Demand Increases For Vinyl Records

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

I'm David Greene, wishing you a happy Record Store Day.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OLD TIME ROCK AND ROLL")

BOB SEGER: (Singing) Just take those old records off the shelf.

GREENE: Record Store Day - it celebrates the nearly 1,400 independent record stores in the United States. The official observance is actually tomorrow. But at United Record Pressing in Nashville, Tenn., every day is record store Day.

JAY MILLAR: We're the largest manufacturer of vinyl records in the United States.

GREENE: That's Jay Millar, the head of marketing at United Record Pressing.

MILLAR: We average 30,000 to 40,000 records a day, six days a week, 24 hours a day, on average.

GREENE: And Millar says demand is so high, they are about to open a second factory. He says people have a personal connection to vinyl that you just can't get with a digital download.

MILLAR: Most of the assembly is done by hand. We also listen completely to about one record per press per hour.

GREENE: And if Jay Millar were on the factory floor, what is the one record he'd want to listen to?

MILLAR: That would be "Small Change" by Tom Waits.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SMALL CHANGE")

TOM WAITS: (Singing) Small change got rained on with his own 38. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.