'Disaster for the U.S. record industry': Experts concerned after 'devastating' fire destroys Apollo Masters

Once a relic of the past cherished by enthusiastic collectors, vinyl has mounted a resurgence in the music industry with hundreds of millions in sales annually — but future production of records could be heavily impacted after a fire in Southern California wiped out a key industry supplier.

Apollo Masters, the world's largest supplier of the lacquer used in vinyl record production, suffered "catastrophic damage" on Thursday. Industry experts and musicians are raising concerns that the plant's destruction will impact the worldwide vinyl record industry.

"This is definitely a disaster for the U.S. record industry," Rick Hashimoto of Record Technology, a pressing plant in Camarillo, Calif., said via email.

"Apollo has supplied at least 75% of the world's master lacquer discs for the past 10 to 20 years," he added. "The only other supplier is a Japanese company, MDC. They are very small but have recently increased their market share."

The fire couldn't have come at a worse time for the industry. Vinyl has been riding a wave of popularity for years. The Recording Industry Association of America reported 16.7 million LPs and EPs were sold in 2018 at an estimated retail value of almost $420 million.

It's unclear what ignited the blaze that broke out around 8 a.m. Thursday, sending a large plume of black smoke over Interstate 10 in Banning, Calif. Cal Fire Capt. Fernando Herrera said there were multiple reports of explosions and that "there wasn't any one spot you could say wasn't on fire."

Apollo initially posted on its website Friday that its manufacturing and storage facility was "completely destroyed." Later, the company said it had "suffered catastrophic damage."

"The best news is all of our employees are safe," the company said. "We are uncertain of our future at this point and are evaluating options as we try to work through this difficult time."

Gil Tamazyan, the owner of Los Angeles record pressing plant Capsule Labs, said he's been concerned for the industry since Apollo purchased competitor Transco in 2007.

"The worst case from (the fire) would be if Apollo doesn't plan to return and doesn't share the intellectual properties with another new willing company. We all agree there needs to be more than one supplier for these materials," Tamazyan said. "All my industry colleagues are worried this might take a long time to figure out and, in the process, major delays may arise in the vinyl production market."

Ben Blackwell, co-founder of Third Man Records, shared similar concerns.

Led by rock guitarist Jack White, Third Man has operations in Detroit and Nashville and makes hundreds of masters a year from lacquers.

"I think the fire will probably affect just about every North American pressing plant’s ability to master records," Blackwell wrote via email. "The extent to which they’ll be affected remains to be seen."

Apollo's history in music

Apollo was a vital supplier in the vinyl record business.

Though there are other ways of creating masters, some companies rely heavily on lacquers to make master recordings.

Once recorded music has been optimized for vinyl, a cutting lathe "physically carves the music’s grooves into a plate called a lacquer — an aluminum plate covered with cellulose nitrate, a coating similar to nail polish," according to Furnace Record Pressing, a music company based in Virginia.

"In the cutting studio, the mastering engineer places a blank lacquer onto the lathe and the machine transforms the auditory energy of the recording into the physical movement of a needle on the lacquer," the company added. "In this sense, the lathe is the opposite of a turntable, turning sound into movement instead of movement into sound."

Once a lacquer is cut, companies can create a nickel-coated copy, which will be used to make hundreds of records, the company said.

Lee Joseph, who owns Joshua Tree-based Dionysus Records and plays bass for high desert musician Jesika von Rabbit, said by phone on Friday that hundreds of records he's released on the label since 1984 were manufactured on Apollo discs.The process is reliable in terms of quality, Joseph added.

"You can't cut a record without (the lacquer) unless you do direct metal mastering," Joseph said. "That's a rare thing and I don't think it sounds as good. It's brittle and high-end, but you need special equipment to do that. The technology to cut records is a century old and it works."

On its website, Apollo has chronicled its history and how its lacquers are produced.

One of the more interesting points is Apollo's connection to Capitol Records.

When the famous company closed its lacquer division in October 1986, it reached out to several companies that might be interested in purchasing their equipment. GC International bought the rights and lacquer equipment in 1987 and the operation was moved to Banning, according to their website.

Banning was appealing, the company said, because of its hot and dry climate.

After the purchase, the equipment from Capitol Records was disassembled and put onto 15 trucks. Production in Banning started in 1989.

Hope for the future

News of the Apollo fire rapidly spread internationally.

David Read, vinyl coordinator for the Canada-based Analog Media Tech/Duplication.ca, echoed concerns from others in the record business.

"The Apollo fire is awful news for the whole vinyl industry," he wrote via email. He said the blaze will impact many areas of the music industry, such as plants, bands and labels, engineers and anyone who uses lacquers.

His company won't be as impacted since they can use direct metal mastering, a different process to make master recordings.

But others, who use Apollo, could be. Tamazyan, the owner of Capsule Labs, noted Japanese company MDC is a "small" and "limited" supplier.

"Luckily, some of us like myself have already established an account," Tamazyan said, "as we have received word that they will not be taking any new accounts."

Despite the loss, Read said the industry has bounced back before, especially after it was considered "dead" 20 years ago.

"One thing I will say is that in my almost 40 years experience, the vinyl industry as a whole is incredibly resilient, and filled with talented professionals who will, and already are, teaming together to find a way out of this current problem," he wrote.

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Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4617.

Shane Newell covers breaking news and the western Coachella Valley cities of Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs. He can be reached at shane.newell@desertsun.com, (760) 778-4649 or on Twitter at @journoshane.