WKSU News: Vinyl record pressing plants question sales numbers

Monday, May 4, 2015 Vinyl record pressing plants question sales numbers An industry website estimates production at 73 million units last year, while Nielsen-Soundscan says 9.2 million vinyl records were sold last year by WKSU's KABIR BHATIA	Reporter Kabir Bhatia

The 14-disc 'Beatles In Mono' was one of 2014's big sellers on vinyl.

Courtesy of KABIR BHATIA

The music industry is reporting that vinyl record sales were up 52 percent last year, but some insiders say the numbers are being under-reported. WKSU’s Kabir Bhatia has details.

Vinyl record pressing plants question sales numbers

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In 1991, Nielsen-Soundscan began compiling music sales electronically, a switch from the old system where record-store employees reported by phone or fax. At the time, the vinyl record was being trounced by CDs and cassettes.

Now it’s made a comeback, with 9.2 million units sold last year.

However, Soundscan relies on scanning barcodes, and that could be missing a large portion of vinyl sales according to Vince Slusarz, owner of Cleveland’s Gotta Groove record-pressing plant.

“Quite a bit of what we do does not have a bar code on it. And let's say [there's] 500 copies made and they're selling them on the road -- and even if it's a well-known band, and they're selling their records at a [merchandise] table -- I'm not certain if that's even turned in to Soundscan.”

Jay Millar of United Record Pressing in Nashville – the largest pressing plant in the country – says some recordings are slated for non-traditional outlets.

“To pull another dramatic example, we’ve actually manufactured 1,000 records for a guy who just wanted to shatter them as part of an art project. There's a lot of what we do that's just odd things that would figure into the manufacturing, but certainly wouldn't go into a Soundscan number.”

Last year, Gotta Groove alone pressed about 800,000 discs, while Billboard Magazine estimates United Pressing turned out about 9 million. Vinyl record sales saw their best year in 2014 since 1990. All told, the industry website AnalogPlanet puts U.S. pressing plant output at more than 73 million last year.

A chart of vinyl sales from 1973-2014 is available here.