UK | Kylie Minogue and Mariah Carey vinyl reissues announced for National Album Day 2021 celebrating women in music: National Album Day’s 2021 ambassadors have been confirmed as Sharleen Spiteri, Laura Mvula, Ray BLK and Joy Crookes. National Album Day organisers have revealed a list of vinyl reissues that will be released to coincide with the 2021 event, which includes classic albums by Kylie Minogue and Mariah Carey. As previously announced, the fourth annual National Album Day taking place on Saturday October 16 will celebrate women in music, inviting conversation about classic albums by the world’s greatest female artists. Among the albums being re-released on vinyl include Kylie Minogue’s Number 1 album Fever for its 20th anniversary on white wax. This sought-after reissue was previously only available exclusively in Sainsbury’s in 2017, and on red vinyl in a Singaporean retailer in 2018. Mariah Carey’s Emotions will re-pressed to pink vinyl for the first time to mark its 30th birthday, while a silver LP of Dido’s No Angel will be available. Ms Dynamite’s Mercury Prize winning album A Little Deeper from 2002 will be reissued for the first time since its release, while Gabrielle’s 1999 Number 1 record Rise will also be given the vinyl treatment for the first time in two decades.
London, UK | A new record store will allow you to press music to vinyl instantly: The new store is the UK location of Jack White’s Third Man and is their first outlet outside of the US (Nashville & Detroit). Our beloved vinyl format has been growing in popularity over the past few years. Sales are a further 16% up this year already (108% YoY), after outselling CDs last term and continuing an impressive 5-year uptrend. Our fascination with wax shows no sign of slowing down, and now, London has its own pressing outlet where you can convert your recordings straight to vinyl. Third Man Records will let visitors record their music directly to wax. The Soho based store is the brainchild of the White Stripes frontman Jack White and will be the heartbeat of the company’s European operations. The premises consist of two levels. The lower level will act as a live music venue called ‘The Blue Basement’, creating a diverse space. The upper level will play host to retail and a recording studio – where you will be able to press your wax directly. The main aim of the store is to be “a physical space to help keep record sales and live performances alive after such a tough period for everyone”.
Denver, CO | Take a Spin Through the Stacks at the Rocky Mountain Record Show: Rocky Mountain Record Show co-founder Kobi Waldfogel is a serious vinyl record collector, but he’s always found something lacking at record shows. “A traditional record show is generally just a marketplace,” Waldfogel says. “It’s buyers and sellers. And that’s great; I personally love to attend those types of events. But every time I’ve been to one, it felt like there was a little bit of culture missing.” For example, Waldfogel says, record shows often have no music playing. That always struck him as odd. So the Rocky Mountain Record Show — which he has put together with partners Reuben Saul and Patrick Selvage — will have DJs spinning vinyl sets throughout the day. It does seem weird, after all, to have an event dedicated to music with no music. The event is happening at RedLine Contemporary Art Center in RiNo, which offers a much warmer environment than a cold convention center, where many such events take place.
Memphis, TN | Memphis Record Pressing drops needle on $7.5M expansion plans: Vinyl records have found their groove again, and a Shelby County company that makes them is looking to become a bigger player. Memphis Record Pressing is planning a $7.5 million expansion that could add hundreds of employees with an average salary of $36,000. The company says the expansion would make it the largest manufacturer of vinyl records in North America, and one of the largest in the world. The company, founded in 2014, told county officials its volume has quadrupled, from 1 million records in 2015 to 4 million in 2020. It currently employs 137 people at its facility in Bartlett, a suburb of Memphis. The expansion would add a logistics facility in Memphis. Memphis Record Pressing said it has considered moving production to Toronto or Prague, and could locate its new project in North Mississippi, but would prefer to build it in Memphis.
Erika Records Founder Looks Back on 40 Years of Pressing Vinyl: Throughout its existence, Erika Records has remained a family business: Dunster’s husband, Charles, does “anything that needs to be done,” she says, while son Janos “John” Schermerhorn is operations manager and daughter Erika lent her name for the company. Erika Records is also an innovator: As CDs boomed in the 1980s, it stayed afloat thanks to its out-of-the-box designs. Erika is now the largest manufacturer of custom records and picture discs in the United States. It’s also the first plant to use lead-free PVC for all of its pressings, taking a greener approach to vinyl manufacturing. “When Third Man was preparing to open our own pressing plant, Liz welcomed us to Erika, gave us an in-depth tour of her facility and even took our team out for lunch,” says Ben Blackwell, co-founder of Jack White’s Third Man Records, which opened its manufacturing facility in Detroit in 2017. To commemorate Erika Records’ 40th anniversary, Dunster, 67, discusses the uphill battle of the nostalgia business and vinyl’s bright future.
Dualtone Records Looks To The Future Of Music While Honoring Its Past: Dualtone Records marks 20 years as an independent label today with the release of Amerikinda: 20 Years of Dualtone, a collection of current artists and alumni covering each other’s songs. Popular tracks by June Carter Cash, Guy Clark and The Lumineers are covered by Drew & Ellie Holcomb, Hayes Carll and Langhorne Slim, among others. Dualtone President and Partner Paul Roper conceived the album concept and says the project is representative of the spirit of the company as its artists are friends, frequently tour together and respect each other. “Like any good brand, word of mouth grows everything,” Roper tells me. “And that’s what was reflected on this record – the camaraderie and the spirit of Dualtone on an album.” Since Dualtone was founded in 2001, the label has sold more than 12 million albums, amassing 5 billion streams across its catalog. Dualtone has released more than 200 albums and garnered four GRAMMY Awards. After a year where a tornado leveled the company’s East Nashville compound and a global pandemic hit weeks later, the boutique label is seeing its best sales and streaming numbers in its two-decade history.
Lisbon, PT | Dahlia—Portugal’s newest listening bar: On 1 July Dahlia, one of the first listening bars in Portugal, opened its doors in the beautiful capital, Lisbon, offering a restaurant and bar experience with high end sound, natural wines and Middle Eastern / Mediterranean inspired share plates. The concept is based on the listening bars of Japan that have been popular there since the 1950s. Guests that come to Dahlia get to enjoy music played on vinyl in an environment that is optimised for a beautiful audio experience. The bespoke sound system is a key part of this and is one of the things that defines listening bars. It’s quite different to the sound systems we all know from the club scene and it also won’t be playing as loud. The intention is to give a really pure sound. In addition to the high end sound equipment, the room has also been acoustically treated and sound proofed with audio absorbing material and was designed by the established Portuguese architect Tiago Oudman. The vast record collection, which is made up of over 6,000 vinyls and is kept behind the bar, has been handpicked by DJ Trus’me, who is the owner of Prime Numbers record label and has been collecting records for over 20 years.
