DADC - Terre Haute to end CD production

Well I just read this morning that Sony DADC in Terre Haute, Indiana (the first CD manufacturing facility in the USA, circa 1984) is to end CD production this year. They are laying off half their employees and will only be producing Sony playstation games and some UHD blu-ray discs. This was the last DADC facility in North America (Canada, USA, Mexico) to make CDs.

I guess this explains why all the CDs I have been seeing for sale locally are all being manufactured in Germany or Poland. I know the music is the most important part, but kind of a bit bummed.

 

Oh, and here is a news article. Guess I should probably have provided a link in the first post...

Sony DADC to Lay Off Hundreds in Terre Haute

 

ok ok all the crap about best buy/target dropping cds.......that news hasnt fazed me, i wasnt buying brickwalled Greatest Hits cds anyways............but are you serious dog, this story its nutz- I wonder what the last CD will be?

 

Long live the stamp!
Great run and great history. Anyone losing their job sucks.

 

I can't believe its over, remember when they just opened and they were on the news for having the grand opening, I mean, I understand it, but I dont "believe" it.

 

Huge bummer: toured that plant as a TV reporter and DADC pressed DePauw’s DVDs until they dropped smaller clients to focus on big ones. Quite a place in its heyday.

 

Plus les choses changent, plus elles restent les mêmes (The more things change, the more they stay the same). Condolences to those out of work, I supported you as long as I could!

 

You know to us its all about the 11A1 but you know there is actually it turns out a human elemant to this to- check out this story on the actual people who made dadc cds, and how they are loosing their jobs

Laid-off Sony DADC employees wonder what's next

 

Apparently the old Specialty/Warner/Cinaram/Technicolor Olyphant plant is also closing this year:

Former WEA, Cinram Plant to Close

While not as old as the DADC plant (in terms of CD manufacturing), it was at one time the largest manufacturing plant of audio discs in the USA.

With the loss of DADC in Terre Haute and the old Warner plant in Olyphant, I am not sure there are any major CD production facilities left in the country?

 

To be fair, Sony had been laying masses of people off at the DADC plant every year for the last 4 years or so.

I always thought that as one of the last CD manufacturing plants left in the country, they would sort of continue on in ever dwindling numbers, even if CDs existed in only an ultra rare niche market. Like you said, I just don't believe it.

They are maintaining some digital disc manufacturing there, so I suppose it would be pretty easy for them to retool if they ever decide to go back to CD manufacturing...but that is probably just wishful thinking.

I guess Germany and Japan with be the kings of CD production (with Austria maintaining the sole SACD-Hybrid facility).

 

I went to high school right down the road from the Columbia Records plant. My brother worked there for a time. He would often get me admission tickets for their infamous warehouse sales. Imagine 8 or 9 quonset huts in a row, front and back doors open for ventilation, rows and aisles inside loaded with regular-stock LP's, 7.99 list, 3 bucks a pop. Most of the big labels. Ya know those pictures in the insets of TV Guide of the Columbia Record Club? Usually a delirious young girl holding a load of rekkids, half spilling out of her arms? That was the semi-annual Warehouse Sale.

I was on my first out-of-town radio gig in Evansville when they started paring-back on Record plant staff, and my first morning gig in Louisville when DADC opened. I imagined half the old pressing plant gone, replaced by Space-Age buildings and a local economy with stars in the workers' eyes, being part of The Futurrre!

But no; every time I visited my old home town, it just looked a little bit more bleak. But, my condolences to those who chose to stay there, and not move out into the world. And now will have nothing better to do but sit on the couch, rolling a fat one, and wonder how far out of town they're gonna have to re-locate to find work they're qualified to do.

 

DADC manufactures SACDs in Japan too.

 

Are there any plants left in Germany? Soon, Russia will be the only country manufacturing CDs.

 

Yes, they are few plants still in Germany.

http://www.digicon-dvd.com/uk.html

Complete list: Liste von Presswerken – Musik-Sammler.de

 

The last CD will be "Died In The USA."

 

Now I know why old people are always in a bad mood. They're tearing down my world.

Remember the innocent days of sending off your Columbia Record Club membership with a quarter taped to the form and mailing it off without your parents permission, then finding out you owe a dollar or two for shipping and your mom has to write a check for you.

 

The invention of Brickwall limiters killed CDs. End of story.

 

Wouldn't it be a tribute to Edison Disc Cylinders?

 

And to think this was seven years after the Pitman, NJ plant closed down. The end of an era, indeed.

In 2011, a printer out in L.A. called G&M Graphics which had served the industry for some five decades up to that point, had put out a video that showed how center labels for vinyl records were printed. It appears this company, too, has also fallen by the wayside, as there is now no evidence of its existence online.

 

Did they never print their name on the label?

 

Next Springsteen studio album?

 

Japan DADC also do hybrid SACDs.

In addition, Arvato (Sonopress) also do both hybrid and single-layer SACDs.

 

Oh cool! I thought DADC Japan just did non-hybrid SACD discs. Glad to hear that is not the case!

Regarding Sonopress, I remember reading they were considering going back into SACD, but haven't seen any discs pressed by them yet. Do you know where their SACD facility is located?

 

Both EDC and Sonopress still manufacture a lot in Germany. I think the old EDC plant near Hanover (which dates back to the late 1800s and has something like 700 employees) filed for bankruptcy last year, but as far as I can tell they are still in operation as I am still finding CD pressed with their factory codes.