A California-based vinyl manufacturing plant, Apollo Masters, suffered a devastating massive fire that destroyed the facility. According to Pitchfork, based on report in The Desert Sun, the Apollo Masters facility is “…a manufacturing plant that supplies the lacquer used for making master discs, which are used to make vinyl records—suffered a fire on Thursday, February 6, at its manufacturing and storage facility in Banning, California…” The aforementioned report in The Desert Sun furthers that the fire was reported around “…8 a.m. in a 15,000-square-foot building at Lincoln Street and San Gorgonio Avenue and it produced a black plume of smoke that was visible in the Coachella Valley.”
As luck would have it none of the Apollo Masters employees, all of whom present in the building the day when the fire started, were injured. According to the aforementioned report in The Desert Sun, a total of “Eighty-two firefighters responded to the blaze and the fire was contained by 10:45 a.m.” An announcement was made on behalf of the company, in the aftermath of the fire, which was made available on Apollo Masters’ official website. The announcement reads as follows:
“To all of our wonderful customers. It is with great sadness we report the Apollo Masters manufacturing and storage facility had a devastating fire and suffered catastrophic damage. The best news is all of our employees are safe. We are uncertain of our future at this point and are evaluating options as we try to work through this difficult time. Thank you for all of the support over the years and the notes of encouragement and support we have received from you all.”
The devastation hit a critical blow to Apollo Masters, in which how to proceed going forward, but the uncertainty is a sentiment shared among the remaining major vinyl distribution companies. This is furthered in the aforementioned Pitchfork article, where a major figure in the vinyl record production industry is quoted to say “‘From my understanding, this fire will present a problem for the vinyl industry worldwide,’ Ben Blackwell, co-founder of Third Man Records told Pitchfork in an email. ‘There are only TWO companies that make lacquers in the world, and the other, MDC in Japan, already had trouble keeping up with demand BEFORE this development.’ (The emphasis is Blackwell’s.)”
The Pitchfork article concludes with sound optimistic relief from another industry insider. David Read, a vinyl production and sales coordinator at Duplication, shares the severity as to the direct impact the fire will have on the industry. However, Read goes on to state that, “In my almost 40 years experience the vinyl industry as a whole is incredibly resilient, and filled with talented professionals who will, and already are, teaming together to find a way out of this current problem.”
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