Episode 09: Cash Carter
The Vinyl Supply Chain with Cash Carter, Chief Sales Officer at Kindercore Vinyl
Episode 09: Show Notes
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an undeniably devastating effect on live events and performers. This is especially true for touring musicians, who earned the bulk of their income from live music ticket sales. While fans could no longer support musicians by attending these events, there was another way for them to express their dedication to their favorite artists: by collecting vinyl records. The vinyl record industry has seen an unprecedented surge in sales over the past two years and is selling more records than at any other point in history, including the 1950s and 1960s. Today on the show we sit down with Cash Carter, a musician who has been in the industry for years, to talk about how he became a part of the vinyl pressing company Kindercore Vinyl, and what it’s been like seeing the demand for vinyl skyrocket in the past few years. We discuss the history of vinyl pressing, how the world stopped producing new press machines after 1982, why vinyl’s newfound popularity triggered the design of new machines, and how that development has changed the industry. Cash shares fascinating insights about the vinyl production process and expands on how supply chain issues and the smallness of the industry have affected their business. To learn more about this fascinating industry and the worldwide vinyl phenomenon, make sure you tune in today!
Key Points From This Episode:
Get to know today’s guest Cash Carter and the company Kindercore Vinyl.
The small amount of vinyl pressing plants that existed worldwide when they first started.
Why Cash and his partners had to initially source old pressing machines.
The small size of the industry and how that helped Cash network and source new machinery.
Kindercore Vinyl’s service offerings and how they press vinyl records.
The elements required from the customer for producing a vinyl record.
A breakdown of the complicated process of producing a vinyl record.
Why pressing records is a fairly expensive process.
Some of the reasons why vinyl records have seen a resurgence.
How compression changes the quality of digital music and why vinyl has a superior sound quality.
The explosion of vinyl purchases during the pandemic.
Why buying vinyl records is a great way to support the musicians you love.
The size of Cash’s team and their capacity for production and output.
How issues with the global supply chain have affected Kindercore Vinyl.
The precise science of pressing vinyl records and the many elements that can compromise sound quality.
Cash’s hopes for Kindercore Vinyl over the course of the next decade.
Some of the biggest lessons Cash has learned from his time at Kindercore Vinyl.
The one myth that Cash wants to debunk about his industry: that regrinding diminishes the sound quality of a record.
Tweetables:
“Vinyl is in an insane state of flux right now. We’re selling more records than ever in recorded history, including the 50s and 60s. It’s a crazy time to be in vinyl right now.” — Cash Carter [0:06:12]
“Depending on how hot it is outside, or cold it is outside, the humidity outside, the humidity inside, the humidity when the actual PVC was originally granulated, all that can change how a record sounds. Dialing that in can be pretty challenging.” — Cash Carter [0:15:17]
“I would not like to expand beyond eight to 10 presses. At that point, it becomes so unwieldy. We lose control of our quality control. I can’t be as stringent about our quality control as I can be now. That’s important to me that we are putting out a good product.” — Cash Carter [0:22:58]
“It’s vinyl, it’s not ever going to be perfect. That’s the whole point of the medium. But I do want it to sound as good as it possibly can.” — Cash Carter [0:23:14]
“I’m still as excited about talking to musicians today as I was when I started my record store in the early 2000s. People tell me all the time that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing, and I agree with him.” — Cash Carter [0:26:56]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
The Industrial Movement on Facebook
The Industrial Movement on LinkedIn