On February 6 of this year there was a fire. This was no ordinary fire however. This was in Banning California in a building where 75% of the worlds vinyl was made and pressed. The name of the company was Apollo Masters.
The effects of this will not be seen by us until next year when the shortage of new vinyl records will become apparent for those of us who buy them on a regular basis.
So if you are one those who still enjoy vinyl and buy them on occasion, this is why you might see any new releases in the near future.
When a niche company like that loses everything on the drop of a dime, the effects ripple down to other businesses in that "family tree". As Wayne mentioned, I'm sure they had insurance so I'm sure they will find a way to get back up.
The vinyl industry has been growing. This will be a hiccup.
I sure hope so. I would hate to see all that progress just die off. There is a big "fan base", if you will, surrounding this. We want our records and this is the last product I want to see made in China.
I only know of one other company that creates the same product and that's MDC in Japan. I'm not that knowledgeable about the history and manufacturing of vinyl though, so I could be wrong. I just buy records because the music has more depth and sounds warmer.
Personally, I see this as a direct consequence of allowing companies to consolidate. I believe Apollo Masters bought out one of their competitors in the early aughts. Less competition means there are fewer companies to produce those goods.
There's always DMM if there's a shortage. What kills me is that the same industry gurus who poked fun at it and said that the DMM audio mastering technique produced inferior sound quality are now claiming that it can sound great if done right. It's interesting that this change in attitude only occurred after the Apollo Masters disaster. I don't have golden ears and can't tell a difference between them. To me, a record is a record.
Yes, there's another company in Japan that does the same sort of work as the factory that burned but evidently they are already at capacity and are not taking new orders.
It's not surprising that several of these companies merged in the early aughts as the demand for vinyl was still going down. It was a declining business at that point and merging was probably a way to keep a reasonable cash flow.
I've not seen anything since the fire about rebuilding and Googling doesn't bring up any new information. It's got to be a tough decision because making a profit from an old facility is different than trying to do the same from a new, expensive place. Guess it'll all come down to the insurance payoff and how badly the vinyl industry wants to keep the production in the US.
It also isn't clear if they'll be able to rebuild in their old location. Lots of old industries can continue to produce in old facilities because they've been there for decades. They've been grandfathered in, to use the old term. But can a modern plant meet current regulations in California? It remains to be seen.
That isn't to say the business won't be back but they are going to have to jump through a lot of hoops to do it. I'm guessing the plant will end up in a different location.
And it indicated in another inquiry at that time there were 23 in 2017 in the US with 5 more to come on line that year. The listing shows 81 now. I question if Apollo actually did 75% of the pressings. The huge number of other companies would seem to be at odds with that value. Still the loss of any company is sad.
Posting Rules
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Get a T-Shirt!
