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Disc Makers reopens vinyl pressing plant


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Confirmed Disc Fakers here, http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/06/12/discmakers

 

We are indeed using Gotta Groove as our replication partner during this launch. It’s important for us to manufacture in the US, and they are the only US plant with a uniformly stellar reputation for quality.

Our press release said we’re back to offering vinyl to artists, which is true. And Gotta Groove is indeed using the same Hamilton presses – lovingly restored – that were last used to press our records some 15 years ago.

We’re hopeful that the broad reach Disc Makers has will make it easier for artists to get vinyl made. Which, if market forces prevail, will likely lead to an expansion in capacity in the market.

Tony van Veen
CEO, Disc Makers


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  1. Anonymous Friday, June 13, 2014

    Tony, you have to admit that press release is purposely misleading. “So now those old Hamilton presses are cranking again. I can smell that unmistakable smell again”. Really? You can smell them running in Ohio? There are a handful of articles today which have all reported that Disc Makers has re opened a factory, so clearly that is the what people understood to be the case from reading your announcement.


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  2. Tony van Veen Friday, June 13, 2014

    I prefer “stretching the boundaries of truth, but not purposely misleading.” C’mon, no brownie points for coming clean here? I mean, none at all? Surely more egregious sins have been committed by over eager PR departments.

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The reality is that no one wants CDs anymore which is what Discmakers were making most of their money overcharging on for years. Now that the CD ship has sailed and their business has taken a big hit, they are trying to keep afloat by jumping back on the vinyl bandwagon. They spun it like they were going to be doing the world a service by being another vinyl manufacturer in a time when every plant is overbooked for months but the reality is that they will just clog up the pipelines even more when they start duping people into paying them to be the middleman. 

 

If they really want to make a big splash, they should invest money into actually making new vinyl presses, otherwise the world doesn't really have a use for them.

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Wow. I'll be glad to see them go. I thought it was nice to have another pressing plant open up and it would be good for the industry, especially indies, even if I wasn't entirely convinced they'd put out very good product. But this is just straight up taking advantage and being misleading. Maybe they shouldn't have devoted their entire business to shitty disc replication in the iTunes age.

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I'm not surprised by this at all. Middlemannery shenanigans have been a staple in this country for a long time. Its really the symptom of too many people and too few jobs as they're all being exported to countries whose workforce will accept the devastatingly low-wage employment as it is all that is offered to them. In many cases a middleman is extraneous. He's simply a leech finding his way into the center of transaction that previously went on without him. Not always but especially nowadays with the economy in the hole, ingenious parasites will find a way to take a cut of a transaction that doesn't need him. This DiscMakers scenario sounds like more of that. Its hard to blame the middleman these days though. There are mouths to feed and no shortage of corporations flooding the job market with little more than starvation wages and that's just about it for us. Middleman fuckery/be-your-own-boss or try to scrounge up a life out of the corporately hijacked shit storm that is left for the American working class. Most people are not capable of attaining a masters in an in-demand field for a number of reasons. Life.

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I don't think anyone's blaming them for being middlemen.  Most of us like companies like Furnace or Pirates Press who are just that, middlemen.  It's more about deception and them essentially saying oh well, you caught me, can I have credit for admitting guilt once caught? So embarassed for them.

 

(edited for a typo)

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ive had many discussions with multiple plants and guys who cut lacquers... right now its almost impossible to open up a volume pressing plant.. the machinery doesn't exist. Places like united, and oddly enough the church of scientology have purchased almost every available piece on the market. furthermore the few people who are skilled to service the machines are more or less protecting the clients that stood by them for the lean decades, and now those stalwarts are cashing in. The few pieces that are out there, are mainly hand presses.. and even those are going for 10k.. and from what ive heard, depending on your level of knowledge will cost anywhere from 10-75k to get them up and running correctly, and outfitted with everything additional you need to press.

 

this all sounds pretty on point to me, as my family owned one of the last mass photo printing plants in the country until digital completely killed the market... and we had to fly in a guy who was like 70 was who the only person left who knew how to service the room sized machinery we ran. Its all ancient technology, and for the most part theres not much incentive to actually build more because it is a bubble.. at some point the "hipness" of vinyl is going to subside and it'll fall back to the hardcore collector types again.. i mean look at this board as an example.. theres not as many lunatics buying 10 colors of every record that comes out anymore

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ive had many discussions with multiple plants and guys who cut lacquers... right now its almost impossible to open up a volume pressing plant.. the machinery doesn't exist. Places like united, and oddly enough the church of scientology have purchased almost every available piece on the market. furthermore the few people who are skilled to service the machines are more or less protecting the clients that stood by them for the lean decades, and now those stalwarts are cashing in. The few pieces that are out there, are mainly hand presses.. and even those are going for 10k.. and from what ive heard, depending on your level of knowledge will cost anywhere from 10-75k to get them up and running correctly, and outfitted with everything additional you need to press.

 

this all sounds pretty on point to me, as my family owned one of the last mass photo printing plants in the country until digital completely killed the market... and we had to fly in a guy who was like 70 was who the only person left who knew how to service the room sized machinery we ran. Its all ancient technology, and for the most part theres not much incentive to actually build more because it is a bubble.. at some point the "hipness" of vinyl is going to subside and it'll fall back to the hardcore collector types again.. i mean look at this board as an example.. theres not as many lunatics buying 10 colors of every record that comes out anymore

 

I wonder if someone could manufacture new-age era presses from scratch, following those old designs, and making them more efficient, precise, whatnot. Also in regards to the bubble, I really don't know, because most music is going digital as we all know, and CDs are worthless. Vinyl represents the only "cool" physical medium (besides tape). If it is a bubble, I don't expect it to pop for at least 15/20 years, unless some weird revolutionary way to listen to music comes out. Things go full circle, for example, look at the fashion industry, the "hipness" has gone full mainstream, floral dresses, skirts, guys not wearing cargo shorts with baggy t shirts.

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Not to totally threadcrap this to a Scientology thread but it's my underestanding they're only interested in DMM lathes.  They have the only ones in the US to cut all of L Ron Hubbard's speaches to copper plates.  They're stored with a solar powered turntable and instructions so when the earth is rubble someone will find that turntble sealed away with those discs and assume ol L Ron was our god.

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