A look inside P-Vine's record pressing factory, VINYL GOES AROUND PRESSING - Part 2

When outsourcing the pressing of records, various expenses are incurred. However, in the case of P-VINE, since VINYL GOES AROUND PRESSING will be handled in-house, we plan to offer singles and other releases at more affordable prices. We are receiving more requests from artists who release their works through P-VINE, especially new bands and singers, to release 7-inch singles. Demand for 7-inch singles, which can be sold for around 2,000 yen, is growing.

Regarding black music, P-VINE has acquired the rights to artists such as Weldon Irvin and the Mighty Riders, who were active in the 1970s, and is releasing reissues in various formats. Both artists were popular in the rare groove movement in the 1990s and as sources for hip-hop sampling, and even now, we receive orders from overseas every time a new album is reissued.

Personally, I've been a big fan of American black music and hip-hop since the '90s, and I used to look with admiration at Weldon's records that were displayed as expensive records on the walls of record stores. Now that we're pressing them ourselves...it's a very moving experience.

That experience with music has given me a special attachment to US-pressed records. Records pressed in American factories have their jackets wrapped in heat-shrink film, a process known as shrink wrapping. I love this so much that I installed a shrink machine at VINYL GOES AROUND PRESSING. You don't see any pressing factories in Japan that use shrink wrapping, so I installed the equipment based on my own arbitrary and biased opinion (laughs).

My goal for the future is to first increase the number of presses.

Records come in three sizes: 12 inches, 10 inches, and 7 inches. Each time a work of each size is pressed, a different mold (metal die) must be used. Each one is heavy, so it's extremely difficult. In the future, when we consider special editions such as picture discs, we will have to change everything from the materials to the peripheral equipment, and it is expected that one machine alone will no longer be enough. If we had two machines, we could proceed by using the first machine to press 12-inch LPs and the second machine to press 7-inch singles.

The boom in second-hand 7-inch records such as city pop has died down, but given the price range, there is still a high demand for singles from retailers such as record shops.

Yamazaki and I have been buying records since the '90s, so we understand the appeal of 12-inch singles very well. Compared to albums, which contain around 10 tracks, singles usually contain three to four tracks, including the original song, a remix, and an instrumental. In other words, there's more space than on an album, so you can carve out a thicker groove. This means you can create more sound pressure and groove.

The manufacturing costs of lacquer discs and stampers are the same as for albums. However, 12-inch singles have often not had jackets for a long time, and if we follow this tradition, we can reduce production costs and potentially set more affordable prices. Hip-hop and deep house might be good choices. I want people to enjoy the appeal of a variety of records.

I'm also thinking about holding a live concert inside the factory. The first floor would be used as a stage, with the audience watching from the mezzanine. My goal would be to press the live recording as is and have the audience buy it when they leave... but that's not possible at the moment (laughs). I'd like to sell the previously released works of the musicians who will be performing on brand new vinyl.

We don't want to be just another pressing plant. We want to be a pressing plant that is close to musicians and artists.