Sony to resume pressing vinyl in Japan after 30-year hiatus
As vinyl becomes more popular, the Japanese entertainment giant is retooling and retraining to start manufacturing records for the first time since the ’80s
Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony is making a move to ride this latest wave in the music industry, with Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) recently announcing it will resume pressing vinyl at Sony DADC Japan, its disc-manufacturing subsidiary in Shizuoka Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, after a 30-year hiatus.
Whether it’s because of their grainy, warmer sound or simply because vinyl makes a fashion statement, LPs and EPs are being snapped up by people, but not like in the old days. It’s not just older fans who grew up with records that are returning to the format, but younger customers who never had the experience of putting an album on a turntable.
“We had been discussing specific ideas for around two years before this announcement, as we observed how things were changing overseas and the corresponding trends in Japan,” says Aiichiro Furukawa, a corporate senior vice president at Sony Music Entertainment (Japan).
Furukawa says customers want to get their hands on records – which Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) stopped producing in 1989 as CDs became the dominant format – after finding their favourite tracks and albums on digital streaming services.