What's the Difference Between "Made In" and "Pressed In"?

In some vinyl records I have come across with "Made in England" inscribed, say, in the label and "Made in Holland" stated in the inner or outer sleeve. What does this mean? Is this an English or Dutch pressing?

That may also happen in CDs, but haven't seen any case.

 

The Made In Holland means that's where the inner sleeve was created.
The Made In England on the record, means the record.

 

My bad. My intention is to understand the difference between "made in" and "pressed in". Whatever comes written in the record I gather means the same, i.e., it was manufactured in a factory based in that country - pressed in the country. The things are sometimes I come across at the back of the outer sleeve with reference to a country that is not the same as that comes inside in the record label. Confusing my little brain.

 

Covers manufacturing and record manufacturing are typically done by different companies, sometimes not in the same country. If the record pressing starts in England, but due to demand the label needs to contract with a second company (perhaps in Holland), you'll get the situation described in your original post. Meanwhile, the record label doesn't see the need to change the cover, which will continue to read "Made in U.K." despite the record inside now being pressed in Holland.

 

Makes sense. That would mean if the record label has no reference to where the record was actually pressed then what"s stated in the sleeves doesn't provide the answer to that. In that case the deadwax writings would provide the answer even if in a codified way (translatable through databases like Discogs). I'm I right?

And the best answer to my question is that "made in" and "pressed in" are used interchangeably and what is telling is where it comes written.

 

Well, you're getting there.

"Pressed in" always tells you where your vinyl was pressed. "Made in" is less reliable, especially on the cover, which may not have been changed even though some records were being pressed at a foreign-owed facility. If the label is London Records, for example, the cover will say "Made in U.K." regardless of where the vinyl was actually pressed because London is a U.K. company. It's "Made in U.K." for catalog and legal purposes.

I have no idea what the law, domestic and international, required the record companies to do in terms of labeling the components of the product. The deadwax entries satisfy the law. Everyone's main concern was that taxes and royalties were paid correctly. Once that was done, no one cared what was in the deadwax except us collectors.

 

Thank you for this thread. Something that has been bugging me, too. I understand the logic of all the above, but is there a really simple, one country, answer ? I mean I have records from the 50ies and 60ies, that although stated Made in England, were actually for the US and as such declared in discogs as US releases. (export Beatles anyone? ;-) )And the 80ies and early 90ies releases in Europe were either made and pressed in Germany (WEA) or Holland, but actually were European releases. But on this later category it seems that some had some cat# variation that indicated that were for UK also, or specifically. In many cases this has little value, especially from the late 90ies -oo, were only one pressing is available. But it makes a lot of sense again today, were German and Czech factories share batches of pressings and you have to look for indications at the runout, if there are any. In this case it does not help to file them all under European, since knowing the exact country means knowing which quality of pressings you get, which is the crucial issue.

I assume that there is no answer to that. In a globalized market, companies can state whatever they want. It is just a need to rely on the older way of doing things which in my book meant US/UK editions = top quality. But from what I read, it is not the case anymore. Only better chances, compared with pressings from smaller countries.

 

Another example: local used/new record shop, one Crime of The Century, from 1974, with "Printed in the USA" both outer sleeve spine and inner sleeve, but nothing evident on the record label or deadwax itself (guess would need to check in a CoTC thread whether can gather more guidance).

 

I work in a record shop and I have seen enough cases of records of one edition or/and country been swapped to a sleeve of another country in order to create the best combination of conditions. Some people just don't understand that almost every edition has a record matching a sleeve. Of course they only care about the best condition of record and sleeve, not realizing that they actually render the end result worthless, or at least having smaller value. So unless I see such a combination repeating more than once, to deduct that a sleeve and record are from different countries, I simply don't trust it.