Vinyl Comes Around For Record Company, Presses Headed To Osseo Plant | Local News

(Submitted photo by Gre Schoener)

Bruce Corbesia, of The ADS Group, conducts electoforming to make a plate to be used in the creation of vinyl records for the Plymouth-based company. Under the Copycats Media name, the company will create vinyl records in a facility in Osseo.

(Submitted photo by Connie Comeau)

Greg Schoener, vice president of quality and technology for The ADS Group in Plymouth, is photographed with the first vinyl stamper the company created in April. Under the Copycats Media name, the company will create vinyl records in a facility in Osseo.

Work is underway to prepare for the installation of presses in Osseo to create records for Plymouth-based Copycats Media, a division of The ADS Group. A boiler that will assist in the work is pictured.

(Submitted photo by Gre Schoener)

(Submitted photo by Connie Comeau)

What goes around comes around, literally for Copycats Media.

The Plymouth-based company is importing vinyl pressing machines to a 65,000-square-foot complex in Osseo in response to demand from musicians and other clients.

The parent company of Copycats, The ADS Group, has more than 30 years of experience manufacturing CDs and DVDs. The business works with major labels like Sony and has provided CDs for Harry Styles, Prince and many other major musicians.

When it comes to plans to add vinyl, “It was our customers that actually has pushed us in this direction,” said Chief Operating Officer Connie Comeau. “They said, ‘You guys do a fantastic job in optical media. We want you to do vinyl.’”

Copycats Media, which The ADS Group purchased about 15 years ago, has attracted independent musicians like hip-hop artist Macklemore. Although, it has been outsourcing the pressing, Copycats Media has already been in the vinyl business for about seven years.

Greg Schoener, vice president of quality and technology for The ADS Group, said record presses had been difficult to find when the company entered vinyl sales, but since then Viryl Technologies in Toronto and Pheenix Alpha in Sweden began building new presses.

“That really prompted us to get our hands on the process and the manufacturing and bring it all in-house,” Schoener said.

He and Copycats Media President Justin Kristal had been dreaming of obtaining presses for the company for the past seven years.

The format remains popular. Currently the lead times for vinyl records to be pressed stretches into spring 2023, according to Comeau.

“There’s a very high demand,” Comeau said. “A lot of the many pressing plants in the U.S. will not be able to create their own stampers. The parent company, ADS, has always prided itself on controlling as much of the manufacturing process as possible. Both from a cost and quality-of-product standpoint, the more we can control the better.”

The company is investing more than $2 million in the plan to press vinyl records itself, Comeau said. Electroforming of the plates for the records will be handled at the main company factory at 2155 Niagara Lane N. in Plymouth, but the rest of the album production will take place at 201 Broadway St. W. in Osseo.

Comeau acknowledged that the company had to weigh the risks associated with vinyl, with the chairman of the board of ADS initially considering the return of vinyl to be a fad. A year ago, the company decided to take the idea out for a spin in a major way by located a new manufacturing location and ordering the presses.

Schoener said, “Sustainability is always a conversation, and we definitely feel it’s going to be a good, long run for us.”

Some music-lovers argue that vinyl sounds better than digital, he said.

“For me personally, I like the sound,” Schoener said. “I like the nostalgia of putting on a record, looking at the liner notes. There’s a connection there that I think is very personal. That makes it that much more attractive.”

Some collectors don’t even open up the records but use them as an art form. The records themselves can come in a variety of colors rather than merely the traditional black color.

Copycats plans to initially start with the standard color of vinyl, though. So, if its plans to press records for AC/DC come to fruition, the rockers thus will be back in black.

Local rapper Dessa has also worked with the company and plans to use its incoming presses.

Many musicians make most of their money not on digital sales but from selling tangible items like T-shirts and albums at concerts, Comeau pointed out.

Clients will be able to able to have both CDs and vinyl records processed with the same company, Comeau added.

Currently, the business employs about 175 full-time equivalent employees. Some of them will move to the Osseo plant when the new equipment arrives.

When the first two presses arrive from Sweden, Schoener anticipates Copycats will press between 1,500 and 3,000 albums per day. When all five arrive, he expected that number to increase to 10,000 albums daily.

In comparison, the business in Plymouth is capable of creating about 200,000 CDs per day. A CD takes less than 4 seconds per copy to create while a LP can take about a half-minute.

The process involves the creation of the metal plates that are then used to press heated polyvinyl chloride, molding both A and B sides simultaneously, before the label is attached. The albums will acclimate for 24 hours before packaging to minimize warping and instability.

About every 20th record will be pulled off the press while an employee listens to at least part of the record to check quality, listening for the extent of pops and clicks.

Judging how many are acceptable is subjective.

“Some people kind of like that imperfect medium,” Schoener said. “There are some inherent things with the technology that makes it a little appealing, clicks and pops being one of them. You just don’t want it to be excessive. The user can get annoyed; you don’t want that.”

He added, “I’m not going to say it’s going to be perfect every time, but we are we’re going to strive to make very, very good, quality records.”

Copycats is still outsourcing orders currently but has a backlog of about 300,000 records, a list that is in part intentional.

“I wanted to make sure we had something in our backlog so when we have these machines ready, we’re able to actually make stuff,” Schoener said.

Comeau noted the company began with tape replication. Schoener had been involved with CD replication and mastering and later DVD replication.

Even with that experience, Schoener said, “This is a new adventure.”

To learn more about the company, visit copycatsmedia.com.

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