A new vinyl pressing plant is headed to Oxnard, California, Billboard reports. The sorely needed addition to the vinyl economy—amid ongoing reports of backlogs and bottlenecks—will arrive thanks to the elite reissue label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab and its parent company, Music Direct. The plant, which is purporting to become America’s “premier vinyl production facility,” is a partnership between MoFi, Music Direct’s Jim Davis, and vinyl engineers Rick and Edward Hashimoto.
With eight presses from Nashville company Record Pressing Machines, the group will initially aim to press 2 million records a year with a strict focus on “quality—not quantity,” according to a press release. The increased production capacity will enable MoFi to “issue records that aren’t just the standard classic rock and jazz for which we are known,” Davis told Billboard. It is set to open in 2023.
Earlier this year, Jack White, whose Third Man label is home to a pressing plant, issued a video plea to major labels to open their own plants to help “accommodate the insane growing demand for vinyl product.”