While cycling in Iowa this summer, Mark Michaels enjoyed a rare moment of reflection. “You're driving about 80 miles a day between corn fields, and it gives you a lot of time to think,” says the president/CEO of United Record Pressing. “I spent a lot of time with United,” he adds of the world's oldest and largest American vinyl pressing plant, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary this fall.
Michaels is speaking from his office in Nashville, where he's surrounded by autographed files from Buddy Guy, Jack White and more of his icons, all thanking him and his production team. (In 2014, White made history by recording, pressing and releasing a 7-inch of his single “Lazaretto” in less than four hours, thanks to URP.) “It's easy to forget those moments of euphoria and gratitude because you're so focused on “How many files did we send?'' or, “What's wrong with this guy?'' says Michaels. “But you don't want to spend a lot of time not thinking.”
URP was founded as Bullet Plastics in Nashville in 1949, becoming Southern Plastics in the 1950s before landing at United Record Pressing in 1971. By the 1960s, a deal was signed for the plant to handle single pressings for Motown, and in 1963, the first Beatles 7-inch, “Please Please Me”/”From Me to You”, was pressed, with a typo spelling out the band's name as The Beattles.
In 2007, a year before Record Store Day officially launched and just before the format began its first wave of resurgence, Michaels bought the company — and helped preserve it through a particularly hard-hitting update. As he recalls, half of URP's output at the time was 12-inch singles created as promo records for DJs. “That was a lot of what we did, and shortly after I bought the company, the labels stopped doing it,” he says. “DJs have everyone [music production software] Seratos, and the labels realized it was a better business model. So suddenly, the health of the company was in serious jeopardy… We did everything we could to keep the lights on.”
By the summer of 2009, a career-changing series had arrived: the Miles Davis 50th Anniversary Type Blue (a Michaels favorite) — the factory's largest order to date. Michaels himself oversaw quality control, randomly checking a record every 30 minutes. “I remember one night, it was two in the morning and I'm in my office listening to these records and I thought, 'This is crazy, but damn, I'm lucky.' And it gave me this boost of energy. The following month, we received another order of this size.” Since then, URP has produced vinyl for every major artist, from Adele to Taylor Swift.
In the early 2020s, URP faced another challenging period: the coronavirus pandemic. “Demand for vinyl exploded” during the lockdown, Michaels says, but the orders are putting unprecedented pressure on factories to keep up. He says that was the catalyst for URP's expansion, resulting in an $11 million project that built new infrastructure and support equipment and added 26 new presses. “The challenge is that you can't do it overnight,” he says. And now, not only can URP meet demand, but “the factory is running better than ever.”
He and his team of about 130 employees — all wearing anniversary T-shirts depicting the plant's various logos over the years — are now ready to unveil such a feat and storied history, with Michaels saying the energy “is palpable ». at the factory these days. An upcoming celebration will bring together partners, customers, vendors and “people who support the format … There's a renewed sense of pride and interest in what we do.”
Already, Michaels is focused on how to keep it going for the next 75 years, doubling down on the honor he has in keeping the process — and the workforce — in Music City. “Seventy-five-plus years of history gives you a lot of gas in your tank in terms of pride,” he says. “You don't make the first Beatles record in America, you don't make all these Motown records, you don't accumulate all this history and expertise and you don't have something special. And I never want to lose it.”
This story appears in the August 24, 2024 issue of Bulletin board.
