Earlier this week, Sony announced its intention of once again taking up the production of vinyl records, a retro technology that is reportedly once again on the rise.
This decision is allegedly based on the fact that the demand for such records has increased significantly in recent years. Some analysts even predict that 2017’s results will return a double-digit growth for the seventh year in a row.
Sony, Once Among the First to Give Up On Vinyl Records, Is Now at Them Again
Vinyl reported its peak periods in the 1970’s and 1980’s. At the time, over half a billion such records were sold each year in the United States alone. However, the development and appearance of the then modern cassettes and later CDs contributed to their downfall. Now, this retro technology is making sort of a comeback.
Sony Music Entertainment announced that it will once again start pressing vinyl records. This decision comes almost thirty years after the company ended their production, back in 1989. The company is looking to restart production by March 2018.
According to the first details on the matter, these will be pressed in a factory in the southwest of Tokyo, Japan. This facility is run by one of Sony’s subsidiaries. A company spokeswoman stated that Sony has yet to decide what genres of music it will store on the vinyl.
The same statement revealed that the facility already installed an analog record-cutting machine. Placed back in February 2017, this helps make master copies of vinyl records for mass production. Now, the firm will also be introducing a pressing machine.
An issue with the reintroduction of vinyl is the current lack of experienced engineers in the domain. According to the Sony spokesperson, former specialists will be returning to the company as advisors. Ones that will be passing down their expertise to the younger generations.
The consulting firm Deloitte estimates that the vinyl market will sell around 40 million new discs in 2017 alone and that it could generate about $900 million in revenue. According to the same report, this could account for almost 18 percent of this year’s physical music revenue.
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