According to 2023 Year-End data from the Recording Industry Association of America, revenues from vinyl records grew 10% to $1.4 billion, and accounted for 71% of physical format revenues last year. 2023 also marked vinyl’s 17th consecutive year of growth.
As vinyl’s vital place in music’s ecosystem continues, Nashville-based United Record Pressing also celebrates 75 years of pressing vinyl for artists including Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Adele and Stevie Wonder and numerous other artists.
“The sustained growth of the vinyl record market has been going for nearly 20 years at this point in the U.S., but particularly cool is how the medium has evolved into the people’s art object, and a creative opportunity for artists to tailor their records to reinforce aesthetics, inspiration, ideas or cultural touchpoints for more curious fans,” Cam Sarrett, United Record Pressing’s head of sales and marketing, tells Billboard in a statement. “Plus, it impactfully benefits artists big and small at the merch table on tour and bolsters community at independent record stores, a vital culture all its own.”
URP has been a central contributor to vinyl sales since 1949, when the company was formed by John Dunn, Joe Talbot and Ozell Simpkins. The pressing plant was an offshoot of Bullet Records, one of Nashville’s first indie record labels. In 1949, the same year that RCA created the first 45 and seven-inch records became popular in jukeboxes across America, Bullet Records earned a massive hit with Francis Craig’s song “Near You,” which spent 17 weeks atop Billboard’s pop charts. They opened Southern Plastics (which would later become United Record Pressing) to keep up with the demand for the song. By 1962, the company had moved operations to Nashville’s Chestnut Street. The company’s founder Ozell Simpkins also designed the building and URP’s machines.
John Dunn and Ozell Simpkins
Courtesy of United Record Pressing
By the 1960s, Southern Plastics had established a deal to handle singles record pressings for Motown Records. Given that there were few accommodations available to Black artists, producers and executives in the South during that time, the company also created what would become known as the “Motown Suite,” a space to host Black artists, producers and executives when they visited Nashville. Today, that space has been preserved and is used to host special events, such as album release parties.
In the 1970s, Southern Plastics was renamed United Record Pressing. As in-house labels began shuttering their in-house pressing operations, soon URP became the foremost independent record pressing plant in the Southeast. Two decades later, URP acquired Dixie Record Pressing, which allowed the plant to begin pressing 10-and 12-inch records in addition to their 7-inch records. As vinyl began to reemerge and surge in popularity, especially in the mid-2000s, URP began pressing new versions of albums from Johnny Cash, Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Dylan as well as new vinyls from contemporary artists including Adele, Swift, Harry Styles and Kendrick Lamar.
In 2017, URP consolidated operations into a new, larger facility on Allied Drive in Nashville, in order to keep up with demand for the company’s vinyl pressing services. In 2021-2022, the company added nearly 50 presses and added approximately 15,000 square feet to its facilities.
United Record Pressing
Tennessean/USA Today
Today, URP’s more than 120 staff members oversee 64 on-site pressing machines, with the capacity to press over 80,000 records per day.
Beth Proctor, United Record Pressing’s longest-standing employee, has been with the company for approximately four decades.
“I came to United in the ‘80s, and quickly learned there rarely is a dull moment pressing vinyl records. I fell in love with the owners, employees and the family environment,” Proctor told Billboard via a statement. “Then, [with] our customers, a lot of whom have become great friends over the years.”
Here, as URP celebrates 75 years of providing vinyl for consumers, we look at 15 distinct recordings that the company has pressed over the decades, ranging from the 1940s through to the 2020s.
This Francis Craig Band record helped launch what would later become known as United Record Pressing, spending 17 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s pop chart.
This 1963 record was released on Vee Jay Records and pressed by URP (then-called Southern Plastics).
Then known as Southern Plastics, URP pressed the 7″ vinyl of the 1960s single released by R&B singer and transgender pioneer Jackie Shane. The record was reissued in 2017 by Numero Group.
This rare soul recording from the 1970s was later reissued by Numero Group in 2018.
This EP was the first release from the influential East Coast hardcore group Minor Threat. The project includes the songs “Straight Edge,” “Seeing Red” and “Filler.”
This 7-inch pressing from 1982 marked one of the group’s first releases, and includes songs such as “Pressure,” “Fair Warning” and “Ready to Fight.”
United Record Pressing handled the vinyl pressing for singer-songwriter Cat Power’s debut 1993 release, “Headlights.” The single received a limited 500-unit vinyl pressing, with the b-side being “Darling Said Sir.”
The Dead Weather, comprised of Jack White, Alison Mosshart, Jack Lawrence and Dean Fertita, released their debut single, “Hang You From the Heavens,” in 2009. A 7″ record of the song was given to fans at the group’s debut performance at the opening of the Third Man Records’ Nashville headquarters.
This 7″ vinyl from 2007 featured tracks like “Freeway” and “Everyone Is Talkin’.”
Swift has had 13 No. 1s on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart. This release of her Red (pre-Taylor’s Version) album from 2012 reached the top 5 on the chart.
As part of Record Store Day 2014, Jack White recorded the “World’s Fastest Released Record.” The process took 3 hours, 55 minutes and 21 seconds, Billboard reported in 2014. At 10 a.m. CT on Record Store Day (April 19) in 2014, White recorded a limited-edition, 7″ of the title track to his album Lazaretto. From there the masters were rushed to United Record Pressing, which began pressing the 45s.
This collaboration between Paramore and David Byrne was a special release for Record Store Day 2024.
In 2020, the vinyl version of Stapleton’s Starting Over album reached the top 10 on Billboard‘s Vinyl Albums chart.
Kid Krow was the 2020 debut album from Conan Gray, which included the songs “Checkmate,” “The Story” and “Heather.”
The book Dolly Parton’s Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, written by Parton and author/journalist Robert K. Oermann, chronicled Country Music Hall of Famer Parton’s music journey through her songwriting. A deluxe version of the book also included a 45 rpm record on pink vinyl, which featured demo recordings for “I Don’t Care” and “The Fall.”