New Vinyl Record Plant Opens in the U.S. With a Focus on Fast Turnaround

A new vinyl record pressing plant, Gold Rush Vinyl, has opened in Austin, Texas, and it’s the only record plant in North America with a specific focus on fast turnaround. Quicker turnaround times and the ability to take short-run orders will help musicians turn a profit sooner rather than later.

The plant will emphasize these goals because it can take between six months to a year for a record order to arrive due to a shortage of vinyl pressing facilities in North America. The existing North American vinyl pressing plants cannot keep up with demand, which results in these long wait times. By cutting the wait time, Gold Rush Vinyl will especially help up-and-coming bands and independent musicians who rely on physical music sales for income.

Former band manager, Google music executive and Paste marketing manager Caren Kelleher was well-aware that this was a problem. When she ordered vinyl records for bands, they would often arrive too late for bands to sell at their shows, resulting in a missed opportunity for bands to make some extra cash. In fact, an average band can make the same revenue from 100 vinyl record sales as two-and-a-half million YouTube views.

In early March, Gold Rush Vinyl opened their 8,400 square-foot pressing plant in Northeast Austin to help musicians get their records sooner and in a quantity that suits their needs. Kelleher and her team have developed a new process that allows for fast, cost-effective and high-quality pressing of small batches of records and personalized vinyl. The company already has two new presses and the capacity to produce 1.8 million records a year, with plans to grow that to over 5 million.

Kelleher said of the new plant and the diversity of music they hope to support, “The next big thing has to start somewhere, and we want to make their records. The more genres we can support, the more we can help musicians make a living from music.”

Find out more on Gold Rush Vinyl’s website here.