"Hand Drawn Pressing Brings New Technology To Vinyl Records"
Hand Drawn Pressing co-founders Dustin Blocker and Alex Cushing // Courtesy Brooke Adams Photography ©2017
Hand Drawn Pressing is ready to shine a spotlight on North Texas as starts production with the world’s first fully automated vinyl presses, WarmTone™ by Viryl Technologies.
With only 18 vinyl pressing plants functioning today in the United States and 30 worldwide, Hand Drawn’s new 10,000 square foot music destination will produce records with unmatched speed, three times as fast as vintage automated record presses.
Hand Drawn Pressing with Viryl Technologies and Stephen Gould Corp's Rick DeVincent // Courtesy Brooke Adams Photography ©2017
Vinyl records are bringing the human factor back to music consumption and audiophiles are collecting them more than ever. With streaming and downloads heavily saturating the music industry overall, trends in music consumption have shown a huge uptick of sales in vinyl records and today, the “vinyl revolution” shows no signs of slowing down. According to Newsweek, vinyl sales hit a record high since 1989 in 2015, the same year that RIAA reported $416 million in vinyl sales in the United States. The vinyl consumption trend has continued with consumer sales growing annually by a whopping 35 to 50 percent from 2008 to 2016 and is projected to grow another 55 percent through 2020 according to PR Newswire (2017 already projected to be a $1B business).
Hand Drawn Pressing, the manufacturing arm of Hand Drawn Records - a full-service, artist-centric record label based in Dallas, Texas - is thrilled to answer the needs of the “vinyl revolution” with their new record pressing facility opening this fall. The team plans to press up to 1.8 million records per year.
Photo Gallery courtesy Austin James, CrateDiggersDallas.com ©2017
The majority of today’s operational pressing plants use equipment dating back to the 1960’s. By launching with all-new fully automated equipment, the team at Hand Drawn hopes to resolve the myriad of issues often cited in the current manufacturing landscape. The new Hand Drawn Pressing vinyl plant will cut pressing time from 16 to 24 weeks, down to six to eight weeks, with the highest sound quality and truest records produced.
There is no other record press like it in the world. The WarmTone record press is brand-new technology. —"Business of spin" Denton Record-Chronicle
The company’s commitment to placing the “artist first” is unique in today’s industry and is what has gained the label recognition by the Dallas Observer as “Best Label” in 2013, 2015 and 2016 during the alt-weekly’s annual Dallas Observer Music Awards and popularity amongst its North Texas base. And with founder and veteran musician Dustin Blocker continuing his role as Chief Creative Officer for both Hand Drawn Records and Hand Drawn Pressing, the company promises to continue its push for higher quality and even more innovation.
“We are holding back vinyl capacity for independent artists, so we don’t fall into the same pitfalls as competitors. Many other plants service the major label machine, slowing down indie releases even further,” said Blocker. “Basically, we are building upon the foundation that has already brought success to our artists and music community, working to elevate it even further.” (source: CultureHype)
Visit Hand Drawn Pressing
Hand Drawn Pressing is the manufacturing arm of Hand Drawn Records, and is focused exclusively on vinyl record pressing. Founded in 2014, the business simplifies the vinyl record ordering process, allowing musicians to focus on writing music and connect with fans. For more information, visit www.handdrawnpressing.com.
