Just after special edition vinyls were released for Black Friday shoppers, Jack White opened a Third Man Records store, studio and vinyl pressing plant in Detroit, Michigan.
Melissa Parrott, who works at Grooves Records in London, says the addition is great for the music rich city. However, it’s not the first of its kind in that location. Archer Record Pressing has called Detroit home since 1965.
“Having an additional pressing plant is amazing,” she says, “Right now, the wait times for artists to get vinyl press are really long.”
She explains it can take between a couple of months to a year for the wait, because there aren’t enough vinyl pressing shops.
“In the 80s, many of these plants shut down, the equipment was either thrown out, sold or just separated. Now we’re just at this point in time trying to build that back up again.”
Parrott adds one of her musician friends in London has opened a record company called Snap Crackle Pops Records where they cut their own vinyl records.
She says Black Friday drew lots of customers at the local record shop, and is happy to serve a new generation of vinyl lovers. “One of my favourite things of the shop is selling young kids their first turntables. They’ll come in with their parents and want to buy a turntable and it’s always really thrilling for me and for them.”
