Cascade Record Pressing, near Portland, Oregon, is only the 21st pressing plant in the country after many closed with the advent of CDs and MP3s

As you might expect around a hipster haven like Portland, Oregon has its fair share of record stores – so many, in fact, that Mark Rainey, owner of TKO Records in Huntington Beach, California, quickly scratched the idea of opening another.



Rainey was looking for a new venture that would take him out of California, and after hearing the blues about supply and demand in the vinyl industry from his friends who ran labels, it was obvious that he needed to go to the source.



Cascade Record Pressing opened in May 2015, becoming the 21st vinyl pressing plant currently operating in the United States – there are only about 40 globally – and the first plant in the Pacific north-west.



“It seemed like a very logical direction to go in,” said Rainey. “And looking at Portland and the culture here, this was really the obvious place.” With a strong independent music scene established decades ago, Portland is known for embracing local artists and small business.



Located in Milwaukie, Oregon, which borders Portland to the south, Cascade is a labor of love between three partners: CEO Rainey, mastering engineer Adam Gonsalves and certified public accountant Steve Lanning. As music fans and vinyl aficionados, the trio knew they were tapping into a growing demand.

Between January and March of 2015, vinyl sales were 53% higher than the first three months of 2014, according to a Nielsen report. And in 2014, vinyl sales totaled 9.2m, up from 6.1m in 2013.

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For all the buzz about vinyl, sales are still small potatoes compared to digital downloads and CDs, making up only 3.6% of all albums sold in the US last year. But since 2009, their sales have increased by 260%.



Terry Currier, owner of Portland’s renowned Music Millennium record store, says vinyl’s revival can be attributed to the younger generation, who discovered its retro kitsch at garage sales. Records demand active listening – a full album experience with large format artwork, which is missing from single mp3s and streaming platforms.



But Currier believes the real game-changer was Record Store Day, launched in 2007 as an annual event to appreciate the independent record store. “Before then, the story in the media was that record stores were dead. But Record Store Day showed that they weren’t, and it brought vinyl back,” said Currier.



Celebrated at indie shops across the world, Record Store Day brings longer lines every April, with 400 exclusive record releases this year. And these days, it’s not just indie labels releasing new titles or reissues on vinyl for their collecting clientele. Major labels, too, are returning to the format.

“This year alone, Universal Music’s labels will release vinyl editions from the Rolling Stones to new stars like Lana Del Rey and breaking artists like Halsey,” said Candace Berry, executive vice president and general manager of sales at Universal Music Group. “With vinyl, our research shows consumers are seeking a physical and analog experience to complement the way many access music digitally on a daily basis.”



So with a dramatic spike in vinyl sales comes the demand to manufacture more supply. The trouble is, pressing plants are struggling to handle the workload.



After the advent of CDs in the 1990s, and later mp3s, dozens of pressing plants closed. Those that remain are backlogged with orders. As a result, labels are having to push back release dates.



“We have had to build in a much longer lead time from receiving the masters to releasing the album,” said Tom Davies, head of European marketing at Secretly Group, a family of American independent record labels based in Bloomington, Indiana. The group includes Secretly Canadian, Jagjaguwar, Dead Oceans, and the Numero Group, and represents artists such as Antony and the Johnsons, Bon Iver, Dinosaur Jr and Sharon Van Etten.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chief press operator Dave Mendoza pumps out records at Cascade. Photograph: Leah Nash/The Guardian

“Sometimes this is actually a benefit for the record. It helps to have a decent amount of creative buildup,” continued Davies. “On other occasions it has been hugely exasperating.”



Davies says the quality has also suffered due to the jam. “Some vinyl pressing has been appalling recently,” he said. “It has been a real struggle for labels to get a consistently good pressing with the plants being so busy.”



Gotta Groove Records, based in Cleveland, churns out 80,000 records per month, mainly new titles from indie labels, with very few reissues. At the moment, the plant is experiencing a three-month backlog.



Vice president Matt Earley says the bottleneck is also due to the limited number of companies that produce metal “stampers” – the negative versions of the original recording. The stampers are used to flatten the vinyl “puck” which then makes the record. This year, Earley said the industry experienced the largest stamper backlog ever.

Gotta Groove operates six presses, and some date back to the 1950s. “I don’t know of any pressing plant that buys new presses,” said Earley. “The price you charge for the record would have to quadruple to cover the cost of the new press.”



New presses have only been on the market in recent months, courtesy of Record Products of America, Inc, which supplies parts to all the pressing plants in the United States. According to Dan Hemperly, technical sales manager at RPA, two manual presses that operate in tandem cost $130,000.



For now, plants are sticking with the antiquated equipment that was mothballed decades ago, and sometimes running them for longer durations. “You can’t run old equipment 24 hours a day,” warns Hemperly. “You need to maintain them for 24 for hours a day.”



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Cascade has opened as a mid-sized plant. They bought six Miller presses from the 1970s, originally used by Hub Servall, one of the longest running vinyl pressing plants on the east coast before it closed in 2004.



At the moment Cascade is running three, with the fourth currently in testing. In an average eight-hour shift they can press 1500 units, or about 6000 to 7000 records per week.



They also managed to hire a press operator with experience under his belt. “Qualified press operators are a limited commodity right now. It’s a definitely a craft,” said Rainey. “Demand is going to dictate that more people learn this trade, because the original guard is retiring.”



With their automatic presses, it takes about 35 to 40 seconds to make one record. After pressing, the records are taken into the inspection room, where 10% are listened to and all are visually inspected. They sit for 24 hours before assembly, which is also offered at Cascade.



“We’re not the largest plant, so we’re trying to compete on quality, not quantity, and also distinguish ourselves on customer service,” said Steve Lanning. “Ultimately our goal is to find the independent labels we want to work with and solidify relationships, regardless if the vinyl thing goes up or down again.”



Cascade gives incentive to labels in the Pacific north-west – they’re the only plant in the region, and shipping costs decrease when you press locally.



For Lanning, there’s another prospect. “Hopefully the existence of Cascade might even lead to new labels forming, because there’s access to production now, which is really exciting.”