wax&wires

Detroit’s Last Vinyl Pressing Plant – Archer Record Pressing

Staying true to the wax in waxandwires, I’ve been linking up stories of vinyl all day today. I saw this one at Daily Swarm and thought it was an interesting watch. Archer Record Pressing is a small little family run shop in Detroit. You might expect it to have an R&B clientele, true to it’s MoTown geography, but the thing that has kept it alive has actually been the rise of techno.

The video cites not a lack of business as the reason for the decline of vinyl pressing shops, but rather a lack of craftsmen willing to repair the pressing machines and learn the trades of old to keep dad’s shop open.

I like the idea that Mike mentions in the video about artists including digital download cards with their vinyl records. That’s a great way to meet the needs of music connoisseurs in this digital climate, but still guarantee an album sale and give them something tangible to enjoy.

Vinyl interest has definitely surged lately, as a newer generation has come to appreciate all things vintage. Newer genres like hip hop and dance have re-adapted records for new purposes, and I think we’ll continue to see a niche market for that… if nothing else in super avant-garde fashions. With the advent of Serato scratch, new interfaces, and digital mixing, where will vinyl be in the next 50 years?

If you’re interested in having a record pressed at Archer, check out their website.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 2:28 pm. It is filed under wax and tagged with detroit, hip hop, motown, pressing, record, techno, turntable, vintage, vinyl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.