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Nashville’s United Record Pressing Celebrates 75 Years
From 1949 to today; celebrating the past and looking towards the future
Sept. 3, 2024 - Nashville, TN - The whole world over, Nashville, Tennessee, has long been known as “Music City.” Originally dubbed the “city of music” by Queen Victoria after a performance from the city’s world famous Fisk Jubilee Singers, it was another half-decade before the wide reaches of WSM’s 650 AM radio signal and broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry cemented Nashville’s place as one of the great epicenters of music and music industry. Filled with long-standing recording studios and a central location for both touring and distribution—Nashville sits nearly equidistant between New York City, Austin, Miami, and Minneapolis—this “Music City” was bolstered by another little-known factor: America’s oldest and among the largest vinyl record pressing plants, United Record Pressing, where five days a week for the last 75 years, 120+ employees cut, silver, electroplate, press, inspect and package vinyl records to be sent to every corner of the globe, all from their operation on Allied Drive in Nashville, Tennessee.
From Francis Craig Band’s “Red Rose / Near You”—a big band record so wildly popular that it spurred the construction of United Record Pressing’s first plant as an offshoot of one of Nashville’s first independent labels, Bullet Records; to the first US 7-inch of The Beatles’ “Please Please Me / From Me To You”; to offering what is now referred to as the “Motown Suite,” an on-site place for Black artists and professionals down from Detroit to stay while pressing their albums during segregation; to producing quantities of vinyl records for the likes of D.C. punk rockers Minor Threat, L.A. hip-hop royalty, Kendrick Lamar, indie darling Thom Yorke, pop superstar Taylor Swift, and recently, Paramore and David Byrne covering each other’s tunes on a very special 12-inch release; United Record Pressing has refined the process time and time again from the heyday of 45s to the current renaissance of 12-inch LPs; the company’s contribution to reaffirming Nashville’s title of “Music City.”
That 75 years of experience translates into modern-day, ahead-of-the-game integration like exploring how AI-powered technologies can detect plating issues before they affect production or through collaborations with Sibert Instruments to apply optical disc technology to vinyl—not to mention the plant’s installation of 24 new Pheenix Alpha pressing machines in addition to the restoration of 40 historic Lened and SMT machines. To ensure a future of continued technological advancement, United Record Pressing has also made significant strides in sustainability. In 2023, United Record Pressing became the first North American plant to earn a Sony Green Partner Certification. Steps like using recycled boxes for shipping, reincorporating scraps to reduce waste, and the use of unleaded vinyl are amplified by United Record Pressing’s local sourcing which supports local economies and reduces the company's carbon footprint.
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