Vinyl revival: Czech record maker aims for global dominance

[steve williams]

By KAREL JANICEK, AP

LODENICE, Czech Republic (AP) — As vinyl records make a global comeback, a little-known Czech company is riding the market surge to establish itself as the world's biggest record manufacturer, with plans to expand in North America and Asia.

GZ Media, based in a small town south west of the Czech capital, has made deals with all the major music labels and is running its plant day and night, every day of the year — even on Christmas — to satisfy booming demand.

This summer, in an effort to get closer to the growing American market, it is due to open a new plant in Canada and is finalizing a deal to acquire a majority stake in a factory in the United States.

"Nobody expected the vinyl records production to come back in such a strong fashion," Michal Sterba, GZ Media director general told The Associated Press in an interview.


As a company, it knows something about ups and downs. Previously called Gramofonove zavody Lodenice, it has been making vinyl records since 1951.

But just as the Cold War ended, CDs started taking over the market. The company's output hit a record low of about 300,000 records a year in the mid-1990s. The days of vinyl seemed to be numbered.

Then in 2010 the market began to bounce back. The company's output ramped up dramatically to 18 million last year and an estimated 25 million this year.

That's a big chunk of the world market, which is estimated to have produced between 90 and 100 million records last year, though official figures are not available.

GZ Media's closest competitors are Optimal Media in Germany, which made about 16 million records in the full year to September. And United Record Pressing, based in Nashville, which is estimated to have produced 11 million last year.

"At the moment, we export an absolute majority of what we produce, and about a third of it ends up in Northern America," Sterba said. "It is a logical step for us to open a new factory in North America because we have quite a strong customer base there."

Following a $10 million investment, a new joint venture with a partner in Canada, Precision Record Pressing, will start operating in Burlington, near Toronto, in August. Its production capacity should reach 3 million next year and 5-6 million in three years.

GZ Media also is due to acquire a majority in an existing vinyl plant in the United States with a capacity of 3 million records. Sterba would not reveal details.

"Our main goal is to become No. 1 or 2 on the U.S. market in a couple of years," he said.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, total sales revenue of vinyl albums soared 32.2 percent last year compared with 2014, for a value of $416.2 million.

Vinyl albums still have only a tiny share of the overall market for music, some 3 percent globally, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said. The figure is slightly higher, at six percent, in the United States.

But the trend is obvious. Sales in the U.S. reached almost 17 million units last year, putting revenue at the highest since 1988. It's also more than the revenue made by ad-supported, on-demand services like YouTube, free Spotify, and others, RIAA said.

Coping with the demand is a challenge for producers. GZ Media, however, has a competitive edge over newcomers. While new equipment for record printers hasn't been developed in about 30 years, GZ Media has invested in making its own pressing machines.

All the major music labels have deals with GZ media to print their records and album covers — from rock to classical music — as it has become an industry standard to have almost every new album available also in vinyl. On top of that, the classics and collectors' items remain popular.

The company is particularly proud of a deal to make 40,000 pieces of a box set with the Rolling Stones' albums as well as the soundtrack music for "Star Wars" that includes a 3D hologram of a space ship.

Sterba said GZ Media's turnover is expected to grow some 10-15 percent this year to reach some 2.4 billion koruna ($101 million).

"People are fed up with the virtual music. They want the same experience as their parents, to take the record from the cover and put it on a turntable," said Robert Maly, a DJ who owns a vinyl record store in Prague. "The sound is different."

Just as it was hard to predict vinyl's revival, it is hard to say how long it can last.

"I would expect the growth to continue for another two or three years," says Sterba.

 

[Bill Hart]

Funny, i was having an off line chat with someone this morning about GZ, and we concluded that they get a bad rap, since many of the 'iffy' pressings are due to nasty lacquers or plating issues (which they don't necessarily control) and the choice of the commissioning label to use paper inner liners, rather than less scratch-prone poly. When you think about the volume that some of these plants cranked out during the peak years--mid '70s I would think--they had to get it right most of the time given the cost of a screw-up. I suspect some of it is lost know-how too. The folks tending those plants from the golden era are getting up in years and there was, for many plants-- a hiatus. Probably similar to tubes, although I gather there are also materials/safety issues with their manufacture which cause some folks to lean heavily on so-called NOS.

 

[sombunya]

I have more than 120 LP's pressed by GZ, most of them small runs of 500 or less.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I've read that the majority of what they press is sent to them as a redbook (sometimes even MP3) files. and the focus is on simply having a vinyl version for the artist's marketing position, not so much on the sound quality. quite a few 'hipsters' buy Lps never planning on playing them.

I know after trying to buy current pop Lps the pressing quality is so inconsistent that CD's can be the better bet. I wish I felt different about it as it simply keeps me from buying much current music.

I mostly rely on personal recommendations here or from friends before I buy Lps of current music.....so my 'hit' ratio stays reasonable.

an added qualifier; I'm not saying that I have personal experience with pressings from this pressing plant specifically; my comments as far as quality I hear for current pop Lp pressings are general. I did read about the typical vinyl mastering process about this plant though.....which does not make it true.

 

[lasercd]

I have direct experience working with GZ.

Their specialty (which they actively promote) is DMM. Its much less expensive for labels since they just have to send in mastered files to the plant. The preferred file format is 24 bit hi-res although I'm sure they constantly receive lesser quality.

GZ will accept lacquers. We had our release from My Brother The Wind cut at The Mastering Lab, and plated at Mastercraft in NJ. They were shipped off to GZ who worked with them. Our pressing turned out quite well.

They are a high volume plant and do work for major and small indie labels. I have a number of GZ pressings in my personal collection and can't say I find fault with them. Not any more so than any other plant. I've heard noisier pressings from Optimal and QRP, I don't think GZ is really any worse.

 

[marty]

I've read that the majority of what they press is sent to them as a redbook (sometimes even MP3) files. and the focus is on simply having a vinyl version for the artist's marketing position, not so much on the sound quality. quite a few 'hipsters' buy Lps never planning on playing them.

+1
Most folks do not understand that the rise in popularity of turntables has little to do with sound quality. Rather, it is all about being "hip". Most of the systems that these new low priced tables are being used for are barely adequate to discern the positive benefits of LPs vs other sources. How do I know this? Simple, I ask my daughter, nieces and nephews and their friends, all 20 and 30 somethings and this is their universal response. And here's the ironic part- it appears I am in part to blame! When they come over and hear the big rig they love it and think it's "so cool" how I use a 30 year old turntable (Goldmund) to get the sound I do. That's their main motivation. Coolness. They know they aren't going to get that sound with their inexpensive systems and used LPs from the dollar bin, but they can certainly get that "coolness". The good news, is that as they become more seasoned and affluent, they may graduate to systems that do return the greater benefits of LPs as their systems hopefully grow with them. Hope springs eternal.

 

[Bill Hart]

@marty- agreed that may be the lure, but if the difference in sound is demonstrated, the youngin's hear it. Some twenty-somethings brought over a pile of records six months ago, among them some great jazz records with Warhol covers. They wanted me to play their "brown" album of The Band, thinking it had been mastered by Ludwig. I saw no tell-tale inscription, but after cleaning it for them, fired it up. I then pulled an "RL" of the same record from my stacks, and explanations were unnecessary.

Ken and Mike: pulling from a digital file isn't the death knell for me that it once was- i have heard and own a number of records that were natively recorded in digital (i.e., not a dump from an original analog master tape). They sound fine, have air, impact and don't sound edgy. I think that has to do with the original recording and mix, as well as the mastering. Some mainstream hard rock just sounds awful- flat, everything basically at "11"- it's like the recording was made for lowest common denominator listening- earbuds or streaming from a mobile device and transferring it to vinyl is simply the choice of a "hip" format, per Marty's comment.
DMM- doesn't it always sound a little harder? That combination, of incautious recording and mastering, with DMM cutting, is a hopeless recipe. To me, it seems like it still comes down to the producer's or labels' choices long before the thing ever gets to a pressing plant. One of the reasons plants like RTI or QRP get accolades may have less to do with the pressing quality per se (though I think Chad's work is good and RTI's can be) but the fact that the "audiophile" releases they are known for have a long chain of careful attention to detail beforehand- in the recording process, mixing, and mastering.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

@marty- agreed that may be the lure, but if the difference in sound is demonstrated, the youngin's hear it. Some twenty-somethings brought over a pile of records six months ago, among them some great jazz records with Warhol covers. They wanted me to play their "brown" album of The Band, thinking it had been mastered by Ludwig. I saw no tell-tale inscription, but after cleaning it for them, fired it up. I then pulled an "RL" of the same record from my stacks, and explanations were unnecessary.

Ken and Mike: pulling from a digital file isn't the death knell for me that it once was- i have heard and own a number of records that were natively recorded in digital (i.e., not a dump from an original analog master tape). They sound fine, have air, impact and don't sound edgy. I think that has to do with the original recording and mix, as well as the mastering. Some mainstream hard rock just sounds awful- flat, everything basically at "11"- it's like the recording was made for lowest common denominator listening- earbuds or streaming from a mobile device and transferring it to vinyl is simply the choice of a "hip" format, per Marty's comment.
DMM- doesn't it always sound a little harder? That combination, of incautious recording and mastering, with DMM cutting, is a hopeless recipe. To me, it seems like it still comes down to the producer's or labels' choices long before the thing ever gets to a pressing plant. One of the reasons plants like RTI or QRP get accolades may have less to do with the pressing quality per se (though I think Chad's work is good and RTI's can be) but the fact that the "audiophile" releases they are known for have a long chain of careful attention to detail beforehand- in the recording process, mixing, and mastering.

Bill,

most recent music that we see on Lp is digitally mastered and I like many of those. they can sound quite good. and I have hundreds of 20 year old + pressings that are digitally mastered that are very good.

to me it's the odds of finding something where (1) I like the music, and (2) the vinyl is better than the digital. the conflict with me is where the digital CD or high rez file is equal or better than the vinyl. and for recently recorded music unfortunately that seems to be the majority. I've not really jumped into this so maybe my sample size is too small.

and honestly for all the posts I write about how much I love vinyl......I'm really format agnostic. if the digital is equal or better it is easier and more likely I will actually listen more often to the digital.

it's the music. and mostly the native format of the recording/mastering is consistently the best way to hear it....in my experience.

 

[XV-1]

God help vinyl if GZ digital and United are the two biggest pressings plants in the world.

Both plants can do excellent pressings, however they chose not to with their absolute terrible overall quality control which brings such inconsistent pressing quality.