artists and records that wouldn’t make his list, ranging from Harry Styles to Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” to independent artists.

“A lot of variety, that’s what I like,” Bryant said. “I don’t like being stuck in one genre, you know?”

A few miles away, architects and a construction team are hard at work preserving the old 1962 factory and preparing the ground for its future. As for what that will look like, Michaels says to stay tuned.

“My vision hasn’t completely crystallized yet, but the mandate is that this is one of the most important spaces in all of music,” Michaels said. “This should be celebrated. It has to be something that people can engage with.