A quickfire question for you: how many vinyl pressing plants does Australia have?
If you’ve just answered “zero”, having soundly assumed that the Land Down Under might exclusively import records from elsewhere, as it does cars, then I’m afraid to say you are incorrect. But don’t worry, you aren’t alone: that was my hesitant guess too when asked by a vinyl-loving family member during their recent visit to see me (and probably more so some record stores) in Melbourne.
If your answer was “three”, give yourself a big fat full point to redeem at the next pub quiz whereby you mark your own sheet… presuming you didn’t Google it, you big cheat. (Or half a point if it was “two”, seeing as the third plant only began operating less than two years ago. Nul points for anything else, sorry.)
So, in a country whose population is a third of the UK’s population and which has just two IMAX cinemas, three vinyl pressing plants exist — Zenith Records (Melbourne) is getting on for 20 years old, while Program Records (also Melbourne) and Suitcase Records (Brisbane) began pressing four and two years ago respectively.
So what’s behind the resurgence (if not to keep up with the demand for Taylor Swift wax!) and what does local access mean for artists? In celebration
