Metallica buy their own record processing plant
Owning vinyl is all the rage these days. 2022 became the first year since the 1980s that vinyl outsold CDs, and the global resuscitation of vinyl as the preferred medium of music is now reaching its apex. For the first time in decades, artists are beginning to see actual profits from selling their albums on wax, so much so that the demand is starting to encroach on the supply.
In the world of music, Jack White practically stands alone as an artist who has cut out the middleman. Through his record label, Third Man Records, White has been able to purchase and oversee one of the biggest independent vinyl record production plants in America. Third Man’s Detroit location opened in 2017, making it the first vinyl record plant to open in the city since 1965. If you’re buying a reprint of The White Stripes’ catalogue or purchasing a new record from The Raconteurs, you can bet that White personally oversaw its production.
Now, White has some competition courtesy of heavy metal gods Metallica. According to Billboard, the legendary metal band sold nearly a million vinyl records last year: 902,500 discs spread across 620,000 packages, about half of which sold in the US. Almost all of that vinyl was produced at Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, VA, which also happens to be the same city that this writer currently lives in. If anyone wants to take a field trip down to Metallica Vinyl HQ, I’ll be sure to buy you a beer.
“We couldn’t be more happy to take our partnership with Furnace to the next level,” Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said in a statement. James Hetfield added that the plant has been “great to Metallica and more importantly to our fans” and with the band owning the plant, Metallica fans “will have continued access to high quality records in the future.”
Metallica has been working with Furnace since their 2008 audiophile pressing of Metallica, better known as The Black Album. Despite the fact that their most recent studio album, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct was released in 2016, Metallica was the sixth-highest vinyl seller in the US last year. This year will see the release of a brand-new LP, 72 Seasons, so there is no better time to invest in their vinyl future.
As for the Furnace company itself, the plant won’t be tied to Metallica vinyl exclusively. The plant will still produce LPs from other artists, but the financial backing by Metallica will allow them to continue to churn out quality material. “They want to keep the quality and service the whole industry,” Furnace founder and CEO Eric Astor told Billboard. “It will give us the opportunity to invest more.”
