Nashville's historic United Record Pressing is closing (sort of, maybe)

Historic vinyl pressing plant United Record Pressing in Nashville is ceasing operation at their current location, but that historic location will likely/hopefully be preserved and the business is probably moving to a new location.

Billboard (who just bought Stereogum and SPIN and VIBE) reports:

Down an industrial road in southeast Nashville, framed by yellowing, beige-box warehouses, is a building dressed in incongruous, deep-ocean-blue tiling. A burnt-orange sign above its steel-and-glass doors reads UNITED RECORD PRESSING. Inside is where the first Beatles record in America was pressed, where Wayne Newton was fêted as a 16-year-old whippersnapper with an unfathomable jawline. Berry Gordy, founder of Motown, was provided an apartment there. Racist hotel owners didn’t want his money.

After more than five decades, vinyl records won’t be made there anymore.

In a post yesterday on Instagram, United Record Pressing wrote: “Spending the last workday at the historic United Record Pressing roaming the rooms of Motown Suite before moving to the new facility.” Historic Nashville, an organization that looks to preserve spaces exactly like United Record Pressing, called the news “shocking and sad.”

A company spokesperson told Billboard that United Record Pressing may move to a new location, which is estimated to be the size of two football fields, and that they have “every intention to honor and preserve” the original location. More at Billboard.

Though it’ll be sad to see this piece of history come to an end, hopefully the new location will mean good things for artists and record buyers, considering how hard it is to get vinyl pressed.