Where records are made

The short version: This section is about where the world's records are pressed. The biggest presser sits in a small town near Prague: GZ Media, which pressed more than 55 million records in 2021 and runs plants on two continents. North America went from about 15 plants in 2014 to a projected 43 in the US alone by 2022, while Japan still had at least one fully functioning plant in 2010 and Brazil had a second plant on the way in 2016.

Where is the biggest pressing plant in the world?#

In Loděnice, a small town near Prague, where the state-run Gramofonové závody pressed its first record in 1951.⁸⁸ Today it is GZ Media, which Radio Prague International called the world's biggest vinyl producer in 2022.⁸⁸

In the mid-1990s the plant made about 300,000 records a year.⁸⁸ In 2021 it made more than 55 million, and by 2022 it was turning out almost 200,000 a day, according to the same report.⁸⁸ That is, in one day, two-thirds of what it once made in a year.

GZ Media had grown to eight plants by 2022, including three in North America (Burlington, Ontario; Memphis; Nashville) and one in France (reported, 2022).⁸⁸

How many plants are there in North America?#

Far more than a decade ago. North America had about 15 plants in 2014; the Vinyl Record Manufacturers Association projected 43 US plants by summer 2022, plus nine in Canada and three in Mexico.¹⁷⁷ Those are estimates reported by GRAMMY.com in 2022, made during a backlog when industry lead times "routinely" ran 9-12 months.¹⁷⁷

Some US plants publish their prices, which is how this guide can show what a run costs. National Audio Company in Springfield, Missouri,¹⁷⁴ posts a full 2026 price card;¹⁷³ Gotta Groove Records in Cleveland posted its 180 gram card in 2024.¹⁷⁶ Both are named here because their cards are public, not as a recommendation.

Mexico's plants include Vantiva's in Guadalajara, which the company describes, on an undated page opened in 2026, as a 273,000-square-foot facility with a future capacity of more than 17 million units a year on 40 presses.¹⁹³ That is the company's own figure; the other Mexican plants are not covered by the sources here.

Is there still a pressing plant in Japan?#

Yes, at least one, and for a stretch it was described as the only one in Asia. Toyo Kasei's Suehiro factory in Yokohama was called "the only active record pressing plant in Asia" in the late 2000s, per Time Out Tokyo.¹⁹⁴ In 2010 the Japan Times called Toyo Kasei the owner of "Japan's last fully functioning pressing plant."¹⁹⁵ It handles cutting, pressing and label printing in-house, Time Out reports, so a record can go from cut to labeled under one roof.¹⁹⁴

Those descriptions are from 2010 and the late 2000s, and more presses have come since. In June 2017 Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) said it would resume vinyl production for the first time since 1989, with a press installed at a factory in central Japan; the Japan Times then described Toyo Kasei as "believed to be Japan's only remaining record maker."¹⁹⁶ The same report cited the Recording Industry Association of Japan: 799,000 records made in Japan in 2016, up from 105,000 in 2010.¹⁹⁶ The label P-Vine finished its own plant, Vinyl Goes Around Pressing, in 2024, per Brutus magazine in 2025, which names Toyo Kasei and Sony as other Japanese pressing factories.¹⁹⁷ None of these sources gives a current national plant count.

How big is vinyl in the UK?#

The UK bought about 7.6 million vinyl LPs in 2025, up 13.3%, the 18th straight year of growth, per the BPI (official, 2025).²⁹ Its top vinyl album of the year, Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl, sold over 147,000 vinyl copies, the most for any release in a calendar year since the Official Charts Company launched in 1994.²⁹

On the making side, the UK is home to Evolution Music, which presses records from a sugar-and-starch bioplastic rather than PVC (reported, 2022).¹⁹¹ The sources here do not cover UK PVC plants.

Are records made in Germany?#

Germany is where optimal media¹⁸⁹ launched BioVinyl with PlastChem in July 2023, a PVC whose petroleum feedstock is replaced with recycled used cooking oil or industrial waste gases.¹⁹⁰ The details are in vinyl and the planet.

As a market, Germany leans physical more than most. Per the BVMI, the German industry body, 2025 retail turnover was EUR 2.42 billion, up 2.3%; physical formats were 14.2% of revenue; vinyl grew 2.8%; and CDs were still 44.2% of the physical market (official, 2026).¹⁹⁸ The release did not give a separate euro figure for vinyl.

Are records made in the Netherlands?#

Green Vinyl Records, in the Eindhoven region, came out of the CD and DVD world as a Symcon Group project and injection-molds records from its own non-PVC compounds, printing straight onto the disc instead of using paper labels.¹⁹² It claims 93% less energy than steam pressing, by its own measurement (reported, 2021).¹⁹²

Who presses records in Latin America?#

In 2016, Brazil's Polysom in Rio de Janeiro was described as Latin America's only pressing plant, at about 40,000 records a month.¹⁹⁹ That January, The Vinyl Factory reported a second Brazilian plant on the way: Vinyl Brazil, in São Paulo on the former Continental Records site, founded by Michel Nath and set to open at about 140,000 records a month.¹⁹⁹ That capacity was a projection at the time, not a confirmed output.¹⁹⁹

By 2022 the VRMA counted three plants in Mexico.¹⁷⁷

Argentina was set to get its first new pressing plant in 2016: Laser Disc, which The Vinyl Factory reported that February would start manufacturing at the end of March with two presses, aiming for 40,000 records a month once in full swing.²⁰⁰ That target was a plan at the time, not a confirmed output.²⁰⁰

Where are records pressed, country by country?#

Why does it matter where a record is pressed?#

For a buyer it mostly stays invisible; plant marks in the runout groove are covered in reading the runout. For an artist, location sets shipping costs and, in a crunch year like 2022, the queue you join. The pricing details are in What a record costs, and who gets paid.