As Nashville's United Record Pressing celebrates 75 years, a look back at 15 key vinyl presses

According to year-end 2023 data from the Recording Industry Association of America, vinyl revenue rose 10% to $1.4 billion and accounted for 71% of physical revenue last year. 2023 also marked the 17th vinyl^u consecutive year of growth.

As vinyl's vital place in the music ecosystem continues, Nashville-based United Record Pressing is also celebrating 75 years of pressing vinyl for artists such as Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Adele and Stevie Wonder and many more.

“The steady growth of the vinyl record market has been going on for nearly 20 years at this point in the US, but what's particularly cool is how the medium has evolved into a folk art object and a creative opportunity for artists to customize their records to enhance aesthetics, inspiration, ideas or cultural touchpoints for more curious fans,” says Cam Sarrett, head of sales and marketing for United Record Pressing. Advertising sign in a statement. “Additionally, it benefits big and small artists at the merch table on tours and strengthens the community in independent record stores, a vital culture in itself.”

URP has been a mainstay in vinyl sales since 1949, when the company was founded by John Dunn, Joe Talbot and Ozell Simpkins. The Crush Factory was an offshoot of Bullet Records, one of Nashville's first indie labels. In 1949, the same year that RCA created the first 45 and seven-inch records became popular in jukeboxes across America, Bullet Records scored a huge hit with Francis Craig's song “Near You,” which spent 17 weeks on the peak. Advertising signpop charts of. They opened Southern Plastics (later to become United Record Pressing) to keep up with the demand for the song. By 1962, the company had moved its operations to Nashville's Chestnut Street. Company founder Ozell Simpkins also designed the URP building and machinery.

By the 1960s, Southern Plastics had a deal to handle the singles pressings for Motown Records. Since there was little lodging available to black artists, producers, and executives in the South at the time, the company also created what would become known as the “Motown Suite,” a space to accommodate black artists, producers, and executives when they visited Nashville. . Today, this space has been preserved and is used to host special events such as album release parties.

In the 1970s, Southern Plastics was renamed United Record Pressing. As domestic companies began to close their in-house pressing operations, URP soon became the most independent record pressing plant in the Southeast. Two decades later, URP acquired Dixie Record Pressing, which allowed the plant to begin pressing 10- and 12-inch records in addition to 7-inch records. As vinyl began to re-emerge and grow in popularity, especially in the mid-2000s, URP began releasing reissues of albums by Johnny Cash, Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Dylan as well as new vinyl from contemporary artists such as Adele, Swift, Harry Styles and Kendrick. Lamar.

In 2017, URP consolidated operations into a new, larger facility on Allied Drive in Nashville to keep up with demand for the company's vinyl pressing services. In 2021-2022, the company added nearly 50 presses and added approximately 15,000 square feet to its facility.

Today, more than 120 URP staff oversee 64 on-site pressing machines, with the capacity to press over 80,000 records per day.

Beth Proctor, United Record Pressing's longest serving employee, has been with the company for nearly four decades.

“I came to United in the 80s and quickly learned that there is rarely a dull moment when you're playing vinyl records. I fell in love with the owners, the employees and the family atmosphere,” Proctor said Advertising sign through a statement. “Afterward, [with] our customers, many of whom have become great friends over the years.”

Here, as URP celebrates 75 years of bringing vinyl to consumers, we look at 15 distinct recordings the company has made over the decades, from the 1940s to the 2020s.