Looking at the usual vinyl websites there is quite a shortage of stock, especially for certain labels - Mobile Fidelity, for example, is one that hardly has any popular titles in stock. Many are out of print but many are just awaiting repress. It's been this way for a while now. Is this the lacquer shortage, a vinyl shortage, increased demand due to Covid hibernation many of us are in? Or is this the future of vinyl?
Yes, CDs for sure. There are many more SACDs available compared to Vinyl for the same titles, however - especially Mobile Fidelity releases.
My take, for whatever it’s worth: people bought a lot of vinyl at the beginning of the pandemic and lockdowns. That seemed to accelerate as there was very little end in sight to needing to either stay home or work from home. While that occurred, people lost their jobs left and right, unable to buy as much, leaving labels with net losses (I’m guessing). Artists were reportedly turning records into labels for release, but those were not released potentially due to 360 deals and the current lack of ability to tour for promotion. Also, if one vinyl plant gets a single Covid case, they probably have to shut that part of the plant down for deep cleaning, which would account for many delays. Throw in the distribution warehouse debacle from last year that was never rectified, the lacquer fires, and the continued lack of transparency of which masters are genuinely destroyed forever from the infamous “universal fire“? it just became a perfect storm for this industry too.
I mentioned this in another thread, but I recently spoke to the owner of my local indie shop, and he told me he cannot currently get represses of his most popular catalog titles such as Abbey Road and Rumors, of which he sells 20 to 30 copies a month. He said that when he places a new vinyl order with his distributor or distributors, he expects to get less than half of it shipped to him. In addition to the lacquer fire, the larger problem for the industry, as both he and I see it, is that the vinyl revival has been so successful that the pressing plants are literally running 24/7 and can’t keep up with the orders they get from labels. My friend has personally been to the nearby Memphis Record Pressing plant and seen this with his own eyes. We were talking about the recent Tom Petty Wildflowers reissue, and how the 9-LP edition of a major reissue like that can tie up one pressing plant for several days. When you throw huge selling mainstream reissues such as the recent Abbey Road three-LP reissue, the steady demand on pressing plants from reissue labels like Mobile Fidelity, Analogue Productions, Tone Poet, etc., the further demand on pressing plants from the new online record clubs such as Vinyl Me Please and Sound of Vinyl, etc., you have a traffic jam at the pressing plants. This year both Taylor Swift and Fleet Foxes, two pretty major artists, dropped “surprise” albums that saw their vinyl release delayed for months and months after their digital and CD releases. Because not even Taylor Swift can jump the line at the pressing plants. Unless and until someone makes the huge capital outlay to build brand new record presses and brand new record pressing plants (I think maybe there have been some small steps in this direction?), the vinyl industry is running at capacity. In this regard, the vinyl revival has become a victim of its own success. Vinyl has become so popular that the pressing plants can’t keep up with demand. My buddy who owns the record store told me he’s redoubling his efforts to buy used collections, because he currently just doesn’t trust the ability of his distributors to get him new vinyl product that relies upon to make money. One more time, it’s not really his distributor’s fault. His distributor can’t ship records if the pressing plants can’t make them fast enough.
I used to see the debut album from The Cars all over the place in record stores. I recently found the vinyl 2-LP Expanded Editions of Candy-O, Panorama, Shake It Up, and Heartbeat City, and happily bought them. After that, I finally decided to stop procrastinating and buy the debut album, but I then couldn't find it anywhere. It went into hiding as soon as I was specifically looking for it. I finally caved in and bought it online. A lot of stores are running out of stock on titles like this that used to be ubiquitously available.
I'm finding CD's are becoming harder to come by on Amazon as well. Not that Amazon is my number one choice to buy music anyway, I usually like buying in brick and mortar locations, but still... Thank GOD most of my collection is now filled in, save for maybe a couple dozen titles, and the random new release here and there.
Interesting. Maybe that’s why Acoustic Sounds/Analog Productions seems to have lots of stock for their releases. They have own pressing machines and therefore control their own destiny.
It has been an excellent time. I have been getting rid of extras on discogs and getting top dollar Also I keep expecting prices of new vinyl to continue up. We are getting inflation coming at every angle except oil. The business I'm in we can't get any steel. Their is a massive shortage due to covid and trump tariffs on India and China
This is how I feel about my collection of roughly 1,500 CDs. I've got the soundtrack of my life, and anything that I stumble across these days is just icing on the cake. I've got almost 300 vinyl records, and I consider my vinyl collection to be "complete" in the sense that all of my favorite bands are represented in the collection. My CD collection is a completist collection where I bought anything and everything from favorite bands, but my vinyl collection is basically a "highlight reel" of music I've listened to all my life.
I have a friend who runs a record label here in Texas and he said the pressing plant he contracted with for some vinyl releases is WAY behind schedule. They just took in too many orders and can't fill them now.
There are TWO RSDs per year. That’s it. 2020’s initial RSD was broken into 3 “drops”, but nothing additional was pressed, and RSD Black Friday went on as usual. #facts
Along with Vinyl Me Please and other online record clubs, yes, Record Store Day is one more demand on the pressing plants on top of the “normal” business of pressing normal records for the normal labels for everyday release.
Someone recently posted that he pre-ordered the Spotify exclusive “coke bottle green” vinyl of McCartney III, and had his order summarily canceled. Maybe the pressing plant and/or MPL/Capitol just said “to hell with it, we pressed eight other colored vinyl variants, forget about this one.” Certainly colored/splattered/swirl vinyl is one more time drain on the plants on top of simply pressing regular black vinyl of everything.
I think some Mobile Fidelity releases are sold out simply because they’re limited, not because Mobile Fidelity, who I am sure has clout with regard to getting a place in line at the plants, can’t keep up. Mobile Fidelity’s recent release of Dylan’s Oh Mercy sold out because it was limited to either 3,000 or 4,000 copies, and Dylan fans quickly bought them all. They recently did a 1,000 copy “super vinyl” run of Dylan’s Desire at $74.99 a pop that sold out in a day. It’s the more mass market releases that are hurt the most. Supposedly Abbey Road sold over 200,000 new LP copies in 2019, and now my local record store owner can’t get new copies of it right now. Whether by choice or not, every new vinyl release is going to become a several thousand copy “limited” run unless something is done to increase pressing plant capacity.
Not sure what happened to your friend but they did indeed press that one. I received a copy last week.
Another thread on here 'Amazon's custom made CD-R reissues' has been highlighting Amazon's selling self-pressed CD-Rs of well-known releases for a few months. Could that be due to a lack of original CDs available? It wouldn't surprise me if they saw a gap in the market approaching and decided to take advantage. Maybe they will build a vinyl pressing plant next?
Not my friend, a guy who posted on the forum. His anecdotal story doesn’t make it true, but, even if you got your copy, there was a delay of several months from pre-order, to “release day” of the album, to this particular variant shipping. That delay is only going to get worse, for every artist and title. Fleet Foxes’ new album “came out” on streaming services in September of 2020, and the vinyl isn’t scheduled to come out until February of this year. Will they even make that deadline? Time will tell.
If someone had the (doubtless massive) amount of capital to invest in building quality new vinyl pressing machines and/or a new vinyl pressing plant, they could make a fortune.
Also I think we know the reason Vinyl Me Please up their prices a ton. They are probably paying a pretty penny to be in front of the line at these pressing plants. They can pay quick with there subscription model also
