Episode 154: The State of Vinyl in 2021

Vinyl Emergency

This year, the record industry hit arguably its greatest bottleneck yet: Though Taylor Swift and Adele have recently delivered two of the largest vinyl sales weeks of the modern era (with revenue on an incline for physical indie retailers during the pandemic), COVID-19 has made materials like PVC, cardboard, dyes, shrink wrap, paper for inner sleeves and even wood pallets increasingly harder to find, afford and ship around the world. Thus, an album by your favorite artist that comes out digitally today may not see a physical vinyl release for months. On this week's episode, Billy Fields (VP of Sales, Account Management for an arm of Warner Music Group), Eric Astor (President/CEO of Furnace Record Pressing) and Dustin Currier (an independent, Chicago-area musician whose latest album on vinyl has been delayed due to the aforementioned circumstances) participate in a roundtable discussion separating fact from fiction around these headaches, and how their own personal stake in promoting, releasing or pressing music has been affected.