Manufacturers are struggling to keep up with the resurgence in vinyl records

Pressing plants are struggling to meet the increased demand for records. The cost of building new record-pressing machinery is prohibitively expensive, so greater volumes are being pumped through ageing machines in the few plants left.

Lead times for pressing records have been pushed back from a month to three in the past two years as orders stack up globally, frustrating labels, artists and fans. The world’s largest vinyl producer, GZ in the Czech Republic, reported its busiest-ever day this year, pressing 42,000 in a day in February. The company has recently bought six ageing machines in an attempt to increase production, but is reportedly unlikely to get more than half working.

And there appears little sign of vinyl’s reborn star waning. The frisson of excitement that rippled across the internet was palpable last week when the reclusive electronica artist and nerds’ favourite Aphex Twin revealed that a ballot will run on 200 copies of his long-awaited new album on triple vinyl.

You can read the rest of this article by Alex Lawson of the Independent Newspaper here