The Vinyl Records Manufacturing Association (VRMA) is excited to welcome in new members Vantiva (Global), Key Production Ltd. (UK), Stamper Discs (UK), Galactic Wax (USA) and Takt (Poland). These organizations join over 48 member companies and individuals including Third Man Pressing, CopyCats Media, Big Loud Records, Stoughton Printing, Furnace Record Pressing, Welcome to 1979, and more.
“Vantiva Supply Chain Solutions is excited to join VRMA as a company increasing vinyl manufacturing capacity for clients and music lovers around the globe,” said Rob Wipper, President of Vantiva SCS. “ We look forward to sharing our decades of insights and experience in precision manufacturing, custom packaging & assembly, and order fulfillment & logistics with fellow association members and partners.”
“We are very pleased with the growth of the association over these last few months which includes partners throughout the supply chain and companies of all sizes,” said VRMA President Dustin Blocker. “We believe that with the rapid growth of our industr, that it is more essential than ever to increase our interconnectivity to continue our path towards a sustainable and healthy business environment around the globe. ”
There are currently fifty-two pressing plants in the US that are conservatively producing 193,550,000 records per year. Globally, the annual number is 359,888,000, with close to 200 plants targeted to be online by the first quarter of 2024.
The sale of Vinyl Records has seen continual growth year-over-year for the past 17 years. Last year, in 2022, was the first time in over 30 years that vinyl record sales surpassed the sale of CD’s in the U.S. Currently, vinyl sales for the first half of 2023 in the United States are up 22% from the previous year (23.6 million-first half of 2023 vs.19.4 million in 2022), as reported by Luminate in their mid-year music report.
With the boom in the vinyl business the country's top manufacturers gathered together to create the Vinyl Records Manufacturer Association (VRMA) in December of 2019, becoming a formal legal entity in May of 2022. The VRMA is a professional trade association of independent businesses committed to the craft of vinyl record manufacturing through collaboration, advocacy, standardization, and education. The association serves to advocate for the industry at large, with a focus on education and providing the latest and most accurate information industrywide. The association serves as a forum for member companies to engage in ongoing discussions, various issues, and opportunities related to other new technologies and the future of the industry as a whole.
The VRMA currently has over 48 members from across the vinyl industry, which include not only half the pressing plants in the United States, but also audio companies, plating, mastering, packing, technology, record labels, and, of course, record stores.
As membership continues to grow within and outside of the United States, the VRMA continues their work with a focus on communication with the launch of a recent education initiative on the vinyl making process for those within, and outside of, the vinyl making industry with the production of the Audio Quality Control Manual available for free to all members and the accompanying YouTube series that goes in-depth on the intricate process of audio quality control for vinyl.
KEEP UP WITH THE VRMA